ABSTRACT
Numerous methods have been employed to assess the game demands on players in different codes of football. Direct observation and charting of the movements was the earlier preferred method of activity analysis of Australian footballers (Nettleton and Sandstrom, 1963). Whilst giving valuable information, the accuracy of this method is limited by the speed of the analysts in keeping up with the game, with no option to either correct errors, or to re-analyse a particular segment of play. Videotapes of a player's movements during a game were subsequently used to enable greater accuracy in the determination of activity patterns (Jaques and Pavia, 1974). However, activity analyses were recorded for only one quarter of a match (approximately 30 min). Consequently, extrapolation of these results to represent full game analysis may introduce a substantial error, since the time period measured may not be representative of the entire match.
