voicefromthehill
Bencher
On this site there is regular debate on the merits of a youth policy vs age when it comes to Rugby League teams. So being a bit of a nerd, and having some free time while I ran the worlds biggest macro I thought why not look at the last 14 years GF winning teams and see the teams that they fielded. Some interesting info (if you are that way inclined)
Basis, I took the age of the player in the GF team on GF day
Youngest player - 17 (Israel Folau)
Oldest - 34 (Beaver)
Avg Age - 24years, 12months 4 days (or 25 if you will)
Median Age - 25
From that you can make an inference, being that the ultimate age for a premiership winning player is 25.
Now to give you the breakup of the ultimate GF squad based on age distribution of all GF winning teams - taking the ratio of representation over the last 14 years
17-20 - 2 players
21-23 - 5 players
24-26 - 5 players
27-29 - 3 players
30+ 2 players
What does that tell you, what many of us have assumed - you need a good representation across age brackets, but a weighting towards the more mature (24 +).
Now all we need to do is find the best players to fill my newly discovered age bracket cap and we have a winning squad.
Basis, I took the age of the player in the GF team on GF day
Youngest player - 17 (Israel Folau)
Oldest - 34 (Beaver)
Avg Age - 24years, 12months 4 days (or 25 if you will)
Median Age - 25
From that you can make an inference, being that the ultimate age for a premiership winning player is 25.
Now to give you the breakup of the ultimate GF squad based on age distribution of all GF winning teams - taking the ratio of representation over the last 14 years
17-20 - 2 players
21-23 - 5 players
24-26 - 5 players
27-29 - 3 players
30+ 2 players
What does that tell you, what many of us have assumed - you need a good representation across age brackets, but a weighting towards the more mature (24 +).
Now all we need to do is find the best players to fill my newly discovered age bracket cap and we have a winning squad.