title: Explaining match outcome in elite Australian Rules football using team performance indicators.
abstract: The relationships between team performance indicators and match outcome have been examined in many team sports, however are limited in Australian Rules football. Using data from the 2013 and 2014 Australian Football League (AFL) regular seasons, this study assessed the ability of commonly reported discrete team performance indicators presented in their relative form (standardised against their opposition for a given match) to explain match outcome (Win/Loss). Logistic regression and decision tree (chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID)) analyses both revealed relative differences between opposing teams for "kicks" and "goal conversion" as the most influential in explaining match outcome, with two models achieving 88.3% and 89.8% classification accuracies, respectively. Models incorporating a smaller performance indicator set displayed a slightly reduced ability to explain match outcome (81.0% and 81.5% for logistic regression and CHAID, respectively). However, both were fit to 2014 data with reduced error in comparison to the full models. Despite performance similarities across the two analysis approaches, the CHAID model revealed multiple winning performance indicator profiles, thereby increasing its comparative feasibility for use in the field. Coaches and analysts may find these results useful in informing strategy and game plan development in Australian Rules football, with the development of team-specific models recommended in future.
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Sport, Exercise & Active Living, College of Sport and Exercise Sciences , Victoria University , Melbourne , Australia.|b Western Bulldogs Football Club , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Sport, Exercise & Active Living, College of Sport and Exercise Sciences , Victoria University , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Back
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Sport, Exercise & Active Living, College of Sport and Exercise Sciences , Victoria University , Melbourne , Australia.|b Western Bulldogs Football Club , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Bartlett
mesh_terms: D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001315:Australia; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003663:Decision Trees; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Decision tree; coaching; data mining; logistic regression; performance analysis