Activity profiles of professional soccer, rugby league and Australian football match play

Matthew C. Varley, Tim Gabbett, Robert J. Aughey

Abstract We compared the match activity profiles of elite footballers from Australian football (AF), rugby league (RL) and soccer (SOC), using identical movement definitions. Ninety-four elite footballers from AF, RL or SOC clubs in Australia participated in this study. Movement data were collected using a 5-Hz global positioning system from matches during the 2008-2011 competitive seasons, including measures of velocity, distance, acceleration and bouts of repeat sprints (RS). Australian footballers covered the greatest relative running distances (129 ± 17 m.min(-1)) compared to RL (97 ± 16 m.min(-1)) and SOC (104 ± 10 m.min(-1)) (effect size [ES]; 1.0-2.8). The relative distance covered (4.92 ± 2.10 m.min(-1) vs. 5.42 ± 2.49 m.min(-1); 0.74 ± 0.78 m.min(-1) vs. 0.97 ± 0.80 m.min(-1)) and the number of high-velocity running (0.4 ± 0.2 no.min(-1) vs. 0.4 ± 0.2 no.min(-1)) and sprint (0.06 ± 0.06 no.min(-1) vs. 0.08 ± 0.07 no.min(-1)) efforts between RL and SOC players were similar (ES; 0.1-0.3). Rugby league players undertook the highest relative number of accelerations (1.10 ± 0.56 no.min(-1)). RS bouts were uncommon for all codes. RL and SOC players perform less running than AF players, possibly due to limited open space as a consequence of field size and code specific rules. While training in football should be code specific, there may be some transference of conditioning drills across codes.