Introduction
This is a seventeenth post about performance against ranking in three football codes in Australia.
The codes are Australian Rules, Rugby League and Rugby Union
You can find some background information about this project here.
Australian Rules
As with Round 16, four of the nine games played in Week 17 did not follow 2012 rankings. The Gold Coast, Port Adelaide, Richmond and Carlton played above their rankings (defeating Collingwood, St Kilda, Fremantle and North Melbourne respectively.) Adelaide’s victory over Geelong confirmed the 2012 ranking rather than current form. In doing so, Adelaide overcame an end of third quarter deficit of 14 points. It was the third time this season that Adelaide has overcome an end of third quarter deficit. It is the third time Geelong has been leading at the end of the third quarter and lost.
Average cumulative season and Round 17 profiles for winners were:
Only Round 13 has had a lower winning average than Round 17 (98 points).
For losers:
This is the first time since Round 5 that losers have averaged more than 80 points in a Round. There were three games this week with a margin of less than one goal. North Melbourne scored above the Round winning average but lost to Carlton by one point. Adelaide defeated Geelong by two points. Port Adelaide defeated St Kilda by five points.
Rugby League
There were six games in Round 19 of this year’s competition. (The Bulldogs, Storm, Cowboys and Broncos had byes.)
Three of the games did not follow 2012 rankings. The Dragons won away at the Rabbitohs to secure their first win since Round 14 and to inflict the Rabbitohs’ first defeat since Round 11. The Warriors defeated the Tigers away from home. This was the Warriors third away win against higher ranked opponents this season and their sixth win in seven games. The Roosters kept the Sharks scoreless in their win. This was their fourth consecutive win against higher ranked opponents.
Rugby Union
It was the week of the Playoffs in Super 15. Both games were won by the higher ranked 2012 teams (Crusaders and Brumbies). Both teams played their games at home (defeating the Reds and the Cheetahs respectively). The remaining teams in the Competition were ranked second (Chiefs), third (Crusaders), fourth (Bulls) and seventh (Brumbies) in 2012.
Photo Credit
Surprise Result (Doug Kerr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
