Swans player ages versus the rest

[neilfws]

Chart that I left out of my last post: distribution of ages for players who played in 2014.

players2014.png

Black lines in boxes: median age of team. Red line: median age of players from all teams.

I had not realised that the Swans had the second-highest median player age. Most similar to Freo, North, not very different from Carlton, Hawks. All those teams are fairly well-balanced, about as many older players as younger.

The "outliers" are obvious (Harvey and Fletcher for North, Bombers). Also interesting to see the dramatic shift to "younger" for the Cats, Bulldogs.

So we're well-balanced but also at the older end; no cause for alarm yet but will be moving a few out in the near-future. Will be interesting to see how that profile looks in 5 years or so.

[stellation]

That's really interesting, thanks for putting that together Neil. What does the red bar represent? At first glance I assumed it was the range from youngest to oldest, but the bars don't seem to go over 30 and I assume that would need to be inclusive of the outliers?

[neilfws]

What does the red bar represent?

The ends of the red bars are the "quartiles". So the age at the right-hand end means 75% of players are that age or less. The age at the left-hand end means 25% of players are that age or less.

The minimum and maximum ages are either at the ends of the thin black line, or are represented by dots if they are substantially different to everyone else (outliers).

[RogueSwan]

Are these the teams as they are at the end of the 2014 season or is it the teams as they are now using 2014 game data? Does Malceski appear in the Swans or Suns figures?

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...Will be interesting to see how that profile looks in 5 years or so.

I would be interesting to see the Cats circa 2005/6 and the Hawks from a few years ago.

[neilfws]

Are these the teams as they are at the end of the 2014 season or is it the teams as they are now using 2014 game data? Does Malceski appear in the Swans or Suns figures?

It's from 2014 game stats, so teams as they were pre-trade at the end of 2014 season, Malceski in Swans.

[S.S. Bleeder]

Great work Neil. Did you do the chart yourself?

I wouldn't be too concerned by our second lowest ranking. Our median age is only two years ahead of Geelongs and I'd like to think that the quality of our youth is better than that of Cat's, Bulldogs and Saints. Also, our older players (Pyke, Goodes, Richards, McVeigh and Shaw) who would have thrown our median score out (depending on whom they excluded to reach the median as opposed to an average) will be easily replaced (IMO) by our upcoming youth (unlike Hawthorn for example).

[tasmania60]

Agree with ss bleeder think we are managing all position well ,may be high now but next 2 years things will be different and the club do-sent lose anything good recruiting and management !

[neilfws]

Great work Neil. Did you do the chart yourself?
I wouldn't be too concerned by our second lowest ranking

Yeah, it's a nerdy hobby of mine see some of my other posts. Just a note: no-one is excluded to calculate median and it is generally a better measure of distribution than the average, which gets thrown out by outliers.

I agree we are in good shape, with a well-balanced team and plenty of talent rising up the ranks. Plus as you note, the differences are not huge (excluding the expansion teams).