Seven AFL stats actually tell you whether your child is developing as a player. Three others get most of the attention — and they’re the least useful at junior level.
It’s not that kicks, handballs, and goals don’t matter. It’s that at junior and youth level, those numbers are mostly a reflection of game time, team strategy, and where your kid happens to be standing on a given day. They don’t tell you whether your child is genuinely getting better.
The stats below do. And because a forward, midfielder, and defender are doing very different jobs on the field, the ones worth watching depend on where your child plays — and how old they are.
Quick Reference: Stats by Position and Age Group
Not sure which stats to focus on? Find your child’s position and age group in the table below, then read the sections underneath to understand what each one actually means.
| Stat | Forwards | Midfielders | Backs | Junior (up to U11) | Youth (U12–U17) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure Acts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Primary | Primary |
| Tackles Made | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Primary | Primary |
| Ground Ball Gets | ✓ | ✓ | Secondary | Primary | |
| Contested Possessions | ✓ | ✓ | Secondary | Primary | |
| Inside 50s | ✓ | ✓ | Primary | ||
| Intercept Marks | ✓ | Youth only | |||
| Contested Marks | ✓ | ✓ | Youth only | ||
| Disposal Efficiency | Not recommended | U16+ only |
Primary = a key development indicator at this level. Secondary = worth watching, but context-dependent. Blank = less relevant for this group.
The Stats That Matter at Every Age and Position
These two stats apply regardless of where your child plays or how old they are. If you only track two things, start here.
Pressure Acts
Pressure acts include chasing, tackling, and smothering. They are the effort stats.
A child can’t control where the ball goes. They can always control whether they chase. A player who racks up pressure acts consistently is developing the work ethic and defensive awareness that coaches value at every level of the game.
For junior players (up to U11) especially, pressure acts are the single most reliable development indicator you can track from the sideline. Technique is still developing. Fitness is still building. But the decision to chase — to put the effort in — shows character, and that character compounds over seasons.
If your child finishes a game with five or six pressure acts, that is a meaningful contribution regardless of what their possession count looks like.
Tackles Made
Tackles are the most visible pressure stat and one of the most meaningful across all age groups.
A child who tackles consistently has learned two important things: how to read where the ball carrier is going, and how to commit to the contest. Both are coachable skills that take time and practice to develop.
A steady increase in tackles over a season — even from two per game to four — is real growth. Note it. Celebrate it.
Stats to Watch as Players Get Older (U12 and Above)
Once players move into the U12–U17 age range, more specialist stats start to become meaningful. Game structures become more defined, positions become more distinct, and the difference between a forward’s development and a midfielder’s becomes easier to read in the numbers.
Ground Ball Gets (Midfielders and Backs)
A ground ball get is when a player wins a loose ball — in congestion, in a pack, or in a one-on-one situation.
This stat is particularly useful for midfielders and backs. Midfielders win ground balls in the centre of the ground where games are won and lost. Backs win them when the ball spills out of a pack in the defensive 50 and a moment of composure under pressure is needed.
Players who consistently go for ground balls are developing two things simultaneously: bravery and anticipation. Both are skills that show clear improvement over a season.
Contested Possessions (Forwards and Midfielders)
A contested possession is any time your child wins the ball when an opponent is right there, fighting for the same ball.
For forwards and midfielders in the youth age groups, this is one of the best indicators of whether a player is genuinely competing or collecting the ball in space. A player who wins contested possessions under physical and mental pressure is developing the competitiveness that AFL demands.
At U11 and below, this stat is less reliable — game structures are looser, so genuinely contested situations arise less predictably. From U12 upward, watch for a trend across a season.
Inside 50s (Forwards and Midfielders)
An inside 50 is recorded every time a player moves the ball from the middle of the ground into the attacking zone.
For youth-age midfielders and forwards, this is a measure of football IQ — knowing when to push forward, when to carry the ball, when to look for the corridor. A player who consistently generates inside 50s is learning to read the game, not just reacting to it.
This stat is not meaningful at junior level where game structures are fluid and inside 50s are often accidental. From U12 upward, it starts to tell a genuine story.
Intercept Marks (Backs — Youth Only)
An intercept mark is when a defender reads the play, gets into position ahead of the ball, and takes a mark that cuts off the opposition’s attack.
