The association between elite Australian football game-centric technical skills and running demands

This study investigated the association between game-centric technical skills and running demands in elite male Australian football (AF). Gameplay running demands were analysed via global positioning system (GPS) technology for 43 professional male AF players from a single elite male AF club across 37 individual matches during the 2021 and 2022 Australian Football League seasons. Game-centric technical skill performance statistics were obtained from ChampionData ® . The majority of game-centric technical skills had no association with running demands in elite male AF. However, some game-centric technical skills were associated with some GPS variables during elite AF gameplay. Main findings include negative associations between: uncontested statistics and accelerometry based variables (p < 0.001 between reference team uncontested marks and acceleration and deceleration distance), and positive associations between: uncontested statistics and running demands (p < 0.001 between uncontested possession percentage and relative total distance), and contested statistics and accelerometry-based variables (p < 0.001 between pre-clearance disposals and acceleration distance). Overall, these findings indicate that many game-centric factors may not have a large impact on gameplay running demands in AF, but certain variables indicate that the technical skills of the reference team may be more impactful on running demands than that of the opposition team.