Ratings Ladder 2012
Ratings Ladder 2012 (added 26 Jan 2013)
The following simple table rates each team’s performance throughout the season by giving each team a score out of 6 for every game played. The end result is that the final score given removes the bias (as much as possible) which is created by not playing every team twice.
So, for example, a team may score 5 out of 6 for a 4 goal win over Collingwood at the MCG (a higher score for a non-Victorian team doing this due to the travel factor), but only 2.5 out of 6 for a 4 goal home win over the Suns. Having said that, how does one compare a 6 out of 6 for totally flogging the Giants at home versus the same score for travelling interstate and downing a top 4 team?
In essence (and in a perfect world), the ratings ladder gives a true reading of how well each team played. It is not perfect, of course. It doesn’t take into account the amount of luck a team has by playing other teams that are either down and out or fit and flying at various times of the year.
The best example of this is the Dogs. They were competitive in the first half of the year but fell away severely thereafter. But the rating given doesn’t take into account big form slumps by the opposition. Similarly, the Tigers were one fir from rounds 2 – 10. In this period they soundly disposed of both eventual 2012 Grand Finalists. In the second half of the season, they lost to the Suns and finished with a home ground draw against the lowly Port Adelaide.
The system does not take into account how difficult a season was in terms of travel, short breaks, the pattern of who plays who after byes etc.
Although the system is not perfect, it gives a slightly better guide than the ladder. Those teams who finished higher in the ratings ladder than the actual ladder were:
Eagles – 5th at year’s end, but 3rd on the ratings ladder
Saints – 9th after 23 rounds, but 5th on the ratings ladder
Tigers – 12th on the ladder last year (although a win over Port would have put them in 10th spot), but 10th on the ratings ladder
The teams to do worse on the ratings ladder were:
Adelaide – 2nd at the end of home and away, but 4th on the ratings lists
Collingwood – 4th at the end of 23 rounds, but 6th on the ratings ladder
Cats – 6th before the finals, but 8th on the ratings ladder
Roos – 8th at the season’s end, but 11th on the ratings table.
When you are looking at how easy the 2013 draw is for a particular team, one should also consider the REAL performance of that team in 2012. This ratings ladder gives you a better guide as a starting point.
Here is the real ladder. Of little consolation is that the Hawks were clearly the best team in 2012 by this method of analysis. And the final 6 places on each ladder are identical.
POS TM AVERAGE RATINGS ENTIRE SEASON
1 HA 4.8
2 SY 4.5
3 WC 4.4
4 AD 4.3
5 ST 4.2
6 CO 4.1
7 FR 4.1
8 GE 4
9 CA 3.8
10 RI 3.8
11 NO 3.6
12 ES 3.5
13 BR 3.3
14 PO 2.7
15 WB 2.3
16 ME 2.2
17 GC 1.9
18 GW 1.3