AT THE CONCLUSION of a game, most praise is heaped on those with the most kicks, handballs and goals.
But they aren’t the only statistics that tell a story.
Every player in the AFL wears a GPS in their jumper, to track their movement throughout a match.
This device records their distance covered, the speed they run and their work rate both with and without the ball.
So, we’ve sifted through Melbourne’s 2022 season to discover the hardest workers on the team.
Total distance in a game:
When it comes to total distance covered, Ed Langdon unsurprisingly led the way.
The wingman runs up and down the ground without break and covered a league-high distance of 17.2km on two occasions: Round 6 and the Semi-Final.
He was the Demons’ best runner in every game he completed, with Clayton Oliver managing the next best total of 15.2km in his side’s win over the Tigers.
Alex Neal-Bullen’s best effort was a 15.1km display in Round 4, while James Jordon racked up 15.1km in Round 10.
Maximum speed:
Kysaiah Pickett has put any questions to bed around the quickest player in the team.
The small forward cracked a team-high speed of 34.2km/h against the Power in Round 18, on his way to a six-goal haul in Alice Springs.
The Demons’ next quickest player is Tom Sparrow, who clocked 33.6km/h against the Saints, while Neal-Bullen hit 32.8 km/h in Round 17.
Langdon matched his endurance with speed in Round 23, hitting 32.6 km/h against the Lions, while Petty was the quickest key-position player reaching 32.4 km/h in Round 15.
Total sprints in a game:
Combining speed with effort is the sprints per game category, and Langdon comes out on top once again.
The 26-year-old had 35 sprints in Round 18, six efforts better than anyone else in the red and blue this year.
Pickett was the next best with 29 in that same game, ahead of Neal-Bullen (26 in Round 23), Jordon (23 in Round 5), Petty (22 in Round 19) and Smith (22 in Round 1).
Work Rate (average km/h in a game):
When the Demons had the ball in possession, Neal-Bullen provided the highest average speed in a full game this season, with 10.1 km/h in Round 13.
In Round 11, Sparrow (9.4 km/h) and Ben Brown (9.2 km/h) hit their personal best numbers for 2022, while Spargo recorded 9.2 km/h throughout the Dees’ Round 17 game.
When it came to defence, Sparrow worked equally as hard, running at 10.9 km/h on average throughout Melbourne’s win over the Power in Adelaide.
Langdon ran at 10.4 km/h defensively in that same game, while Jake Bowey (10.2 km/h) and Neal-Bullen (10.2 km/h) also pushed hard in Round 4.
