Player age and Grand Final winning teams

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On this site there is regular debate on the merits of a youth policy vs age when it comes to Rugby League teams. So being a bit of a nerd, and having some free time while I ran the worlds biggest macro I thought why not look at the last 14 years GF winning teams and see the teams that they fielded. Some interesting info (if you are that way inclined)

Basis, I took the age of the player in the GF team on GF day

Youngest player - 17 (Israel Folau)
Oldest - 34 (Beaver)
Avg Age - 24years, 12months 4 days (or 25 if you will)
Median Age - 25

From that you can make an inference, being that the ultimate age for a premiership winning player is 25.

Now to give you the breakup of the ultimate GF squad based on age distribution of all GF winning teams - taking the ratio of representation over the last 14 years

17-20 - 2 players
21-23 - 5 players
24-26 - 5 players
27-29 - 3 players
30+ 2 players

What does that tell you, what many of us have assumed - you need a good representation across age brackets, but a weighting towards the more mature (24 +).

Now all we need to do is find the best players to fill my newly discovered age bracket cap and we have a winning squad.
 
Cheers - too much time on my hands today

Now here is a crazy coincidence the teams that won from 2000-2002 (Broncos, Knights, Roosters) All had a playing squad on GF day of the same average age

24 years, 9 months, 14 days, queue X-Files music
 
2008 = oldest team
26 years 3 months 26 days - this was aided by having Steve Menzies and Bell in the team

2011 = 25 years 10 months 27 Days, they were the second oldest

Youngest is Melbourne in '07 23 Years, 5 months 8 Days - Israel Folau influenced that
 
Great research. Expect it to be plagurised by the Telecrap soon.

What is the average age of our top 17 this season?
 
The Who said:
Great research. Expect it to be plagurised by the Telecrap soon.

What is the average age of our top 17 this season?

Trying to work out the top 17 (but wouldn't that be open to so much debate!) - and will post it when I have calculated it. The hardest thing is settling on a top 17 in light of our injury issues

Mate would love it to be plagiarised, stats are my life (might be why I had issues with the ladies growing up), would give me a kick if nothing else.

So have thrown together a YART (and given the conjecture around Oldfield I have omitted him), and that we also have those players available (a variable that can't be calculated in the numbers i have done) the team would look something like this

Brett Stewart - FB
Dean Whare - Wing
Jamie Lyon - Centre
Steve Matai - Centre
David Williams - Wing
Kieran Foran - Five Eighth
Daly Cherry-Evans - Half Back
Jason King - Prop
Matt Ballin - Hooker
Brent Kite - Prop
Anthony Watmough - second row
Tony Williams - second row
Glenn Stewart - Lock
Jamie Buhrer - Interchange
Darcey Lussick - Interchange
Daniel Harrison - Interchange
George Rose - Interchange

We would be pushing the rule @ 26 years 3 months and 5 days

And it pains me to say it - but based on my 1/2 days untested work Ryan might be on the money re ageing team, to a degree... Team distribution is

17-20 - 0 (no real youth in team ATM) not a must but interesting
21-23 - 6 (a bit heavy in representation and could point to our defensive issues)
24-26 - 2 (not enough in the youthful experience brigade)
27-29 - 6 (maybe getting a bit heavy on the age)
30+ - 3 (5 teams have done it with 3 30+ players since '98 - '99 Storm; 2000 Broncos' '06 Broncos; '08 Manly; '10 St George. But the representation of youth was better spread)

Tell you what I am going to go over the best teams for each club in contention (saves calculating Parramatta) and make a fearless prediction. Watch this space
 
voicefromthehill said:
2008 = oldest team
26 years 3 months 26 days - this was aided by having Steve Menzies and Bell in the team

2011 = 25 years 10 months 27 Days, they were the second oldest

Youngest is Melbourne in '07 23 Years, 5 months 8 Days - Israel Folau influenced that

don't think they qualify
 
castle eagle said:
voicefromthehill said:
2008 = oldest team
26 years 3 months 26 days - this was aided by having Steve Menzies and Bell in the team

2011 = 25 years 10 months 27 Days, they were the second oldest

Youngest is Melbourne in '07 23 Years, 5 months 8 Days - Israel Folau influenced that

don't think they qualify

Thats why I said GF winning team and not premiership - beat you to the punch. But it does highlight how well they went in scouting all these young players; you have to give them that.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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