Evolution of Athlete Match Demands Across 3 Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) Seasons.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the changes in match demands of Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) athletes over the past 3 seasons (2022-2023). It was hypothesized that match demands would increase across all positional groups.

Methods: Forty-two athletes from 1 AFLW club who played at least 1 match across seasons 6 to 8 (2022-2023) were included. Match-day running demands including total distance (TD), speed, acceleration, high-intensity running (HIR; >19 km/h), very HIR (VHIR; >21 km/h), and sprint distances (>24 km/h) were exported from Catapult Vector S7 global positioning system units. Raw speed (in meters per minute) and acceleration (in meters per second squared) files were exported to calculate 1-minute rolling peak periods. Linear mixed-effects regression models were conducted with effect sizes (d) to examine changes in match demands over time for the cohort and playing-position groups.

Results: TD increased by 344 m (d = 0.33) between seasons 6 and 7 and 971 m (d = 0.72) between seasons 7 and 8 (P < .001). HIR, VHIR, rolling 1-minute peak speed, and acceleration increased between seasons 6 and 7 by 70 m (d = 0.38), 36 m (d = 0.31), 5.1 m/min (d = 0.15), and 0.04 m/s2 (d = 0.46), respectively (P < .001), while no changes were seen between seasons 7 and 8. Total player load increased by 28 AU (d = 0.29) between seasons 6 and 7 and 80 AU (d = 0.54) between seasons 7 and 8 (P < .001).

Conclusions: TD increased across seasons 6 to 8, whereas HIR, VHIR, rolling 1-minute peak speed, and acceleration only increased between seasons 6 and 7. While changes in TD may encompass factors such as rule changes, relative metrics including HIR and VHIR changed in this cohort. These findings provide a comprehensive evaluation of current AFLW match demands and will assist in future AFLW athlete preparation.