AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 7 2019

For a good team the Fremantle Dockers have had relatively few disposals this season. Helped by the long-awaited debut of Kiara Bowers though, they have still won the ‘battle of the midfield’ – by kicking long and putting the pressure on.

In AFLW the good teams generally tend to have more disposals. One exception is this season’s second-best performed team the Fremantle Dockers, who rank eighth for disposals. The Dockers have been very effective with the disposals they’ve had. They lead the league in both points per disposal (0.27), and inside 50s per disposal (0.18), at rates that are even better than league powerhouse Adelaide (see chart below).

Conversely, the Dockers have conceded 0.18 points per disposals, and 0.12 inside 50s per disposal. While that in itself is not remarkable, their own effectiveness when in possession means they have a very good inside 50 differential, despite getting a lower number of disposals than their opponents. In effect, they are winning the ‘battle of the midfield’ by more often getting the ball into their attack, even if they are not getting a high disposal count.

One thing that has helped them to contain opposition movement, including through the midfield, is their tackling. Fremantle leads the league in tackles, and this year they added one massive weapon in terms of pressuring their opponents.

Kiara Bowers – Best and Fairest?

Kiara Bowers was selected as a ‘marquee player’ by Fremantle for its inaugural AFLW season, but unfortunately missed the first two seasons with a knee injury. This year she finally made her debut and played a full season, and she has been a major reason why the Dockers have climbed up the ladder in 2019. According to Champion Data’s player rankings, Bowers had been the best-performed player this year as of Round 6, and she has to been given strong consideration (alongside Adelaide’s Erin Phillips) for the AFLW best and fairest award.

Bowers’ statistics mirror, and help explain, her team’s statistics, in that she is very good at gaining territory when she has the ball. This year the league leaders in metres gained are two of the leading disposals getters – Phillips, and Melbourne’s Karen Paxman – and defender Ash Brazill. Bowers ranks ‘only’ eleventh in disposals, but sixth in metres gained.

Although Bowers is one of the league’s leading contested possession winners, her metres per disposal and especially her kick-to-handball ratio resemble those of an ‘outside’ midfielder or rebounding defender (see table below). Phillips and Paxman rank highly in terms of metres per disposal for ‘inside’ midfielders as well, though they handball more often than Bowers does. Being able to win the ball and gain ground is a fantastic combination to have, as shown by Patrick Dangerfield and Dustin Martin in the men’s league.

Another part of what makes Bowers so important to Fremantle is her tackling. She has averaged an astounding 12 tackles per match in 2019, easily the league leader. Adelaide’s Ebony Marinoff – once considered the ‘gold standard’ for applying pressure – has averaged just over 8 tackles per match. With Bowers in the middle the Dockers have been sweeping the ball forward when they win it, and putting the clamps on their opponents going the other way.

I suspect that Erin Phillips will end up winning the AFLW best and fairest this year. Phillips’ ‘extra feature’, which is her goal-kicking, is probably more noticeable than Bowers’ defensive pressure. I can’t really quibble if the votes go to Phillips, but Bowers would also be a highly deserving winner.

Predictions for the finals: can anyone stop Adelaide?

Fremantle have had a very impressive season. They are still going to have a tough time beating Adelaide, who look even more like ‘the strongest AFLW team ever’ (note: in three seasons) than they did two weeks ago. The Crows smashed a good team in Melbourne by ten goals on the weekend, and one shudders to think what they may do to lowly-ranked Geelong at home in the finals this week.

I think the Dockers easily account for Carlton next week to make it into the Grand Final. It will be an upset of mammoth proportions if they can stop Phillips, Marinoff, and the Crows from claiming their second AFLW premiership. At least in Bowers and Dana Hooker they have two players that are as good a chance as anyone of matching Adelaide ‘in the coalface’.

And here’s the predictions for AFL (Men’s): Round 1…

AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 6 2019

The AFLW’s much-maligned conference system at least makes for an interesting final round to the season.

Usually I end each week’s discussion of the rankings with its predictions for the next round. This week I’m going to start with them.

It has been well noted by critics of the AFLW’s conference system that this year the two conferences are very uneven. The four best teams – Adelaide, Fremantle, Melbourne, and North Melbourne – are all in Conference A. As only the top two teams from each conference qualify for the finals, two of those teams will miss out.

