EVALUATING GPS AND TIME-MOTION ANALYSIS FOR MONITORING LOCOMOTOR DEMANDS IN AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL.

Australian Football (AF) is a high-intensity, intermittent team sport that places considerable physical and technical demands on its players. Due to the sport's dynamic nature and frequent changes in movement type and direction, accurately assessing player workload and performance is essential for developing effective training and recovery strategies. This review explores the current literature on the physical demands of AF and the technologies used to quantify these demands, particularly global positioning systems (GPS) and time-motion analysis. AF players perform various locomotive activities, including walking, jogging, sprinting, and changes in direction, with up to 95% of game time spent in low-intensity activities. While GPS has become a staple in performance monitoring, limitations exist in its ability to accurately capture directionality and brief bursts of high-intensity movement, particularly in small spaces or with complex directional changes. Conversely, time-motion analysis offers greater contextual understanding of locomotor patterns but is limited by observer variability and a lack of recent data in modern AF. Time-motion analysis can contextually analyse the locomotor mode by assessing the athletes' feet, legs, and body movements, while GPS can only report on speed-based metrics. This review highlights the discrepancies in performance assessment due to positional variation, physical fatigue, and technology limitations. It also emphasises the need for further research into modern time-motion analysis to better understand current match demands. Such insight is critical for tailoring training programs, managing player load, and optimising performance in the evolving AFL landscape. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR