AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 1 2018

Australian Football League followers: in thinking about the first-ever AFL Women’s season in 2017 you likely have some upbeat memories, but do you remember how well each team performed?

You probably recall that the Adelaide Crows won the inaugural premiership, and that they beat the Brisbane Lions in the Grand Final. But how about Melbourne’s strong ending to the season? How about the Western Bulldogs’ string of close results?

Well, the AFL Women’s Power Rankings are back to remind you roughly where each team is at going into the AFL Women’s second season. Basically, the Power Rankings take each team’s last season worth of games – with more recent games receiving a higher weight – and adjust for the strength of the team’s opponent and home ground advantage. (You can find the details of the Women’s ranking formula here.) For example, last year’s runners-up Brisbane had a tough first-round match up travelling to the reigning premiers Adelaide – if they had been beaten, the rankings would still rate them more highly than the ladder would.

Brisbane was not beaten though – on the contrary, the Lions had an impressive two-goal win against their Grand Final conquerors, and have re-joined the Crows as the highest-rated sides in the league. The Lions also leap-frog Melbourne, with the Demons having to fight for a close victory against last year’s bottom-placed team the GWS Giants.

Actual round one ladder leaders the Western Bulldogs are a touch behind, as while the Bulldogs had a big first-up win it was against the bottom-ranked team, and it doesn’t yet outweigh the fact that they won only two out of seven matches last season. Carlton and Collingwood fill out the middle, while the Giants and Fremantle remain as the lowest-ranked teams.

Not surprisingly there are some other rankings of the AFL Women’s teams out there in the blogosphere. For a breakdown of how the AFLW teams rate in each area of the field, and an approximate rating of every player’s value, visit the HPN website. The FootyMaths Institute also has a team rankings system, along with predictions for every match and a team’s likelihood of finishing in each of the ladder positions. (Are there any other systems out there?)