It does however mean we have a more interesting set-up for the final round of the home and away season. Without the conference system the final four would almost be set in stone. Instead seven of the ten teams still have some chance of making it through.

Conference A

Top team Adelaide are very likely to go through. The Crows definitely qualify for the finals and finish top of Conference A with a win against Melbourne next week, which the rankings give them a 70 per cent chance of doing. Even if they lose, their percentage advantage over Melbourne gives them about an additional 20 per cent of making the finals. Conversely, Melbourne’s season is very likely to be over next week.

More interest lies in the Fremantle v North Melbourne match. With their big win on the weekend the Dockers have leapfrogged the Kangaroos in the rankings, and at home they are now considered a 67 per cent chance of beating the former premiership favourites. (In the case of a draw the Roos go through.) If the Crows lose the winner of this match will finish on top of Conference A.

Conference B

Last year’s bottom-placed team Carlton is almost certainly going to make the finals now, even if they do not win half their matches. The rankings give them about a 60 per cent chance of beating the Bulldogs next week. A loss is very unlikely to see them out though, as both Geelong has to win and Brisbane has to overcome a fairly significant percentage gap to overtake them. The Blues would still want to win next week though, in order to get a home final rather than a daunting away final against the top team from Conference A.

Geelong only has to win to beat out Brisbane for the other Conference B finals spot. The rankings give them a 65 per cent chance of doing so against the bottom-ranked GWS, even playing away. 

The Cats can still well make the finals with a loss. Brisbane are given only a 35 per cent chance of beating Collingwood at Victoria Park, keeping in mind the Magpies are yet to win a match this season. The Cats are also slightly ahead of the Lions on percentage.

Predicted finish

Conference A: Adelaide, Fremantle, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs.

Conference B: Carlton, Geelong, Brisbane, Collingwood, GWS.

AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 5 2019

The 2017 premiers the Adelaide Crows are B.I.T. (Back. In. Town.)

In 2017, the Adelaide Crows – led by their star trio of Erin Phillips, Chelsea Randall, and Ebony Marinoff – won the first-ever AFLW premiership. In 2018 however the Crows slumped to fifth. Erin Phillips, who was the 2017 AFLW best and fairest, was hampered by injury, missing two matches and spending more time forward when she was on the ground. More generally, Adelaide got less of the ball and got it forward to score less often, falling from second to seventh in average disposals, and from first to fifth in both average points and inside 50s (see table below).

The Crows are back to what they were good at, and much more besides

After a narrow first-up loss to the Bulldogs, where the Crows’ inaccuracy in front of goal cost them, Adelaide has powered through the league. In particular, in their past two weeks they have thrashed fellow finals contenders Fremantle by 42 points and North Melbourne by 35 points.

As they did in 2017, the Crows again rank first for average points, inside 50s, kicks, contested possessions, and marks inside 50 (see table above). The more remarkable aspect of their return to form however is their embrace of the art of handball. Adelaide have more than doubled their average number of handballs from last year, skyrocketing into first place on average handballs and disposals. They also now lead the league in uncontested possessions, after ranking only seventh in the previous two years.

Furthermore, the Crows are winning out in the clearances, and particularly the centre clearances. In general good teams are better at gaining possession through intercepts than through forcing and winning stoppages (think Richmond in the men’s league last year), but Adelaide is turning that guideline on its head. They have been fairly average at intercepts this year, and North Melbourne got nine more intercepts in their game on the weekend. It didn’t matter; the Crows forced the Roos into many more stoppages and blew them apart there instead.

Re-defining roles: The ex-basketballers, and Stevie-Lee

When a team improves this much across several statistical categories, it’s less likely to be down to the improvement of a few individuals. Nevertheless there are some players whose changed contributions are worth highlighting.

Last year Anne Hatchard played just four matches, and averaged the least minutes per game of any Adelaide player. This year she leads the entire league in handballs. By a lot. Hatchard is averaging over 13 handballs, four more per game than the next best player. (Marinoff is fourth, and has more than doubled her handballs per game.)

Another former basketballer Erin Phillips went last year from the best player in the league to merely the best midfielder-forward. This year, fully fit, she has been thrown back into the middle, where she has been a 5-foot-9 battering ram at the centre bounces. Fremantle’s Dana Hooker aside, Phillips has 70 per cent more centre clearances than anyone else. She’s also once again averaging over 20 disposals per game – after averaging just 12 in 2018 – while being among the leading goalkickers.

