Champion Data’s AFL analyst Daniel Hoyne has revealed aspects of the system behind how the statistics juggernaut judge AFL players.
The analytics business is behind the statistics used across the AFL and has come under fire for their annual release of player ratings for 2022.
There were a number of strange selections in their ‘elite’ category, Kane Cornes questioning how Jeremy Finlayson, Dylan Moore, Adam Saad, Zac Williams and Aaron Hall could be rated so highly.
Hoyne spoke to Sportsday WA to shed light on how the ratings are calibrated, highlighting “three key areas” on how players are judged.
“These ratings are based off the official AFL player ratings,” he said.
“Basically, they take into account three key areas of the game. The first being how you win the ball, the second being where on the ground you win the ball, and then the third being how you actually use the ball.
“So players that win the ball in a contest, in a damaging area of the ground and then use it well are going to be rated really high in the system.
“Players that are really accurate in front of goal are going to be rated really high in the system as well.
“The ratings judge inaccuracy harshly, and if you’re accurate, like a Jeremy Finlayson, you get rated favourably.”
Hoyne agreed that a number of inclusions in the ‘elite’ category have been viewed controversially, including that of Finlayson’s. However, he believes there will always be outliers because the system isn’t perfect.
“A couple in that small forward bracket have created a fair bit of conversation in Victoria, one of them being Sam Switkowski… but the other was Dylan Moore, for Hawthorn.
“He’s another young small forward who rated himself in that elite bracket probably caught a few people by surprise.
“There’s a few questionable ones, Jeremy Finalyson for example as to why he’s categorized as he has been, which a lot of people don’t agree with, which is absolutely fair enough.
“We don’t agree with all of those ratings, but there’s no perfect formula or perfect system.”
Switkowski averaged 12 disposals and under a goal a game in 2021, while Moore averaged 15 disposals and kicked 27 goals in 20 matches.
Hoyne also revealed West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui had been rated the best in the game by the system by a decent stretch.
Naitanui managed to play every game in 2022 for the Eagles, averaging 31 hitouts, 15 disposals and seven clearances.
“Overall, we compare position to position, but if you’re looking across the whole competition, we had ‘Nic Nat’ as the number one rated player in the competition last year, and by some margin as well,” Hoyne continued.
“If you look at what he does, he wins more contested possession than any other ruckman in the competition, he wins a lot more clearances than any other ruckman in the competition.
“While he doesn’t kick the goals, in terms of his ability to create them and generate scores from his ruck work, there’s no one else in the competition that compares to him.
“It gets back to the impact, that’s what the ratings are trying to measure, and there’s no player in the competition who has a greater impact than what he does on the ground.”
Naitanui averaged just 68 per cent time on ground last year, making last year’s numbers even more remarkable.