Team Scoring Records in Last 50 Games

Points For and Against

Here we're looking to understand scoring trends in terms of points scored and points conceded for every team across history.

The overall trends in scoring across history are the most obvious macro features of the chart.

Individual features stand out for some particular teams, such as:

  • The increasing competitiveness of the Brisbane Bears before their disappearance/merger

  • Hawthorn's high rate of scoring through the 1980s

  • Melbourne's, St Kilda's, and the Western Bulldogs’ leaky defences through the 1980s, and Sydney/Sth Melbourne's through the early 1990s

The chart below focusses on the period from 2000 onwards and highlights recent trends.

Here we see

  • The general decline in scoring leading into COVID, and the recovery by most teams afterwards

  • The improvement in the Lions’ defence

  • The decline in the Eagles’ and Tigers’ defence

  • The improvement in Richmond's defence in recent years


Own Goals and Behinds

Next, we look at teams' goal-kicking records, separately charting goals scored per game and behinds scored per game over the last 50 matches.

Here too, the overall trends in scoring across history are the most obvious macro features of the chart, most notably the steep increase in scoring in the early parts of the competition.

We can also see the point at which, for each team, goals tended to be more numerous than behinds (ie the black line rises above the red), this generally occurring sometime in the 1970s or 1980s for most teams that were around at that time.

Again, we focus on the period from 2000 onwards to highlight recent trends.

We see that most teams have maintained conversion rates above 50% for most if not all of the period charted.


Own and Opponent Conversion

Now we combine the goals and behinds data to calculate goal-kicking conversion as goals scored as a proportion of scoring shots. We look at this again on a team-by-team basis and averaged over the last 50 matches. We chart each team's conversion rate and that of the opponents they've faced.

Looking across the results for each team, a general, long-term increase in accuracy is apparent for most. 

And, again, we focus on the period from 2000 onwards to emphasise recent trends

Some notable features here are:

  • The recent steep increases in:

    • Own conversion for: Adelaide, Brisbane Lions, Fremantle, Gold Coast, GWS, North Melbourne, Sydney/Sth Melbourne

    • Opponent conversion for: Geelong, Gold Coast

  • The recent steep declines:

    • Own conversion for: Brisbane Lions, Richmond, West Coast

    • Opponent conversion for: Adelaide, Collingwood, GWS, Melbourne