ANDREW Swallow's mass production of contested possessions in the North Melbourne-Adelaide match has brought to the surface a change in how the AFL's official statisticians are logging the key statistic.
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The gun Roos midfielder accumulated a staggering 27 contested possessions against the Crows at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, the second most by any player since Champion Data began keeping records in 1999.
Swallow's tally is just one shy of the record set by Sydney hardman Jude Bolton, who had 28 contested touches and two Brownlow votes in round 11 last year.
A slight shift in the interpretation of what constitutes a contested possession means the initial gather from any hitout, whether the tap comes from an opponent or a teammate, is now considered a ''contested possession''.
Until this year, only gathers from hitouts off the hand of an opposition ruckman were recorded as contested touches because they are classified as statistics extracted from a ''disputed ball'' situation.
Gathers from a teammate's hitout were considered uncontested possessions before the change of philosophy in 2011, which now classes all stoppages as disputed ball situations and gathers from those stoppages as contested touches.
This explains why Swallow racked up contested possessions at a huge rate in the first quarter on Sunday, despite many of his clean takeaways coming under virtually no pressure.
The 24-year-old dismantled the Crows in the first term, collecting 14 contested possessions and 10 clearances. He finished with a career-high 39 disposals.
Swallow, who led the Roos in hard-ball gets in 2010, is North Melbourne's No. 1 ranked player for contested possessions after 11 rounds this year and third in the AFL, averaging 14.6 per game.
Champion Data defines a contested possession as a statistic ''credited to a player who wins the ball from a disputed situation''.
A player's contested possession tally is the sum of his hard-ball gets, loose-ball gets, contested marks, free kicks for, gathers from hitouts and ''contested knock-ons'', a new variation introduced this year.
A more intense focus on defensive pressure and the return of long kicking, which has decreased the number of handballs, has meant the percentage of contested possessions compared with uncontested touches has risen to 40.6 per cent in 2011, up from 34.1 per cent in 2007.
