Our youngest side ever???

[FlyingCrow]

Is this week the youngest 22 our side has ever fielded??

It may not be on average, with a few older guys pushing that up. However we do have 7 players u/21 playing (Schmidt turned 21 March).

 

[Vader]

Probably not even going to be the youngest team we've fielded this year.

Last week we fielded our oldest team of the season, at an average of 26.1 years. Drop Burton (32) and Johncock (27), replace with Walker (20) and Dangermouse (20) and the team is 19 years younger overall - or 0.9 years on average, thus our average age this round should be about 25.2. Our R1 team was the same age, or fairly close to it.

The youngest Adelaide teams I can find (using http://afl.allthestats.com/statistics/avgage.php as my source) are:
23.5 in R3 & R4 1997
23.8 in R1 2001 and R13 1993
23.9 in R2 2001 and R1 1997

Our teams have been fairly consistently in the 25.0-27.0 bracket since 2002, very rarely going under 25.0 in that time.

Not surprisingly, our average ages have shown a distinct dip in the years where we've been disappointingly bad - 1999 and 2004 in particular. 2001 is the exception to this rule.

Blight's cleanout resulted in our youngest season (1997), when the oldest team we fielded all year averaged just 25.1 years. Our Grand Final team averaged just 24.8 years.

** I've now hit the limit of 20 page downloads, so I haven't verified the ages of the 1991 & 1992 teams. I would be surprised if these had any unusually young teams, given the age of the players in our inaugural squad.

 

[marvin]

The youngest Adelaide teams I can find (using http://afl.allthestats.com/statistics/avgage.php as my source) are:
23.5 in R3 & R4 1997
23.8 in R1 2001 and R13 1993
23.9 in R2 2001 and R1 1997

** I've now hit the limit of 20 page downloads, so I haven't verified the ages of the 1991 & 1992 teams. I would be surprised if these had any unusually young teams, given the age of the players in our inaugural squad.

Youngest I can find in 1991/92 was 23.8 years in 1992 against Geelong in R8.
Match Stats here.

5 players under 21. We got flogged by 20 goals. I was there - it wasn't pretty

 

[FlyingCrow]

I understand, on average not the youngest team. We a few over 30s pushing that average up.

But on number of (US drinking age) u/21 players? Players that are still developing phsically.

Not a bad thing, a sign that we have done well to rebuild, but stay competitive, apart from this year.

A lot of these guys would be best 22 if not now, in a years time. The experience they are getting now is invaluable.

In two seasons time Scott Stevens will be our oldest player, just nudging 30.

 

[Vader]

I understand, on average not the youngest team. We a few over 30s pushing that average up.

But on number of (US drinking age) u/21 players? Players that are still developing phsically.

Not a bad thing, a sign that we have done well to rebuild, but stay competitive, apart from this year.

A lot of these guys would be best 22 if not now, in a years time. The experience they are getting now is invaluable.

In two seasons time Scott Stevens will be our oldest player, just nudging 30.

That I'm not going to bother looking up, but even then I doubt it.

We only have 5 players selected this week who couldn't (legally) buy a drink in the US - Walker, Dangermouse, Petrenko, Cook & Davis. Without looking it up, I'd say our R1 team last year probably had more - noting that Petrenko, Cook and Walker all made their debuts, with Dangermouse, Otten and Mackay also in the side. There are probably games we've played with even more U21 players - and the place to start looking would be the 1997 season.

BTW, I'd say it's a 50-50 bet that Stevens might even be our oldest player as soon as next year.

 

[Dangarman]

Youngest I can find with a quick flick back to 2001 is R1 that year vs Sydney.
That was 23 yrs 310 days.

7 under 21's, Gallagher, Ladhams, McGregor, Shirley, Stenglein, Matthew Shir, and Skipworth.

Lost that game by 9 goals.

Last week av age was 26yrs and 37 days.

This week we have Walker in for Burton, about 13 yrs younger, and Danger in for Johncock, about 8 years younger. That adds up to 21 years, which will take almost a full year off last weeks average age with just 2 players changing! I think that will be the youngest side this year. There will be 6 players under 21 (Walker, Danger, Cook, Jaensch, Petrenko and Davis), and Chris Schmidt at 21y/56d.

 

[Moonwatcher]

12 of the round 8 side could not buy a drink in Delhi

 

[Dangarman]

With Thompson out (27) and Armstrong in (20 1/2) takes 6.5/22 = 0.3 off the average age for this week again.

Will now be the youngest side played this year, average age will be under 25.

That takes it up to 7 under 21's:
Walker, Danger, Cook, Jaensch, Petrenko and Davis and now Armstrong.

So it must be close to equal the most U21's ever (for the Crows)

But for what it's worth, I thought the side before Thompson was ruled out was the strongest we'd named all year.

I expect this side will be under a lot of selection pressure, with Knights, Mackay, Symes, Sloane, Johncock, Griffin, Gunston and hopefully Thompson all pushing to make a case for selection against the Lions.

I think Craig said Symes will play next week, and I imagine Stiffy, DMAC and Knighta (and Thompson?) would be automatic selections if fit.

Hopefully every player will play like their spot is up for grabs, because there could well be a lot of side turnover next week. If you had five "first 22" players coming back the same week, would you drop 5 passengers and bring them all back at once, or would you phase the return to maintain some stability?

I wonder what the youngest average age to record a win is?

 

[Scottroo]

Should be a sign of things to come, two young teams going at it, our average age tommorow is 23.18

 

[Vader]

I expect this side will be under a lot of selection pressure, with Knights, Mackay, Symes, Sloane, Johncock, Griffin, Gunston and hopefully Thompson all pushing to make a case for selection against the Lions.

Most of those will have to come back through the SANFL. They've been gone for a long time and won't have any match fitness. Knights, Mackay and Symes in particular will all need to play SANFL footy before returning to the AFL.

 

[subaru]

Isn't this the type of thing you use a "mean" or median or something for ?
Vague recollection from school.....really vague

 

[Vader]

The figures on the site I quoted before are "mean" figures. The "median" is the figure in the middle of the group - in this case it would be the age of the 11th or 12th oldest player in the group.

 

[Archie87]

Isn't this the type of thing you use a "mean" or median or something for ?
Vague recollection from school.....really vague

I think with the average age of a list the "median" age is probably a better indication as the "mean" is far to heavily skewed by the older guys. I'll try and have a crack at the median age/games if I can find all the info.

 

[Crow-mo]

I think with the average age of a list the "median" age is probably a better indication as the "mean" is far to heavily skewed by the older guys. I'll try and have a crack at the median age/games if I can find all the info.

with a sample size that small, and the distribution, I don't think median is appropriate or tells us anything.

 

[Archie87]

with a sample size that small, and the distribution, I don't think median is appropriate or tells us anything.

Yeah point taken... there's strengths and weaknesses with all three types of getting an "average" but for what it's worth, our median games played for tomorrows game is (and my maths may be wrong here but I'm fairly sure) 62.5 games.

Edit: I've also calculated our median age this week as being around 24.05 years years or thereabouts... but as Crow-mo said, it does have its weaknesses so make of it what you will

 

[Pariah]

It's a sign of things to come. I think we should rotate our inexperienced players like Port are doing with Trengrove and Lobbe. So we can get as many games into our younger players as possible in preparation for life with out our veterans to make the transition run smoother.