Abstract
An elite, national competition for women’s Australian football (AF) was established through the creation of the Australian Football League Women’s (AFLW) in 2017. The AFLW competition’s inception provided opportunities to pursue performance analysis research in an underrepresented women’s population. The capture of reliable team and player match statistics and access to higher quality facilities and sport science equipment, enabled greater avenues to explore match-play performance within the competition. Despite more data availability, many assumptions regarding match-play performance in the AFLW have been made based on the men’s game without substantiation. To provide relevant insights, this PhD program of research investigated technical and tactical performance in women’s AF, with a focus on utilising currently available data, to maximise practical impact and build foundations for future research.A broad lens of existing technical and tactical analysis research across team-based invasion sports was first reviewed to fully assess both the current landscape and the capabilities of performance analysis (Chapter 2.1). The current performance analysis focus in AF was on the men’s game, necessitating a systematic scoping review of the women’s game. The scoping review (Chapter 2.2) characterised key themes and methods of analysis as well as research gaps for which this dissertation sought to address. The main finding of this review was the effect that contextual factors can have on team’s and player’s match-play performance; an area not well realised in current women’s AF literature.
To address the identified gaps in knowledge (Chapter 2.3), four research studies were conducted. The first analytical study within this dissertation quantifies player positions, and roles within these positions exhibited in the AFLW (Chapter 3). An unsupervised clustering technique was implemented to ensure that no existing positional label from the men’s game was needed, allowing for a women’s focused, data-driven assessment. General definitions of midfielders, rucks, forwards, and defenders resembled men’s definitions, while individual roles specific to the women’s competition within these positions were found. Notably, where a player gets the ball was key to positional classification, a context unused in past positional assessments within the sport.
The second study (Chapter 4) identified technical variables important to team match-play performance in the AFLW, with such analyses benefiting from greater data availability than previous research. Non-parametric methods were applied to datasets of different detail identifying insights such as the bias that locational labels can create given the high importance of attacking areas. High variable importance within models was also attributable to gaining territory, effective kicking, and comparison statistics to the opposition.
The third study (Chapter 5) examined physical and technical match-play data interaction, establishing a link in these performance categories in the women’s game. A random forest model discovered small influence of physical performance actions, particularly change of direction and acceleration measures, on an individual basis across all players, as well as specifically in forwards and defenders. In-match fatigue reducing physical metrics and increased physical performance by match experience also become apparent through analysis, again particularly in acceleration and change of direction actions.
The fourth, and final, study (Chapter 6) focused on tactical analysis, as no such research had been conducted in the AFLW to date. Network analysis techniques were conducted representing a low data requirement option for a tactical dynamics investigation. Findings revealed the importance of individual key players in current team tactical passing dynamics within the AFLW. This is in contrast to men’s AF where team cohesiveness and equal contribution across all players has been identified as an influence on positive outcomes.
This dissertation provides detailed insights spanning a variety of facets of technical and tactical match-play performance that have not previously been researched in AFLW. These research findings not only fill existing research gaps but lay foundations for future research in this under-researched women’s sport. Findings throughout the dissertation have practical implementations for coaches and practitioners particularly in athlete preparation and team match-play strategy. With the addition of more seasons and more specialised data, women’s AF research has begun to be more prominent through this dissertation while helping to uncover women’s specific findings rather than having to be derived from men’s results.
Date of Award | 2025 |
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Original language | English |
Supervisor | Adrian Gepp (Supervisor), Justin Keogh (Supervisor) & Jessica Farley (Supervisor) |