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Age Structure of AFL Lists 2006 |
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Written by FootyGeek
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Feb 02, 2006 at 01:16 PM |
Ever thought it looked like the list of the team you barrack for is very young or very old compared to the other teams? An analysis of each teams list is made to determine how each club is set up with respect to age.
If you look at the table below, we can make some simple comparisons between all team lists for 2006. The first section shows how many teenagers are on each club’s primary list (excluding rookies). These guys are the future of the club, their fortunes over the next 5 years will have a significant impact on how well the club does. Richmond and Hawthorn who are pursuing a strict youth policy lead the way with Port Adelaide, somewhat surprisingly next on the list. The teams near the top of this list can be interpreted as those clubs in the rebuilding phase of the development of their lists.
The next section of the table reveals how many 20-24 year olds are on each list. The effect of Geelong’s focus on developing youth from the late 1990’s are revealed with 24 players on their list in this age group. For many of the players in this age bracket this phase of their development is very important as they are heavily scrutinised in this period by coaching staff to determine if they will stay on the list or be delisted.
Having a lot of young players does not necessarily mean that success is years away. Premierships can be won with these groups of players. The 1993 Essendon team list before the season began had seven teenagers and five 20-24 year olds that would go on to be part of the premiership team that year.
The next table shows the number of player in the 25+ age bracket, these players should be at the peak of their playing ability and given that they have survived on an AFL list to this age should be talented. This is a very important group in the sense that it should provide leadership to the youngsters in the list and in game situations be able to keep a cool head in pressure situations.
Interestingly, the two Grand Finalists from last year both sit exactly in the middle of the table below which shows the average age of each list for 2006. It is apparent that Adelaide and St Kilda both have the oldest lists in the competition indicating that they may soon get ‘too old’, so any premiership success must be achieved in the next year or two before each of these clubs has to go through a new rebuilding phase. The numbers may look like they are close but the difference between Adelaide on top and Hawthorn on the bottom is over 500 days for each player on the list. For a list of 40 players that is 20,000 extra days (around 54 years) of experience. That is significant difference.
Age is but one factor among many that guides a team’s fortunes through any particular season. However, having a gander at where your team sits amongst the other teams in terms of age hopefully provides a little perspective about where the club sits now in terms of experience.
May the Stats be With You
FootyGeek
www.footygeek.com |
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Last Updated ( Feb 02, 2006 at 01:22 PM )
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