Speaking of goals, the unlikely leading goalkicker at this stage of the season is Stevie-Lee Thompson, with nine goals. Thompson played as a defender during her first two years, but the switch forward for her has worked wonders, as she has kicked two or more goals in three out of the five games. With her average disposal and mark count it’s not clear she’ll been able to sustain it, but so far it’s helped to make Adelaide’s attack effective again.

What has caused this massive turnaround? Is it the work of new coach Matthew Clarke, himself a proponent of height and handballs? Whatever it is, the Crows are ‘back in town’ and looking like perhaps the strongest team in the competition’s history.

(Just so you know, the rankings aren’t actually saying below that Adelaide is 100 per cent certain to beat GWS next week. Their estimated winning probability is actually 99.6 per cent.)

AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 4 2019

The Western Bulldogs partially built their success last year on racking up effective disposals. This year, they have not been racking up as many disposals nor have they been as effective.

Last year’s AFLW premiers the Western Bulldogs are struggling. They have won two out of their four matches, but their percentage is only 67.4. Two weeks ago they were beaten by 31 points by ladder leaders North Melbourne. Much more surprisingly they were beaten by 32 points this week at home by the Brisbane Lions – last year’s runners-up who had seemed to be struggling themselves.

Disposals are still a good indicator of success in AFLW

Once upon a time in the men’s version of Australian Rules, you could usually tell who the good teams were by how many disposals they got. This has become less clear over the past two decades as teams have found ways to win with a variety of styles.

In the women’s game though the rule of thumb of a greater number of disposals bringing a greater amount of success still holds up pretty well. Last year, the four teams that scored more points than they conceded were Brisbane, Melbourne, Collingwood, and the Bulldogs, and those teams ranked first to fourth in average disposals per game (see graphs below). This year the three teams with the highest percentages, and the top three teams on my rankings – North Melbourne, Adelaide, and Melbourne – also lead the league in disposals. The Bulldogs meanwhile have fallen to second-last on the disposals ladder, and it has been reflected in a drop in their performances.

The Bulldogs are getting less uncontested possessions, and their efficiency is suffering

In 2018 the Bulldogs were not only good at getting the ball, but in using it effectively. They ranked second in disposal efficiency at 60.6 per cent, trailing only Collingwood. This year, they are in last spot at 55.9 per cent.

The Magpies and the Bulldogs last year were the only teams to record more uncontested possessions than contested possessions (see graphs below). In 2019 several teams have raised their uncontested to contested possession ratio, and their disposal efficiency is better for it. The Pies and Dogs meanwhile have gone in the opposite direction, and are getting less uncontested possessions – and perhaps as a result are more often missing their targets.

The average number of clangers per game by the Bulldogs has skyrocketed from 32.3 in 2018 to 46.7 this year. Further, their turnover differentials (turnovers less opposition turnovers) over their past three games are +7, +5, and +9. That’s at the kind of levels Carlton and Gold Coast were in the men’s league last year, and it spells death for being able to remain a top-line side.

Missing Emma Kearney, but there’s more going on

Last year’s AFLW best and fairest Emma Kearney was a high-profile departure from the Bulldogs when she joined North Melbourne for this year. Kearney averaged the most disposals in the league last year, and at an excellent efficiency rate of 60.5 per cent (see tables below).

Kearney isn’t the only highly productive player missing from last year’s Bulldogs team however. Jenna Bruton joined Kearney at North Melbourne and ruck Aasta O’Connor went to Geelong, while sadly forward Brooke Lochland is injured. All of these were in the Dogs’ top ten players for effective disposals last year.

Worse for the Bulldogs, their remaining top-line players have seen the quality of their ball use plummet. Major ball-winners Ellie Blackburn, Hannah Scott, and Monique Conti all have about as many clangers in half a season as they did over the entirety of last year (see tables above). Between them they are averaging 11.5 clangers per game, compared to 6.6 last season.

The struggles of their stars however are just symptomatic of the Dogs’ problems as a whole. Nearly everyone on the team is having more trouble with their ball use, at a time when the rest of league is improving in leaps and bounds.

The tips are struggling too

Below are the rankings’ predictions for next week, for what they’re worth. Last week the rankings managed to go 0-for-5 on its tips.

