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The Stats Revolution
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 24, 2020
I came for the footy stats story and I came for what turned out, for me, to be an affectionate memoir of the baby boomer generation.
There is a certain feel in this book that is so familiar of my Dad, and it is that emotions and decisions are reasoned through, and presented in the same language. It’s not matter of fact, but the language is processed reflected upon and controlled, so that thinking about inventing ‘hard ball gets’, a marriage break up, or a business deal, all have the same veneer. I think that for this generation it is fair enough that your published words would be sensitive and considered, when I think my generation (born 1982- am I a gen Y??) would want to ‘memoir’ with raw feeling.
There were little details that stuck out for me with this book that gave me the generational view I took of it, things like Ted being in the Australian championship of water skiing at age 15 before going on to kick his 4 goals in the 1970 Grand Final.
There was just this blurring of significance and scale, especially around opportunities that seemed so typical of the 60s and 70s compared to now. For example, I really felt like the water skiing scene must have been under developed, or how these days there would be elite pathways and it would be super hard to get into the open championships because of low access. Ted just made it sound like he rolled up in his boat and got on with it. This isn’t even a main part of the book! Isn’t it weird what gets under your skin.
Among the things that he goes through are losing his VFL career in his early twenties, moving IN to a
Town (Yallourn) as it is being swallowed by a mine expansion, two failed marriages, several excellent small businesses, a long lasting marriage, media career and stats revolution. None of the incidents is played as a ‘massive’ drama but they do add up over the story and you just think, ‘either this guy’s the most amazing, or the most humble guy going!’
In the stats revolution story, it seems like he is a reliable narrator at pains to give credit to different participants in the process of developing statistics for Australian Rules footy, and later sports analytics in Australia. He gets more credibiliy by giving an honest account of people as they become significant parts of the story and then relationships change or sour.
There is a certain feel in this book that is so familiar of my Dad, and it is that emotions and decisions are reasoned through, and presented in the same language. It’s not matter of fact, but the language is processed reflected upon and controlled, so that thinking about inventing ‘hard ball gets’, a marriage break up, or a business deal, all have the same veneer. I think that for this generation it is fair enough that your published words would be sensitive and considered, when I think my generation (born 1982- am I a gen Y??) would want to ‘memoir’ with raw feeling.
There were little details that stuck out for me with this book that gave me the generational view I took of it, things like Ted being in the Australian championship of water skiing at age 15 before going on to kick his 4 goals in the 1970 Grand Final.
There was just this blurring of significance and scale, especially around opportunities that seemed so typical of the 60s and 70s compared to now. For example, I really felt like the water skiing scene must have been under developed, or how these days there would be elite pathways and it would be super hard to get into the open championships because of low access. Ted just made it sound like he rolled up in his boat and got on with it. This isn’t even a main part of the book! Isn’t it weird what gets under your skin.
Among the things that he goes through are losing his VFL career in his early twenties, moving IN to a
Town (Yallourn) as it is being swallowed by a mine expansion, two failed marriages, several excellent small businesses, a long lasting marriage, media career and stats revolution. None of the incidents is played as a ‘massive’ drama but they do add up over the story and you just think, ‘either this guy’s the most amazing, or the most humble guy going!’
In the stats revolution story, it seems like he is a reliable narrator at pains to give credit to different participants in the process of developing statistics for Australian Rules footy, and later sports analytics in Australia. He gets more credibiliy by giving an honest account of people as they become significant parts of the story and then relationships change or sour.
June 23, 2018
Really enjoyed this. Ted has a fascinating story to tell about how Champion Data was created, including many serendipitous moments and quite a few challenges along the way.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews