AFL’s off-season changes have made game faster and better and the stats prove it

NUMBER CRUNCH: The AFL’s raft of off-season rule changes have had a dramatic effect on the way the game is being played and the stats prove it.

Easton Wood charges forward for the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

THE game looks faster and better and now we have the statistics to prove it.

The AFL’s raft of off-season rule changes have had a dramatic effect on the way the game is being played.

Scoring is higher, ugly stoppages are fewer, inside 50s have increased and teams are kicking the ball longer.

Forget slow, congested and boring it is being played at open, thrilling and breakneck speed.

“The game has changed,’’ Adelaide coach Don Pyke noted this week.

“I think it changes every year but with the rule changes this year, no question, they have had a big impact.

“With the rotations (being cut from 120 to 90 per team a game) we (coaches) are not able to sustain the ground being as small now because of the players maintaining their speed and their intensity and their running, so the game opens up a little bit more.

“And clearly the out-of-bounds (rule) means there is less stoppages, which means the ball is in motion more.

Eddie Betts celebrates a goal against Hawthorn.

“We are no longer going from one stoppage to another stoppage to another stoppage. It’s now flowing back and forth.’’

Average scores are up by a goal-and-a-half, rising from 86.6 points a game in 2015 to 93.1 this season.

Ten of the 18 clubs are scoring at a higher level than last year, led by revitalised Melbourne (+30.3 points), Gold Coast (+29.2) and the AFL’s only unbeaten team, North Melbourne (+28.5).

The high-octane Crows — the third-highest scoring team last season — are scoring three goals more a game than a year ago, averaging 118.2 points.

Port Adelaide is the only side averaging exactly the same score as last year — 91 points.

The biggest change in the game has come in stoppage numbers.

Champion Data statistics reveal they have dropped significantly from 70.7 a game in 2015 to 58.9 this year — a 16.7 per cent swing.

All but one club — triple premier Hawthorn — have recorded drops in stoppage numbers.

Aaron Hall tries to escape Ben Cunnington.

For the second consecutive year the Power is averaging the most stoppages but its numbers have slumped from 81.7 to 72.4.

Two of this season’s big risers, expansion clubs GWS and Gold Coast, are benefiting from their quick, run-and-carry games, with their drops in stoppages — -21.7 and -20.9 respectively — among the biggest in the league.

Ball-up stoppages have fallen league-wide from 28.5 to 24.3 a game but the biggest drop has come in throw-in stoppages which are down from 42.2 to 34.6.

This is due to the umpires — under instruction from the AFL — being much harsher on paying free kicks for deliberate out-of-bounds.

Players are now keeping the ball inside the boundary line rather than knocking it over to force a throw-in.

Free kicks are up by two a game this year, from 18.1 to 20.4.

With the ball kept in play more and away from congestion, the game is moving much faster.

The percentage of long kicks per game has risen from 35.2 in 2015 to 42.7 this year while turnovers have become an even greater source of a team’s scoring.

Port Adelaide’s average score is the same this year as last year.

Last year, 57.3 per cent of scores came from turnovers. This season the figure has risen to 59.1, illustrating how the AFL is becoming more and more a turnover game.

“Stoppage numbers have come down so there is more focus on the turnover game at the moment, so it’s important you are good at that,’’ Pyke said.

Inside 50s are up from 50.5 per team a game to 53.2 because of the quicker and longer ball movement.

“It has become harder to defend,’’ Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said after his team won a shootout by three points against Adelaide last week.

“So that’s the next challenge for coaches.’’

The fans are the winners!