AFL Power Rankings: Round 22 2016

Next round’s post will come after the week off, and will mostly just be a ‘copy-and-drop’. Therefore I am going to bring my usual end-of-season summary forward a week. First, here are the rankings after Round 22.

Second, here are two illustrations of the course of the rankings over the 2016 season. The graph shows the progress of each club from week to week. The table shows each club’s highest, lowest, median, and average ranking in 2016, as well as the variation in its ranking over the season.

Main observations:

·       Compared to past seasons there was a lot of movement at the top. Six clubs held the number one ranking at some point in 2016 – Adelaide, Geelong, GWS, Hawthorn, Sydney, and West Coast. That aside Adelaide was the best team of 2016 according to the rankings, as it held that number one position for clearly the most number of weeks (11), followed by Hawthorn (4), Sydney (3), West Coast (2), and Geelong and GWS (1).

·       The bottom spot was largely held by two clubs – Essendon and Brisbane. Essendon held the bottom spot for 9 weeks, and Brisbane for 8 weeks, with Carlton (3) and Gold Coast (2) the other clubs to be ranked last.

·       GWS had the biggest rise over the season, gaining 38.5 ranking points and rising from twelfth to third. Other big improvers were Melbourne (+24.3), and – against expectations – Adelaide (+22.0).

·       Richmond had the biggest fall over the season, losing 36.2 ranking points and falling from third to thirteenth. The other big drops were by Fremantle (-31.0), Hawthorn (-22.5), and Brisbane (-20.9).

·       Port Adelaide and North Melbourne were the most ‘average’ clubs of 2016. Port had a median position of ninth, and stayed between sixth and tenth. North Melbourne had a median position of eighth, and stayed between sixth and ninth.

Ladder aside this is pretty much the status of clubs according to the rankings over the course of 2016:

Very top: Adelaide, Sydney.

Almost at top: West Coast, Hawthorn, GWS, Geelong.
Average or just above: Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide.
Below average: Richmond, Melbourne, Collingwood, Fremantle, St. Kilda.
Step above bottom: Carlton, Gold Coast.
Bottom: Brisbane, Essendon.  

I’ll do my finals predictions next week, and then a wrap-up after the finals. Enjoy what is shaping up to be an interesting September!