PLAYER related charts on this page

This page contains charts based on player data extracted from the www.afltables.com website using the R fitzRoy() package.

Birthdates

Count by Day

This chart shows the number of V/AFL players born on every day of the year for all players who debuted in 2024 or earlier.

First and Most Recent Year

This chart shows the first and last years for players with a given birthday

Count by Year

Now the number of V/AFL players born in each year

A few interesting observations:

  • Early calendar years are better represented than later ones. The three most well-represented years are 1914 (139 players), 1909 (137 players), and 1908 (134).

  • The 1970 to 1979 period was particularly lean, with fewer than 75 players being born in 1975 (68), 1979 (71), and 1971 (74).

  • 1985 produced only 59 players, the lowest since the 45 of 1873 (excluding 2004 and 2005, which are likely to produce more debutants in future years

Age on Debut

Average Debut Age by Season

This chart reveals the average age of debutants in every season from 1897 to 2024

Since about 2010 (with the exception of 2015), average age at debut has drifted up to around the levels seen in the late 1950s and 60s.


Average Debut Age by Team by Era

Next we look at average debut age by season by team

There don’t appear to be any major differences across teams in debut age.