Matter of Stats

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2022 - Team Ratings After Round 15

We have new number ones on both Systems for the second time in two weeks, as Melbourne’s emphatic defeat of Brisbane Lions has seen them retake that mantle.

Overall, eight teams moved places on MoSSBODS this week, and 12 did the same on MoSHBODS, leaving the two Systems agreeing only about the ranking of the 1st, 4th, 8th through 12th, and 17th and 18th teams. There are only two teams, however, where they differ in their rankings by more than two places: Essendon and GWS.

Eleven teams are now rated as above-average on MoSSBODS, and MoSHBODS,.

Altogether, there were four multiple-spot movers on MoSSBODS, including Brisbane Lions, down 4 spots, GWS down 2 spots, and Collingwood and Adelaide, both up 2 spots. There were also four multiple-spot movers on MoSHBODS, including Brisbane Lions, down 4 spots, Essendon, down 2 spots, and Collingwood and Carlton, both up 2 spots..

The correlation between MoSSBODS and MoSHBODS Combined Ratings remains very high, and now stands at +0.9913. The correlation on defence alone is +0.985 and on offence alone +0.991.

To provide some historical context to the teams’ current Ratings, the chart below shows the Ratings of selected teams from V/AFL history after 15 rounds of their respective seasons.

Melbourne is now the only team rated higher at this point in the season than 50% of the teams in history that subsequently made the Grand Final, while North Melbourne remain amongst the teams with the lowest-ever offensive ratings.

The animation below maps the path that each 2022 team has followed to reach its current Rating.

On the Component Ratings, on offence, we find MoSSBODS now with a Top 3 of Dogs, Dees, and Lions, and MoSHBODS with a Top 3 of Dogs, Lions, and Tigers. On defence we find both Systems with a Top 3 of Dees, Dockers, and Cats.

On MoSSBODS, 9 teams are now rated positively on offence and defence (up 1), 6 are rated negatively on both (no change), none is rated positively on offence but negatively on defence (no change), and 3 are rated negatively on offence but positively on defence (down 1). The correlation between the teams’ MoSSBODS offensive and defensive Ratings now stands at +0.66.

And, finally, to MARS, which re-ranked only five teams this week, swapping Carlton and St Kilda in 9th and 10th, and slipping the Brisbane Lions down two spots into 3rd and elevating Melbourne into 1st and Geelong into 2nd.

MARS now disagrees fairly significantly with the MoS twins about the ranking of most of the best-performing teams, although it does agree that the Dees should be top, and the Cats and Dogs thereabouts.

In terms of groupings, we now have, roughly:

  • Melbourne

  • Brisbane Lions, Geelong, Western Bulldogs and Sydney

  • Richmond and Port Adelaide

  • Fremantle and Carlton

  • St Kilda, Collingwood and Gold Coast

  • GWS

  • Essendon and Hawthorn

  • Adelaide

  • West Coast

  • North Melbourne

Twelve teams are still rated as better-than-average by MARS.

The Rating gap between first and last currently stands at about 88 Rating Points, which is up about 8 Rating Points on last week..

Looking across the rankings of all three Systems and ordering the teams based on the current competition ladder, we still find relatively large differences for a few teams, the largest being for Carlton (and, to a lesser extent, Brisbane Lions), where the team’s ladder positions is well above its System Ranking, and for Western Bulldogs, where the team’s ladder position is well below its System Rankings.

MARS currently has the outright most-extreme ranking for 10 of the teams, MoSSBODS for 6, and MoSHBODS for 5.

MoSSBODS and MoSHBODS agree about the ranking of nine teams, MoSHBODS and MARS about four teams, and MoSSBODS and MARS about five teams.

If we consider the range of rankings that the three Systems have attached to each team, we find that Collingwood (6 spots) has the widest range of rankings, but that the range is just two spots or less for 12 teams.

The three Systems have the same ranking for North Melbourne, Melbourne, and West Coast.