Champion Data have released their 2020 list rankings and we have many, many questions

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-champion-data-list-ratings-explained-geelong-defence-ranked-16th-how-champion-data-numbers-work/news-story/6f397a59bdb38943f5bf844b76789421 The explanation is simple - champion data is data rates which team has the best super coach defence and has no basis in actually how the game works. My favourite line is "This doesn’t mean the Cats are wrong, nor does it mean the Champion Data system is wrong. The latter is just focused on measuring something different." and that something different is completely irrelevant to the real world. Its a bit like asking who is richer and 1 system calculates who has the most money and the other calculates who has the most buttons - neither are wrong as long as you are willing to accept that buttons are a legitimate measure of wealth.

'Facts are stubborn things, statistics are more pliable' . . . Mark Twain

Without any explanation of the underlying calculations there is no way to know what it actually represents. It's totally meaningless and subject to so much speculation.

Exactly, like a tackle only counts as a tackle if it results in a free kick for holding the ball or a stoppage. All those tackles where it's play on, the ball spills free, or the tackled player handballs away in the nick of time to an empty ground are not counted as tackles, even though without the "attempted" tackle taking place, the outcome of the contest would have a marked difference in the game.

People use statistics as a drunk uses a lamppost — for support rather than illumination — Andrew Lang / A. E. Housman

Same, some of their stats are so specific they're virtually meaningless to all but the coaches.

And we have the best player

It also points towards the difficulty of defining the team's defenders by opposition scoring and the team's forwards by their own scoring. As others have pointed out, there's much more that goes into those evaluations, even before getting into the idiosyncracies of the age of a list, injuries, a team's structure on off/def, and so forth.

I'm going to "defend" Champion Data a wee bit. Just for contrast... . . . Their week-to-week stuff has always seemed to be relatively accurate, at least in ranking players on their relative performances in each round. (If anyone can make something useful out of "metres gained", though, I'd love to hear it.) But the fact that all that's released here are these vague over-arching categories of the three regions in relative rankings only, combined in an undescribed manner, tells me they knew they had nothing concrete to share and simply released this for a conversation starter. . . . . I went back and compared last year's "predictive rankings" with reality and your collective memories were spot on - they were no more accurate than XI's randomized forecasts are: Melbourne 1st, Adelaide 2nd; Brisbane 10th, West Coast 11th. So ignore the results this year, too, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water. This use of their data is worth the value of Donald Trump's makeup, but the in-season data they produce does occasionally have its uses.

Dominated scoring by beating up on weak teams in the second half of the year.

I'd rather be embarrassed in a grand final (where they didn't have Ward or Coniglio) than in an elimination final...!

Technically speaking, GWS were embarrassed in a grand final, whereas Essendon weren't... so there's that

I think that's the point with them isn't it; player vs player stats... I'm guessing the Champion Data stuff's intended audience is the fantasy football people and not for the regular fans of the game who are keen to see how their team compare to the rest of the comp

Ryan Buckland is a West Aussie. His dad and uncle were very good cricketers at Thornlie.

Outstanding article too. Funny that it is published as soon as I call for his return. I'll try to stay humble.

Are you concerned a third team would be WA's second best side? A distinct possibility.

champion data has got it wrong.

We have the league's best key forward, so :thumbup:

The other insult is the 12th best forward line. Easily top 4.

Only a rather silly Victorian would suggest a third WA team. Absolute rubbish at best.