Why total metres gained is useless

A few coaches have asked us to add this stat. Here's why we won't.

A handful of coaches have asked why Powercoach doesn't surface total metres gained. They like the stat. They see it on TV. It feels meaningful — we moved the ball further than them, surely that means something.

It doesn't. Not the aggregate version. We'll explain in under a minute.

The two ways — and only two ways

In a game of footy there are exactly two ways to end up with more net metres gained than the opposition:

1. You kick a goal. The ball goes back to the centre bounce. That's a free ~80 metres "gained" on the reset. Score more goals than they do, bank more net metres.
2. A quarter ends with the ball in your half. Small swing. Four times a game. Has nothing to do with anything you're coaching.

For the entire rest of the game, the ball is going back and forth. You gain 40 metres down the wing; they take 40 back the other way. Gains and losses cancel. The only thing that systematically moves the net-metres needle is scoring (and end-of-quarter ball position).

Which means: a team that's gained more net metres than its opponent has, almost by definition, scored more than them. The stat isn't measuring how well you moved the ball. It's measuring who's winning the scoreboard. With extra steps.

So if you see a commentator saying "Carlton have gained 200 more metres than the Tigers," congratulations — they've just told you Carlton are ahead on the scoreboard. Which the scoreboard already told you.

What is useful: metres gained by source

Here's the rescue. Metres gained *by source* is a different animal entirely, and Powercoach tracks each of the three meaningful versions separately:

• Kick-in metres gained — does your kick-in structure actually move the ball forward, or are you bombing it into a pack?
• Clearance metres gained — when your midfield wins first hands, do you break the line, or stall in the chains?
• Intercept metres gained — when you win the ball back in open play, do you punish cleanly or get caught on the kick?

Each one isolates a specific phase of the game. None of them is contaminated by the goal-bounce reset. Each one points at something you can actually drill at training and look for again on Saturday.

The general rule we use when deciding which stats to surface: aggregate stats often end up as proxies for the scoreboard. Broken down by source, the same idea can be a proper coachable signal. (There's a longer piece on this principle as part of the Footy by the Numbers series — Correlation isn't causation — if you want the wider lesson.)

So…

Total metres gained looks like insight. It's the scoreboard wearing a different hat. The metres-gained number you actually want to watch is the one broken down by where it came from — that's the one that tells you whether your kick-in structure, your stoppage craft or your transition is doing the work.

As for the aggregate? In the old Aussie phrase, it's about as useless as tits on a bull. Which is why we leave it out.