After two successive Preliminary Final appearances, North is hoping to go one step further in 2016.
The arrival of new recruit Jed Anderson, as well as the retention of the club’s emerging stars means the Roos are in a strong position to continue their improvement.
In the first List Analysis piece, we assess the quality of the club’s roster, based off Champion Data’s ‘quality’ rankings system.
List Quality
Champion Data’s rankings have North ninth in the league for ‘quality’.
Amazingly, at 37 years of age, Brent Harvey is listed in the ‘elite’ bracket, rated in the top 10% in his position as a general forward.
The AFL Prospectus publication highlighted Harvey’s brilliance.
“Of players with 500 or more kicks since 2010 (nearly 350 players qualify), Harvey has the best kick rating. From 1564 kicks, he hit his target 1006 times (64.3%).
“The ‘average’ player would have hit the target 56.7% of the time.”
Todd Goldstein is also considered ‘elite’, after a standout season which saw him earn All-Australian honours and the Syd Barker Medal.
Nick Dal Santo has been classed as ‘above average’, after sitting in the ‘elite’ category last year.
How the numbers are calculated
Elite = Top 10% of position
Above average = Top 35% of position
Average = Middle 30% of position
Below average = Bottom 35% of position
Poor = Bottom 10% of position
? = Less than 10 games in 2014-2015
Further comparison to 2014 shows Ben Cunnington has moved from ‘average’ to ‘above average’; a status seven other Kangaroos can boast.
With only the four games to his name in the past two seasons, Anderson hasn’t been ranked, but has a huge upside, while the likes of Trent Dumont (eight games), Mason Wood (eight games) and the draftees from the past two years are still to make their mark.
North’s highest-ranked
Elite
Brent Harvey (gen forward)
Todd Goldstein (ruck)
Above average
Nick Dal Santo (mid)
Drew Petrie (key forward)
Jarrad Waite (key forward)
Andrew Swallow (mid)
Shaun Higgins (gen forward)
Ben Cunnington (mid)
Jamie Macmillan (gen defender)
How the ratings work
Players accumulate or lose points – either positive or negative – in every passage of play they're involved in.
In the Player Ratings system, each action is given a value depending on effectiveness of a passage of play, the location on the ground that it took place and the distance gained towards goal or away from defensive goal.
A player's contribution is then calculated using scoreboard points – this is known as the Scoreboard Equity.
For example, a player will be given a negative Scoreboard Equity when taking a mark deep in defence because it's more probable that the opposition will score next.
Conversely, when a player takes a mark inside forward 50, the chances of his team scoring next is high, resulting in a positive Scoreboard Equity.
Champion Data's list assessment takes into account the AFL Player Rating points over a two-year period – 75 per cent of weight is taken from 2015 averages of a player and 25 per cent from 2014 averages.
The measure used to assess individual players is based on a combination of AFL Player Rating points and the average AFL Player Rating points of opponents in games played.
