Methods of performance analysis in women?s Australian football: a scoping review

Background. The first women's Australian football (AF) professional competition was established in 2017, resulting in advancement in performance analysis capabilities within the sport. Given the specific constraints of women's AF, it is currently unclear what match-play performance analysis methods and techniques are implemented. Therefore, the aim of this scoping review was to describe and critically appraise phys-ical, technical, and tactical performance analysis methods that have been employed in women's and girls' AF match-play.Methodology. A systematic search was conducted on the 27th of June 2022 through five databases. Eligibility criteria were derived from the PCC framework with the pop-ulation (P) of women and girls AF players, of any level of play; concepts (C) of inter-est which were measures, data, and methods related to the sport's physical, technical, and tactical performance; and the context (C) of methods that analysed any match -play performance. A narrative synthesis was conducted using extracted study charac-teristic data such as sample size, population, time period, collection standards, evalua-tion metrics for results, and application of thematic categorisations of previous sports performance reviews. Critical appraisal of eligible studies' methodologies was con-ducted to investigate research quality and identify methodological issues.Results. From 183 studies screened, twelve eligible studies were included, which ex-amined match-play through physical (9/12, 75%), technical (4/12, 33%), and tacti-cal analysis (2/12, 17%). Running demands and game actions analysis were the most researched in senior women's AF. Research into junior girls' AF match-play perfor-mance has not been investigated. No research has been conducted on non-running physical demands, contact demands, acceleration, and tactical aspects of women's AF. All studies utilised either inferential statistics or basic predictive models. Critical appraisal deemed most studies as low risk of bias (11/12, 92%), with the remaining study having satisfactory risk.Conclusions. Future research utilising increased longitudinal and greater contex-tual data is needed to combat the prominent issue of data representativeness to better characterise performance within women's and girls' AF. Additionally, research involv-ing junior and sub-elite AF players across the talent pathways is important to conduct,