Footballistics

by James Coventry

How the Data Analytics Revolution is Uncovering Footy's Hidden Truths' Footballistics is more than just good writing. The nature of football continually changes, which means its analysis must also keep pace. This book is for students, thinkers, and theorists of the game.'Ted Hopkins - Carlton premiership player, author, and co-founder of Champion Data.Australian Rules football has been described as the most data-rich sport on Earth. Every time and everywhere an AFL side takes to the field, it is shadowed by an army of statisticians and number crunchers. The information they gather has become the sport's new language and currency. ABC journalist James Coventry, author of the acclaimed Time and Space, has joined forces with a group of razor-sharp analysts to decipher the data, and to use it to question some of football's long-held truisms. Do umpires really favour the home side? Has goal kicking accuracy deteriorated? Is Geelong the true master of the draft? Are blonds unfairly favoured in Brownlow medal voting? And are Victorians the most passionate fans? Through a blend of entertaining storytelling and expert analysis, this book will answer more questions about footy than you ever thought to ask.Praise for Time and Space :'Brilliant, masterful' - The Guardian'Arguably one of the most important books yet written on Australian Rules football.' - Inside History'Should find its way into the hands of every coach.' - AFL Record

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2018

Reviews

[Geoff Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best AFL Statistics book ever!

[James Dang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Footballistics explores a lot of the burning questions by fans and pundits but places a spin on it by offering well nuanced statistical analysis rather than run of the mill expert opinion by past players or simple stats. No doubt this book is suited to readers who are logical thinkers and is very focused on tables, graphs and analysis so it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The book is split up into 3 broad themes - in match statistical analysis i.e. goal kicking, scoring, home and away advantages, post season analysis i.e. draft, trades, awards and finally peripheral football issues such as team ratings, fans and finance. Of course not everything can be answered by statistics alone and the author often acknowledges some limitations in findings and does not offer concrete conclusions however broad inferences can be made and the book offers an excellent insight into the information coaching staff often have available and use. Rating 5/5

[Rob Lloyd-jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read that demystifies the game and some common concepts also thrown in other sports. A great use of data and explanation of how the data crunching is done. As ever, it is somewhat ironically limited by it's focus on data but does throw in some anecdotes and other factors that have an impact on the game. For someone who knew little about AFL I learnt a lot from this book so a nice read!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stats heavy, the way I thought I liked it.

Turns out I enjoy the stories more - chapters on the draft + trading a clear highlight.

3/5 - Vicbias

[Aidyb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into common tropes of the AFL

[Daniel Ventura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy reading if interested, although some chapters did seem a little less relevant than others but were given equal weighting