Analysis of defence in Australian football: a scoping review

This study aimed to scope the peer-reviewed literature examining defence in men’s and women’s Australian football (AF). The review was designed using the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. Databases were searched using terms related to defence in AF. The search yielded 757 studies, with 76 included after screening. Seven study features were extracted: playing level, environment, measurement of defence, impact of defence, defensive player profiling, defensive phase, and team defence. Five approaches to analysing defence in AF were found: (a) used match or training event data to analyse defence (n = 46); (b) analysed the movement demands of players in defence (n = 13); (c) used spatio-temporal data to analyse the positioning of players in defence (n = 9); (d) reported on match activities or physical movements of “defenders” (n = 22); (e) measured team defensive style and/or strength (n = 5). In summary, research examined multiple aspects of defence in AF, however there were inconsistent definitions of successful or unsuccessful defensive outcomes. Most research analysed actions and movements of individual players in defence; less examined team defensive positioning and behaviours. Few studies attempted to analyse off-ball defence. A relative lack of research into defence in women’s AF was found.