In fairness to the rankings, it did indicate that two of those matches – Geelong v Carlton, and Melbourne v North Melbourne – were 50-50 prospects, and that’s pretty much how they turned out; things just went slightly the ‘wrong’ way. Funnily enough, on my own personal tips I had decided to go the other way on those matches - that’s right, against the rankings’ predictions – giving me at least two winners for the week.

AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 3 2019

This year’s top-ranked AFLW team so far, the Kangaroos, are pulling down the marks close to their goal line.

After three rounds of the 2019 AFLW season new team the Kangaroos are the best-performed team, with three wins and a percentage of 250.8. They have won their first three matches by four goals or more, including an impressive 31-point win against reigning premiers the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

It may seem like the Roos are winning out all over the field, and to an extent they are (they’ve kept their opponents to an average of 20 points). However they only rank fourth in terms of getting the ball inside 50 metres – with just one more than Carlton, who they actually lost the inside 50 count to in their first match.

Where the Kangaroos have outranked teams is the rate at which they score once they get the ball inside 50 metres. They have scored 153 points from 86 inside 50 entries, or 1.77 points per inside 50. That rate is better than any men’s team from last season (though the West Coast Eagles when they had Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling playing was kind of an exception).

The Roos’ forward efficiency has been helped by their prowess at taking marks inside 50. They have taken 26 marks inside 50 from their 86 entries, at a ratio of about 30 per cent. The most potent AFL men’s offence in 2018 – Melbourne’s – had a ratio of less than 25 per cent.

What also matters is where the Kangaroos have been getting those marks inside their forward zone. In this year’s Champion Data AFLW Prospectus, Chloe McMillan noted that the two AFLW premiers so far tended to get more of their scores from kicks close to goal (i.e. less than 15 metres out). A kick for goal from 30 to 40 metres out isn’t really ideal for the kicking range of some AFLW players. Watch the highlights from Friday night’s game, and you’ll see that Courteney Munn didn’t have to roam far from the goal square for any of her four goals, nor generally did the other North players.

The AFLW Kangaroos are really doing what every football team hopes to do – mark the ball deep inside 50 and get an easy set shot close to goal. Next week’s match against Melbourne – who despatched the other of last year’s grand finalists, Brisbane, by almost 40 points on the weekend – could be a belter.

AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 2 2019

The rankings agree – the new AFLW conferences are about as lop-sided as most people think they are.

This year, somewhat controversially, the AFL has split the AFLW teams into two conferences. Ostensibly this is because, following the introduction of two new teams, it is no longer the case that all of the teams will play each other during the course of the season (a decision that was itself controversial). Critics may of course note that all of the teams in the men’s AFL do not play each other the same amount of times, and conferences have not been introduced for that (yet).

Even before the season started some people noted that one conference – Conference A – looked to be stronger than the other. First, all of the odd-placed teams from last year (first, third, etc.) were placed in one conference, and all of the even-placed teams were placed in the other. Second, the stronger of the two new teams – North Melbourne/the Kangaroos – was placed in Conference A. Third, two of the Conference B teams – Brisbane, and particularly Collingwood – were significantly weakened by losing players to the Roos.

After the first two rounds, including the first round of ‘cross-conference’ matches, there is now a spate of commentary about how uneven the conferences appear to be. As noted in The Age:

“Melbourne sit bottom of Conference A with one win and a percentage of 119.1. The Brisbane Lions, with one win but a vastly inferior percentage of 73.4, are atop Conference B.”

And since the top two teams in each conference will play off in the finals:

“It doesn’t take too deep an inspection to see how this is an issue, with an increasing likelihood that mediocre Conference B teams will take finals spots ahead of better Conference A sides.”

Are the two conferences really as uneven as they seem?

It’s probably not just the fixture

Particularly early in the season, the fixture can somewhat mask the ‘true’ strength of teams. Results obviously in part depend upon who you play and where you play them.

It’s not hard to see that it’s probably not just the fixture causing the disparity so far though. Every team in Conference A is well ahead of every team in Conference B following the first round of ‘cross-conference’ matches, and home ground advantage seems unlikely to be large enough to explain the difference. The five Conference A teams beat the five Conference B teams by an average of 20 points on the weekend, and none won by less than 13 points.

The rankings put 46 per cent of their weight on the results of the most recent two matches. Accordingly, Conference A sides now occupy five of the top seven positions in the rankings. Further, the two Conference B sides in the top seven – Brisbane and Collingwood – who as mentioned above were weakened by player movements, are falling faster than anyone.

