Flat-Track Bullies in the AFL

In the aftermath of the tedious Richmond v Geelong match, I noticed a number of references to the Cats as ‘flat-track bullies’. Certainly the evidence so far would lend support to that claim; in the three games they’ve won, Geelong has beaten the current bottom three teams by an average of 96 points. Even if you take account of the two games they’ve lost against bottom-eight teams, then they still score on average over 50 points more against teams in the lower half of the ladder.

Time will tell if the Cats keep us this form and claim the ‘flat-track bully’ crown for 2007. Ironically enough, if they do, the team they would be taking over from is… Richmond. The Tigers racked up nine out of their eleven wins over bottom-eight teams last year, scoring on average 21.9 points more than their opposition. In contrast, against top-eight teams, they scored on average 44.2 points less than their opposition – a differential of a whopping 66.1 points.

Does this mean Geelong is doomed to finish ninth this year? We’ll see. In the meantime, here’s the ‘flat-track bully’ ladder for 2006:

Team	Average point differential against bottom eight teams less average point differential against top eight teams: 2006
Richmond	66.1
Collingwood	46.0
Hawthorn	45.6
Bulldogs	44.4
St. Kilda	39.1
Kangaroos	36.4
Adelaide	35.9
Sydney	27.5
Brisbane	23.4
Geelong	23.1
West Coast	21.1
Melbourne	20.5
Port	19.7
Carlton	13.9
Essendon	11.6
Fremantle	5.5