AFL Heros Math Assignment

BriefThe topic of this maths assignment is on the AFL, many people want to know
how to improve their tipping skills so we are to find out what aspect of the game
might influence winning and losing the most. This may help us to understand AFL
tipping more and improve our tipping skills. Round 5 of the AFL 2010 information
has been provided. Research will be based on the information given and will only
be based on kicks, handballs, marks, tackles and inside 50s. All students will
have a game allocated to them to analyze at the beginning.
What to doPart1Students draw up tables and find the 5 number summary, mean, range, and
interquartile range using their calculators for the game given to them. Box plots
are then drawn up for Kicks, handballs, marks, tackles and inside 50s on graph
paper.
Part2Once tables and box plots are drawn up, information is compared and a
hypothesis is formed to which statistic students believe to be most influential
towards the game.
Part3After making a hypothesis, another table is drawn up with the 5 number
summary, mean, range, and interquartile range using calculators. Box plots are
then drawn for all games on graph paper.
Part4After drawing up all tables and box plots, determine if the statistics are enough to
prove your hypothesis.

Game 1- Western Bulldogs vs. Crows.

KicksIn this game, Western Bulldogs won, this can be easily seen in their kicks as all parts of
the box plot are higher than crows with their most amount of kicks beating Crows
maximum amount of kicks by 7.
HandballsCrows beat Bulldogs in handballs going by maximum amount of handballs. However,
their minimum was lower than Bulldogs and their range was much higher, leading me to
believe that the maximum amount of handballs may be an outlier.
MarksThe number of marks between both teams was close, but overall, Western Bulldogs
were in front at all 5 number summaries. The Bulldogs interquartile range was closer
also suggesting a more overall and steady performance by the team.
TacklesOverall it was very even in the amount of tackles between the two teams, both the mean,
minimum and maximum was the same but crows interquartile 3 was higher so it may
suggest crows put more pressure throughout the game.
Inside 50sThe amount of inside 50s were very close with both the minimum and maximum being
the same, however, western bulldogs median was very low, at the same point as its
interquartile 1 so crows would seem to have got more inside 50s.
ConjectureAfter analyzing all of the statistics, it has led me to believe that the amount of kicks per
game may be the biggest influence to deciding which team wins. In this case, Western
Bulldogs won and it would show in the amount of kicks as their amount is much higher
than Crows beating their average amount of kicks by 2.2.

ResultsAfter drawing up another 14 box plots for each of the other games and analyzing
them, it appears that the majority of the statistics do have a high influence on
which team wins. It seems that for most of the games, the median for the winning
team was almost always higher than the oppositions; however in the game of
Melbourne vs. Brisbane with Melbourne winning, Brisbane still had the higher
median. All teams Means were then checked and it is found that all winning
teams means were higher than oppositions. This has led to the conclusion of
Kicks having a major influence on teams winning or losing.
LimitationsThere were many limitations to the Assignment, one of the major ones was not
being able to look at other statistics other than the 5 given, and this made it hard
as many other statistics could have a large effect on winning. Another limitation
would have been weather; this was not taken into account but weather is known
to have major influences on sport depending on where teams train. Injury is
another limitation, teams might have had players injured and not be able to play
causing teams to not be at full strength. Another limitation is where teams play,
teams that play at home or where they usually train are known to play better as
they are more accustomed to those grounds. One final influence would be
morale, teams who have just come off of large losing streak will most likely be on
a low, they may not expect to win lowering their chances of winning even more.

ConclusionThrough this assignment, many statistics were looked at and many graphs were
drawn. Through all the analyzing, it has led me to believe that of the 5 statistics,
kicking has the most influence of them all, this can be seen by looking at all the
winning teams means compared to their oppositions. However, even though
kicking may have the most influences of the 5 statistics, as discussed, there were
many limitations to this assignment. This means that there could always be other
statistics that have more influence over kicking. It may also only be good for one
round; the statistics only show one round making it very hard to tell if the results
are consistent. Therefore, in conclusion kicking has the most influences of the 5
statistics but only for round 5 of 2010, more research would be needed for long
term influences.