The AFL teams that are holding their nerve the best in clutch moments

The length and breadth of Australia time marches to different beats and cadences. While an hour is always an hour and a minute is always the same, at which time each precise hour takes place differs dramatically.

The vast spans of Australia mean that there are nine official time zones covering its population, across summer and winter from east to west. Few countries have more — France, Russia and the USA. While the saying is that it's always five o'clock somewhere, that's actually often the case in this wide brown land.

But for many, nine isn't enough. In recent years, parts of Australia are pushing to adopt a 10th time zone — Wharfie Time.

From what started out as a call to action from one of Fremantle's finest servants Matthew Pavlich during a match, Wharfie Time has rapidly evolved far beyond those humble origins, as bells toll around Perth Stadium and lights flash at a given point in Dockers games in a call to arms of supporters.

"The siren starts going and the crowd starts yelling. Even their players start getting up and about, and you're thinking, 'What's going on here?'" Hawthorn forward Dylan Moore told SEN earlier this year.

"It was actually quite distracting, and with elite sport as soon as you get a little bit distracted or a bit cautious you stop playing your way."

Not even Dockers coach Justin Longmuir knows exactly when the bell tolls for Wharfie Time — although it always seems to happen when the margin is within two goals late in the fourth quarter.

"They seem to time it really well. When the momentum has started but hasn't gone to its fullest," Longmuir informed Channel 7.

"I know our players get a lot of energy off it and I would imagine it would spook the opposition to some degree."

While Wharfie Time is unique to Fremantle football games, crunch time is common to the rest of the country. Think of it as the "sparkling wine" to Fremantle's close game Champagne.

Last week the AFL saw record amounts of it flowing across the league, with all bar two games being decided by eight points or less. Two more close games have been added to the close game tally. Across the entire season about one-third of games have been decided by less than 12 points — the most since 1961.

There have been 50 games this year where the margin has dipped to 12 points or fewer in time on (after 20 minutes of elapsed time) in the last term. The Bulldogs have won six of their eight games that have entered the crunichest of times, while Essendon has failed to win a single encounter.

But not all games that enter crunch time are the same, and the job to win them can vary vastly depending on the margin.

The 'knack' of winning close games

Over a long period of time, teams generally win as many close games as they lose. But this headline figure hides a lot of nuance behind it. While the traditional wisdom is that close games are coin flips, there's actually one pretty big (and obvious) pointer to who tends to win close games.

Forty-one of the 57 teams leading by 12 points or less heading into the last quarter this year have gone on to win the game. That number rises to 39 of the 50 teams holding a two-goal or less lead heading into time-on in the last.

Despite comebacks only happening roughly a quarter of the time in late game scenarios, this is an improvement on last year where just 15 per cent of teams were able to overcome a late game deficit. In some games the leading team at the time on mark gets caught, only to surge again by the death.

As a rule of thumb, the later a game gets, the harder it is to catch the leader.

While the Western Bulldogs have won the most close games of any team this year, they have all come when the Dogs have had the upper hand to begin with. Likewise, the Dons' four losses in tight ones have come when they were the underdogs. No team has arguably thrown away good positions more than the Pies this year, while Sydney and Fremantle have made the most of their comeback chances.

The advantage that the leader holds late has created two divergent styles of play late in games. While the precise names may vary from club to club, they are generally known as "win the game" and "save the game".

Each mode of play has a dedicated profile, with different methods of play to increase the chances of victory. Some teams might be more predisposed to chasing leads, and some may have better gamestyles to protect leads. While each team deploys each method with different wrinkles, there are clear trends that are apparent league wide.

Saving the game

The general profile of the "save the game" (or "kill the game") mode is more readily apparent to footy fans. Football games are general won by dominating possession and field position. Teams ahead late by not much put an even more intense focus than normal on those basics, as well as trying to reduce the time available for a late game comeback.

The latter part of the equation — forcing time off the clock — is critical to managing a lead. Teams often look to do this by finding…