A FEW YEARS ago, The Age ran a story on the evolution of modern football.

Titled Chaos vs Control, the piece centred on the statistical differences between the epic 1989 Grand Final and the equally gripping 2006 thriller between Sydney and West Coast.

Bearing in mind that statistics basically didn’t exist back in 1989, this was an interesting task. It is even more interesting when you bring 2010 & 2011 figures into the equation.

The full, detailed stats call by Prowess Sports was designed to emphasise just how much the game had changed since that famous match between the Cats and Hawks.

“The data demonstrates that the relationship between game styles is almost unrecognisable,” wrote Jake Niall. And he was right.

The most glaring difference between 1989 and 2006 was the use of the interchange bench. The Eagles made 61 interchanges on their way to the 2006 premiership, the Swans 57.

By today’s standards (2010 interchange numbers reached an average of 117 per team) even those numbers are low.

But compared to the 1989 Grand Final, admittedly when there were two fewer interchange players, it was estimated that each team had less than half a dozen interchanges for the entire match. Yes, six.

The game had evolved so much that the difference between some of the key statistics was staggering.

In 1989, handballs were used almost as a last resort - Hawthorn and Geelong had only 159 handballs between them. In 2006, West Coast surpassed that figure on its own. The Eagles had 176 handballs, the Swans 112, an increase of 45 per cent compared to the 1989 grand final.

When looking at the statistics from 2011, there are signs that football is evolving again.

Slowly but surely, the modern style of game is creeping back towards something resembling 20 years ago, when contested footy, long kicking and capitalising on turnovers in the midfield came at a premium.

Back when the likes of Chris Langford were running around, the vast majority (as many as 78 per cent) of kick-ins made it outside the defensive 50 arc.

In 2006, only a quarter were kicked long enough to make it into the midfield. Clubs began ‘giving’ the defending team a short kick into the pocket, preferring to fold back towards the middle of the ground.

But now the game has almost turned full circle. Teams are so adept at the forward press and creating incredible pressure in their front half, that often players have no choice but to gain as much distance as they can.

The Demon defenders experienced this first hand last weekend. Of their 25 kick-ins (an incredible statistic in itself), 10 of them were kicked long outside the 50m arc.

There is also an early trend towards an increase in inside 50s, compared to recent years. In 2006, teams averaged 50 per match. This figure basically stayed the same for the next four seasons. In 2011, however, teams have averaged 54 inside 50s per game.

While we are only two rounds into the season, early indications suggest that long kicking, an emphasis on pressure and quicker ball movement has led to an increase in forward entries.

Digging deeper, we have seen four teams reach 70 inside 50s or more this season. One of them was unfortunately last weekend in our game against the Hawks. This happened only seven times for the entire season last year.

Basically every possession back in 1989 was contested - the game was just a rolling passage of one-on-one contests.

In the comparison between the 1989 and 2006 Grand Finals, Jake Niall noted that in the modern game (remembering the article was written in 2007) “someone would have got hold of the ball and kicked it sideways and backwards.”

In the 2010/11 version of the modern game, teams wouldn’t allow their opponents to do this for too long, now that the forward press reigns supreme.

And the evidence is in the numbers. From the turn of the century, contested possession averages trended downwards from 120 in 2001, down to 107 in 2006. From there, however, the contested possession figures bounced back, increasing every year - 117 in 2007 up to 134 by the end of 2010.

This year contested possessions have increased again, with teams averaging 144 per game thus far. The new substitute rule could be the joker in the pack amongst all this, but it’s too early to tell what impact this radical rule change will have on the numbers.

The number of rotations might well be one of the only key statistical indicators that isn’t trending back towards the figures of 1989, as slight as these trends may be.

One Demon who fits this game style perfectly is 2011 debutant Luke Tapscott.

Statistically he ticks all the boxes for the modern game - he currently sits in the top five at the club for contested possessions, averages three more long kicks than the next Melbourne player, and leads the club at intercepting opposition kicks.

He is on track to being an important player at the club moving forward.

Is the game more contested than ever? Obviously the skill level of the players is light years ahead of those in 1989 (kicking efficiency has increased by more than 10 per cent since that time), so you could argue that we are seeing a better game now than we ever have.

We will definitely be keeping an eye on these trends as the season continues.

And finally, Melbourne rotations guru Craig Lees came up with the official stat of the week, while looking at the numbers from last round.

In both drawn matches this year, the competing teams have had 110 v 108 interchanges for the match. Spooky.

Sources: The Age, Prowess Sports, Champion Data.

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