Metres gained: useful by source, not as a total
A few coaches have asked us to add total metres gained. Broken down by source it's one of the sharpest signals we track — but the single grand total mostly just shadows the scoreboard. Here's the version worth watching.
A few coaches have asked us to add total metres gained. Here's the version we think is far more useful.
A handful of coaches have asked why Powercoach doesn't surface total metres gained. It's a fair question — and the instinct behind it is a good one. Metres gained is one of the more useful ideas in footy analytics. Moving the ball forward, efficiently, into scoring positions is exactly what good ball movement looks like.
The trick is how you count it. Broken down by where the metres came from, metres gained is one of the sharpest coaching signals we track. Added up into a single grand total, almost all of that signal disappears. Here's why — and what to watch instead.
The useful version: metres gained by source
This is the one worth your attention. Powercoach tracks metres gained split into the three phases where it actually tells you something:
- Kick-in metres gained — does your kick-in structure genuinely move the ball forward, or are you bombing it into a pack and conceding the next contest?
- 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 single, coachable phase of the game. Soft kick-in metres gained points straight at your kick-in setup. Low clearance metres gained tells you the midfield is winning the ball but not the territory. Strong intercept metres gained means your transition is genuinely hurting teams. Every one of these is something you can drill at training on Tuesday and look for again on Saturday.
That's the standard we use for any stat: does it point at something you can actually coach? Metres gained, broken down by source, passes easily — which is exactly why we surface it.
Why the total adds less than it looks
The aggregate is a different story — not because the idea is bad, but because of how a game of footy actually unfolds. There are really only two ways to finish with more net metres gained than the opposition:
- You kick a goal. The ball resets to the centre bounce — a free ~80 metres "gained" every time you score.
- A quarter ends with the ball in your half. A small swing, four times a game, and nothing you're really coaching.
For the entire rest of the game, the ball goes back and forth. You gain 40 metres down the wing; they take 40 back the other way. The gains and losses cancel out. The only things that systematically move the net-metres total are 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. So when a commentator says "Carlton have gained 200 more metres than the Tigers," they've essentially just told you Carlton are ahead — something the scoreboard already made clear. It's not wrong; it just isn't telling you anything you didn't already know.
That's the difference. The grand total ends up shadowing the scoreboard. Broken down by source, the very same idea becomes a proper coachable signal. (There's a longer piece on this principle in the Footy by the Numbers series — Correlation isn't causation — if you want the wider lesson.)
So…
Metres gained is well worth watching — you just want the right version of it. The number that earns its place on a dashboard is the one broken down by where it came from: kick-in, clearance and intercept. That's what tells you whether your kick-in structure, your stoppage craft and your transition are doing the work.
The single grand total looks like insight, but it mostly tracks the scoreboard. So we surface the parts that actually help you coach — and that's why metres gained shows up on Powercoach by source rather than as one big number.