This is one of the best development stats you can track for a back. It measures three things at once: game awareness (reading where the ball is going), decision-making (choosing to intercept rather than spoil), and skill (actually holding the mark). A player racking up intercept marks is not just defending — they are actively winning the ball back for their team.
Unlike most defensive stats, intercept marks are highly visible from the sideline. You can see the moment a defender commits to the intercept path before the ball arrives. That commitment is the skill. The mark is the result.
Track this from U13–U14 upward when defensive structures become more defined and backs start to hold position consistently enough for intercepts to be a genuine read of the play rather than accidental positioning.
Contested Marks (Forwards and Backs — Youth Only)
Catching the ball under pressure requires timing, positioning, reading the flight of the ball, and the willingness to compete in the air.
For youth-age key forwards and key defenders, contested marks are one of the clearest aerial development indicators you can track. An uncontested mark might mean the opposition broke down. A contested mark means your child won a battle in the air.
This stat is worth tracking from around U13–U14 onwards, when aerial contests become a genuine feature of the game. At younger ages, marking contests are rare enough that the sample size per game is too small to draw conclusions from.
The 3 Stats That Don’t Tell You What You Think
Kicks and Handballs
Total disposals are the most-watched number in junior AFL and the most misleading.
At under-age level, disposals are heavily influenced by position, game plan, and game flow. A midfielder in a ball-dominant team might rack up 15 touches. A half-back in a defensive side might get five. Neither number tells you much about whether that player is improving.
Disposals matter — but in isolation, they create a distorted picture of development.
Goals Kicked
Goals are exciting and they should be celebrated. But at junior level, goals are one of the stats most likely to flatter or unfairly punish a player depending on circumstances well outside their control.
A forward who gets five entries into the forward 50 might kick two goals. Another who gets two entries might kick none. The entry count says more about what is happening in the midfield. The goal count says more about luck, angle, and which way the wind is blowing.
Use goals as a bonus — something fun to track — not as a measure of whether your child is improving as a footballer.
Disposal Efficiency
Disposal efficiency — the percentage of kicks and handballs that reach their target — is a genuinely useful stat. But it is strictly for older youth players.
Under 14s are still developing the fundamental kicking and handballing mechanics that make efficiency a fair measurement. A 55% efficiency rate at U12 can reflect a player who is brave enough to take the game on under pressure, not one who is struggling. Penalising that with a low number does more harm than good.
From U16 upward, disposal efficiency starts to mean something real. At that point, tracking whether efficiency is improving over a season is worth adding to your toolkit. Before that, leave it out.
How to Track These During a Game
You do not need a professional analytics setup. Most parents can accurately track two or three stats from the sideline with a notes app or a simple tally.
Pick the stats that match your child’s position and age group from the table above. Track them consistently across every game. Look for trends across four to six rounds, not single-game peaks.
A player who averages one ground ball get per game in Round 1 and four per game by Round 10 has genuinely developed — regardless of the scoreboard. That is the number worth paying attention to.
Frequently Asked Questions
What AFL stats should I track for an Under 10 or Under 11 player?
At those ages, stick to pressure acts and tackles. They are the most reliable development indicators at junior level because they reflect attitude and effort rather than technique, which is still developing. They are also the easiest to track accurately from the sideline.
My child plays multiple positions. Which stats apply?
Pick the position they spend the most time in and use that column as your guide. If they genuinely rotate across multiple roles, pressure acts and tackles are always relevant regardless of where they play.
Is it normal for stats to go up and down week to week?
Completely normal. Game conditions, opponent quality, weather, and game flow all affect individual numbers significantly. A single round is just noise. Four to six rounds starts to look like a trend. That is what you are looking for.
At what age does disposal efficiency become useful to track?
Around Under 16s, once players have had enough time to develop repeatable kicking and handballing technique. Before that age, it is more useful to track whether a player is attempting difficult disposals under pressure than whether those disposals hit the target.
How many stats should I try to track in one game?
Two or three is a practical limit if you want to watch the game as well. More than that and your accuracy drops. Quality tracking of a few stats over a full season is far more useful than rough tracking of many.
ScorX is a free app for parents and coaches to track junior AFL player stats during games. Download it and start tracking your child’s development this weekend.