The AFL will weigh up shortening its pre-season in a bid to reduce the number of players getting injured before the season proper.
AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking says the league's competition committee will consider a range of options, including giving players a longer off-season break.
Teams that did not play finals are currently able to bring their first to fourth-year players back at the start of November, with senior players joining them a fortnight later.
The AFL also last year enforced a three-week shutdown period at clubs over Christmas, up from two weeks previously.
However there is debate at league headquarters about the pre-season's structure and length and how that might be affecting player injuries.
The league has not released any fresh data but The Age last month reported the overall injury rate had spiked by 20 per cent last year.
"If you have a look at how many players have ended up injured during the February period, that's a concern for the industry," said Hocking, after chairing the competition committee's first meeting for 2019 in Melbourne on Wednesday.
"We've got to get better at that and make sure they get the ideal preparation leading into a season so we've got the best players available to play the best games.
"The industry actually plugs a lot of events right through from induction camps, community camps, indigenous camps. We've now got AFLX as well.
"We just need to step back from that and understand what a future pre-season looks like and how do we not disrupt players from their loading phase. We'll do that work over the next six to eight months and see where we land."
Hocking has asked club high-performance managers to evaluate options and report back to the committee, which includes players, coaches, club presidents and other officials.
Each team currently plays two formal pre-season games but clubs have also used informal practice matches to prepare their players.
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan, who also sits on the committee, said there was no sure way to prevent players from getting hurt in the pre-season.
"Us coaches, we just hold our breath during the months of February and March that we don't get those injuries. But you can't avoid them," he said.
"You need to practice contact otherwise you're not ready."
