Performance against ranking 140401

Introduction

I am continuing to monitor performance against ranking in three football codes (rugby union, rugby league and Australian Rules).

Performance against ranking

The trends after last week’s games are:

Australian Rules (week 2)

Only Sydney played below their ranking in week 2. They lost to Collingwood at home.
Legend

NRL (week 4)

This season’s NRL ladder is in a state of flux. 2013 rankings have been overturned each of the four week’s of this year’s competition. Last week, 6 teams performed above their 2013 ranking position.

Rugby Union

I have been monitoring four rugby union competitions:

Super 15 (week 7)

Aviva Premiership (week 18)

Greene King (week 23)

Top 14 (week 23)

Discussion

I think the NRL and the French Top 14 competitions raise some interesting questions about the persistence of previous year rankings.
The NRL Ladder after Round 4 is:

The French Top 14 competition is a fascinating example of lower ranking teams winning at home. Last week, the three bottom ranked teams all defeated higher ranked opponents.
My interest in all these competitions is to trigger my attention to Football Departments that appear able to transform performance. A micro-indicator (previous year’s ranking) leads me to a phenomenographic interest in performance change.

Photo Credit

Stade Francais (Eric Jappini, CC BY 2.0)