What’s a pressure act?

That was one of the questions some fans were asking after they devoured the player statistics from the AFL’s opening round.

Football statistics have come a long way since the days of simply recording kicks, marks, handballs and goals.

And “pressure acts” is one of the new categories now recorded and published by Champion Data this season, after a successful trial run 2010.

It covers acts that can be physical or implied, for instance tackles, blocks, chasing an opponent and forcing hurried disposal - anything that puts an opponent under some heat.

According to the Champion Data stats from Adelaide’s opening round win over Hawthorn, Brent Reilly and Richard Douglas both recorded 22 points for “pressure acts”, followed by Rory Sloane (19).

Another new category this year is the “score involvements” of individual players, counting how many times they have a disposal in scoring chains. Sloane was Adelaide’s leader on Saturday night with eight.

Interchange tallies, time in front and the biggest lead are now also listed in the official AFL stats.