Average games played

[Footy Chick]

Time to put the thinking cap on Spelly....

I was just looking at the 200 Club list and noticed that very few names have been added to it since the mid 90's approx. Gavin Colville looked like he could have been the latest inductee..

This then prompted me to question the average life of an SANFL footballer nowadays, given the lack of players making this milestone in the last 10 years or so....

[Wedgie]

I was just looking at the 200 Club list and noticed that very few names have been added to it since the mid 90's approx. Gavin Colville looked like he could have been the latest inductee..

I'd imagine Scott Bamford was the latest inductee as he hit the 200 mark in the Prelim Final:

[spell_check]

I would say it is around 35 matches per player recently. That's not an accurate figure, just a rough estimate from a couple of calculations I did - one on the total player list and the total number of games on offer from 1907. The huge amount of matches in the 70s-early 90s are evened out by the early years when there were only 12-14 minor round matches. So I'd expect that 35 would be a fair bet.

[Aerie]

To go a bit further - what about the average games of premiership teams/grand final teams recently?

[Footy Chick]

Well thats what I thought too Wedge, but the SANFL obviously havent updated their list yet... just thought it funny that the number of 200 gamers in the 80's/early 90's far outweigh those of any other era..

[spell_check]

To go a bit further - what about the average games of premiership teams/grand final teams recently?

I'll have to do a bit of research on other recent years, but after last year, I worked out the total games for the Grand Finallists - Central had a total of 1575 games between the 21 players - 75 each on average - Eagles had 1348 games - 64.19 on average.

[Ecky]

Well thats what I thought too Wedge, but the SANFL obviously havent updated their list yet... just thought it funny that the number of 200 gamers in the 80's/early 90's far outweigh those of any other era..

A major factor contributing to this was that pre-season games were counted in official totals in this era, giving many players more than 30 games per season. So in theory you could reach the 200 game milestone in less than 7 seasons in that era.

[FlyingHigh]

Well thats what I thought too Wedge, but the SANFL obviously havent updated their list yet... just thought it funny that the number of 200 gamers in the 80's/early 90's far outweigh those of any other era..

A major factor contributing to this was that pre-season games were counted in official totals in this era, giving many players more than 30 games per season. So in theory you could reach the 200 game milestone in less than 7 seasons in that era.

True. I guess also the prestige of playing/being involved with an SANFL club was greater, probably at its highest ever. Also, many of players at that standard in the 80s and 90s are now in the AFL, eg imagine if Westies had Ricciuto, Edwards, Rehn, Modra etc over the last decade.