AFL WOMEN'S Rankings: Round 9 SEASON 7

After the first round this season I noted that the proportion of possessions that were contested had increased, supporting a suggestion that moving the AFLW season to the winter months might result in a more contested style of play. 

That early trend held up throughout the season. Teams have averaged slightly more contested possessions per match this season compared with last season (101.4 to 99.6 in Season 6), but over ten less uncontested possessions (102.7 to 113.0). Average tackles have also gone up (63.4 compared with 58.6 in Season 6), as have average hit outs (26.6 to 23.0).

Part of this has been due to the introduction of ‘expansion’ teams Hawthorn and Sydney who have each averaged less than 80 uncontested possessions per game (see table below). However, several established teams have also played a more contested style of football this season. Adelaide, Carlton, Collingwood, North Melbourne, and St. Kilda are all averaging far less uncontested possessions this season, ranging from 10 less per game for the Crows to 36 less for the Blues. They are also averaging more than seven tackles and hit outs more per game this season (see table below).

There are a few teams going against the trend though. Melbourne, GWS, and Geelong are averaging a lot more uncontested possessions per game this season (see table above), and other teams like the Bulldogs are averaging similar figures. Most teams though have still seen an increase in average tackles and hit outs this season, which indicates more stoppages.

Have more contests, tackling and stoppages led to less scoring though? Only slightly – average points per game has decreased from 33.9 in Season 6 to 32.2 in Season 7. More points is not necessarily better, but at least this suggests that teams are still finding avenues to scoring at about the same rate as before even if the matches have become slightly more of a ‘slog’ this season.