North fans scattered along the wing at Aegis Park were confronted with an unusual sight on Wednesday with plasma screens wheeled out onto the oval in the middle of a skills session.

Brad Scott and his team of assistants singled out passages of play from the match against Collingwood and in between drills, the players were shown video of their mistakes, areas to improve and good passages of play.

It’s now common to see clubs use iPads during quarter time breaks and technology is advancing every year with teams trying to get an edge on their opponents.

We’ve come a long way.

Back in 1990 players were paid barely a sixth of what they are no and most were forced to get full-time jobs outside of football. The then $1.5 million salary cap was split across seniors, reserves and under-19s.

20 years on and the total player payments per club is $8.21 million, with an average wage of almost $250,000.

Total club membership is up from 102,000 in 1989 to over 630,000. Crowd figures have doubled, television ratings are at their highest ever and media exposure is unrivalled among any other competition in Australia. To top it all off, the AFL has just announced a record broadcasting deal for the next five seasons worth more than a billion dollars.

Quite simply being an Australian Rules Football player has become a dream occupation for any up-and-coming athlete.

In fact, the participation rate among children has increased nearly ten-fold in the past two decades and the pool of talent available is unprecedented.

Salary caps, distribution funds, compensation picks and a huge emphasis on recruiting will mean the game will always be competitive and cut-throat, so any little advantage a club can gain is vital.

No one will ever really know if one particular technique or approach makes a winning formula, but there's no doubting people will do anything to help their side win a premiership.