Introduction
The 2014 AFL, NRL and SRU football competitions are at different stages in their competition cycle. I have been monitoring teams’ progress in each competition against previous year’s ranking.
AFL
After six Rounds, this year’s pattern of performance against previous year’s ranking is:
Geelong and Fremantle were the two teams to play below their 2013 ranking in this Round. They were defeated by Port Adelaide and North Melbourne respectively. Fremantle were defeated at home.
Carlton overcame the largest end of third quarter deficit this season, 14 points, to defeat West Coast. North Melbourne were able to overcome a 3 point end of third quarter deficit to defeat Fremantle.
Round 6 was a low scoring Round. The average profile of total points scored by winners and losers up to and including Round 6 is:
NRL
After a turbulent start to the season, there was some stability around performance against 2013 Ranking. The Storm were the only higher ranked team to lose in this Round. They were defeated by the Warriors at home.
SRU
After a relatively stable season of performance against 2013 Ranking, week 11 of the Super Rugby competition was very volatile. Only the Cheetahs performed to their ranking in their defeat of the Stormers. It was the Cheetahs first win since Round 2. The performance of the Round was the Highlanders’ defeat of the Sharks in Durban.
Notating Performance
My record of winning and losing uses a basic notation.
My aim is to have a visual scan of performance. Week 11 of SRU makes for interesting viewing in this context. I hope that my notation gives a sense of trend against which to compare any performance. This week, Fremantle, the Storm and the Sharks all lost at home to lower ranked teams. Such defeats tend to make supporters nervous. Carlton’s comeback at home against West Coast gave their supporters a significant boost after early season defeats.
This is their season to date:
Photo Credit
Pastels (verdienter Kunstler, CC BY-NC 2.0)
