While we commonly look toward disposal leaders and tackling machines among AFL stats to see who the season's leaders are, what other metrics might we consider that is a bit more left-field?

Including the players who get the most metres out of each disposal and those who prefer to move the ball by foot, here are some stat leaders for metrics we don't often consider...

Port Adelaide recruit AFL's most efficient ruckman

Power ruckman Ivan Soldo is giving his crop of star midfielders silver service to start the season, with the former Tiger's rating for hitouts to advantage per ruck contest the highest among ruckmen who have attended at least 200 contests this year (top 20).

Soldo has totalled 60 hitouts to advantage from the 376 ruck contests he has attended - a rate of 15.96%.

The next best is Western Bulldogs tall Tim English (14.91%), who has recorded 58 HTA from 389 contests.

Demon Max Gawn - who leads the league for HTAs - comes in third at 14.08% - tied with Collingwood big man Mason Cox.

Cox and teammate Darcy Cameron both feature among the top ten for HTAs per ruck contest, with the latter going at a rate of 11.76%.

Player Hitouts to Advantage Ruck Contests HTA per RC (%)
Ivan Soldo 60 376 15.96
58 389 14.91
Max Gawn 69 490 14.08
Mason Cox 30 213 14.08
Reilly O'Brien
 67 480 13.96
55 401 13.72
Lloyd Meek 39 290 13.45
47 369 12.74
34 280 12.14
40 340 11.76

Hitouts to Advantage per Ruck Contest (min. 200 contests) as of Round 6.

Young Crow, Suns utility getting the most bang for (disposal) buck

Which players are moving the ball the furthest forward per touch?

Looking at metres gainer per disposal (min. 20), Adelaide's Luke Pedlar has gained a total of 631 metres from his 22 disposals so far this year - equating to 28.7 metres gained per disposal.

Long-kicking Sun Jack Lukosius is next best for his 2666 metres gained from 97 disposals - a mean of 27.5 metres gained per disposal.

Port Adelaide's Kane Farrell (27.2 metres), St Kilda's Max King (27.0) and Richmond's Tylar Young (26.9) round out the top five.

Player Disposals Metres Gained
Metres Gained Per Disposal
Luke Pedlar 22 631 28.7
Jack Lukosius 97 2666 27.5
Kane Farrell 113 3072 27.2
Max King 50 1348 27.0
Tylar Young 34 915 26.9
Joe Daniher 94 2510 26.7
Karl Amon 127 3312 26.1
Jayden Short 108 2804 26.0
24 622 25.9
Jeremy Sharp 111 2874 25.9

Metres Gained per Disposal (min. 20 disposals) as of Round 6, via Wheeloratings.ย 

Kick-happy Tiger's preference by foot

Richmond's Jayden Short is the competition's most kick-happy player to start 2024, with the premiership Tiger kicking the ball 6.7 times for every disposal by hand.

From Short's 108 disposals this season, 94 have been by foot, meaning just 14 times this year Short has handballed the Sherrin.

His kick-to-handball ratio is easily the highest in the league among players who have recorded at least 100 disposals, with St Kilda's Riley Bonner the next highest at 5.2.

It's clear defenders prefer to move the ball by foot, with Karl Amon (4.5 kicks per handball), Luke Ryan (4.2) and Kane Farrell (3.7) featuring in the top five, with the next five names also backmen.

Player Disposals Kicks Handballs K/H Ratio
108 94 14 6.7
143 120 23 5.2
Karl Amon 127 104 23 4.5
Luke Ryan 145 117 28 4.2
113 89 24 3.7
104 82 22 3.7
128 100 28 3.6
141 109 32 3.4
140 108 32 3.4

Kick-to-Handball Ratio (min. 100 disposals) as of Round 6.ย 

Suns beast No.1 for contested possession ratingย 

It may come as no surprise that Gold Coast midfielder Matt Rowell boasts the highest* contested possession rating in the competition.

68.3% of the Suns onballer's possessions so far this season have been contested - the best rating of any player with at least 100 possessions.

Rowell's season tally of 110 contested possessions ranks No.1 in the competition - 18 more than the next best in Carlton captain Patrick Cripps.

Cripps (56.1%) ranks fifth for contested possession percentage, with Swans ruckman Brodie Grundy (63.4%) and Bulldog Tom Liberatore (59.1%) joining Rowell on the podium.

Player Contested Possessions Uncontested Possessions Total Possessions
Contested Possession %
Matt Rowell 110 51 161 68.3
71 41 112 63.4
78 54 132 59.1
Max Gawn 73 51 124 58.9
92 72 164 56.1
57 47 104 54.8
58 49 107 54.2
75 65 140 53.6
Ollie Wines 64 57 121 52.9
55 49 104 52.9

Contested Possession rating (min. 100 possessions) as of Round 6.ย 

Giants trio sharing the love in attack

While we have the Coleman Medal for the competition's leading goalkicker, what would the leaderboard look like if we included assists?

Current leader Jesse Hogan isn't moved from his place atop the competition given his 21 majors so far this year would keep him second for goals and assists.

Hogan has assisted six goals to bring his G+A tally to 27 - five more than reigning two-time Coleman Medal winner Charlie Curnow (22 - 20 goals, 2 assists).

Hogan's teammate Toby Greene - who leads the league for goal assists with 12 - has a G+A total of 21 - placing him in third.

A third Giants forward, Brent Daniels, also sits among the top ten, being one of five players placed with a G+A total of 18. Daniels' ten goal assists see him rank fourth for the metric as of Round 6.

Player Goals Assists Goals + Assists
21 6 27
20 2 22
9 12 21
17 2 19
16 3 19
14 5 19
12 7 19
16 2 18
14 4 18
Paul Curtis 12 6 18
11 7 18
8 10 18

Combined Goals and Assists Tally as of Round 6.