The stats of Australian Rules Football

Australian Rules Football (AFL) isn't what Americans know as football. Nor is it what Europeans know as football (and the rest of the world calls soccer). Nor is it rugby. Here's what AFL looks like:

 

As a unique game in its own right, it deserves its own kind of data analysis, and the blog MAFL online has it covered. The most recent post looks at the number of kicks made by the home and away sides of AFL games over the last dozen years:

A lot of the stories are related to wagers on the game (believe me, Aussies love to bet like no other nation) — here's a statistical analysis of the last digit of the score of the winning side, perfect for a barroom punt. But the stats are solid (generally done with R, naturally), and for Aussie Rules fans are interesting, and often surprising. Check out the archive at the link below.

MAFL: Statistical Analysis (via Neil Saunders)

Comments

[William Chivers]

One small point: "what Europeans know as football (and the rest of the world calls soccer)" - actually the rest of the world calls it football. Football is only "soccer" in Australia and the US. It is certainly "football" in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.

Otherwise, thanks for the post!

[Tony Corke]

Hey David,

Thanks for the link. As you rightly point out, virtually all of the heavy lifting for the matterofstats site is done via R and, now, with ggplot2 around, most of the charting is too.

I hope the site was able to convey just how much fun it is to apply stats and data analytics techniques to AFL football.

Thanks again,

Tony
Owner of the matterofstats website and co-owner of its mascot