It may well be that a significant test of the relative strength of the conferences comes in the final cross-conference match of this weekend. If Melbourne, the last-placed team in Conference A, can win away against Brisbane, the first-placed team in Conference B, then the comments that the sixth and seventh ‘best’ teams could get into the finals may gain even more momentum.

AFL WOMEN’S Power Rankings: Round 1 2019

The Kangaroos were impressive in their first match against Carlton. Their big win however may be more about the weakness of the Blues than the strength of one of the AFLW premiership favourites.

Coming into this AFLW season, new club North Melbourne/Tasmania/the Kangaroos were considered to be one of the league’s most formidable teams, on the back of their strong recruiting from other clubs.

They certainly played that way in their first match against Carlton, beating the Blues by 36 points. Many of their top-line recruits – including Emma Kearney and Jenna Bruton from the Western Bulldogs, and the ex-Collingwood quartet of Emma King, Jasmine Garner, Jess Duffin, and Moana Hope – met expectations in their first outing for their new club. Case closed then, right? After that, can anyone stop the Kangaroos this year?

Early last season a six goal win against the Blues – or any team – would certainly be a signal of a strong AFLW side. Indeed, the 12-goal thrashing of Carlton last season by eventual premiers the Bulldogs was possibly the first major sign they were one of the top flag contenders.

The thing is now though is that almost everyone has easily beaten Carlton recently. Carlton has lost its past six matches by an average of 35 points – about the same as North’s winning margin on the weekend – in a league where the average margin has tended to be about half of that amount. Even after adjusting for opposition strength and home ground advantage (see chart below), Carlton’s average adjusted net margin over that span is -29 points. Compared with a league average score of around 30 points the Blues have had 40 points or more scored against them in all of those matches, and have only once got past 22 points themselves.

This is not to take away too much from the Kangaroos’ win, or to deny that they seem to be one of the teams with the strongest chance of winning the premiership. It’s just to say that – unfortunately for the Blues’ players – what the Kangaroos did to Carlton on the weekend has recently been within the reach of most AFLW teams.

The rankings’ tips for Round 2 are below. The prediction for the Collingwood v Melbourne match should be treated with a great deal of caution. As mentioned before on this blog Collingwood finished last season really well, but they lost several of their important players between seasons, particularly to North Melbourne. Their one-point loss to Geelong on the weekend is not in itself enough to drastically change their ranking, but I would be hugely surprised if they are still so highly rated after the next couple of weeks.

The Wooden Finger Is Finally Getting Into the AFL Tipping Business

After almost a decade of my AFL Power Rankings, I’m caving in. (Or I’m expanding my horizons, if you want to look at it that way.)

I created my Power Rankings simply so I could get a better indication of each team’s strength than the ladder was showing me. I’ve never been that interested in using it to publically tip the results of matches. (Privately, I’ve done so for several years in various office football tipping competitions – not that I ever expect it to win the competition.)

But seemingly EVERY other ‘rankings system’ does tips. And it is interesting to see them. So yes, starting this year the Wooden Finger is getting into the AFL tipping ‘business’.

How does it work?

To get the predicted net margin of the home team:

• take the difference between the home team’s and the away team’s ranking points; and
• add on the home ground advantage (if any), where the HGA differs for the men’s and women’s leagues.
  

To get the expected probability that the home teams wins, I am using a standard deviation of 36 points or six goals for the men’s league, and 18 points or three goals for the women’s league. Maybe it should be a bit more, but since I do all of my HGAs in terms of goals, and for my purposes it doesn’t make much difference, I’m going with those.

AFLW Round 1 predictions

Let’s start with my predictions for Round 1 of the new AFLW season, which is kind of nice in that there are less ranking systems that do AFLW tips.

Two notes of caution though, related to the entry of two new teams into the AFLW competition this year. First, the ranking points for the two new teams – Geelong and North Melbourne – are of course not based on any previous matches, but are sort of based on their premiership odds. Second, the entry of those teams has resulted in a fair amount of player movement, particularly from Collingwood to North Melbourne. It may take a couple of weeks for the ranking points to adjust to the ‘new’ strength of each playing group.

So there you go. My heart still lies in ‘explaining’ performance rather than predicting it. Nevertheless I hope these tips add another interesting and informative dimension to the rankings each week.