It’s all about context

AussieRulesBlog isn’t the first to mention this, and we’re sure we won’t be the last, but judgements on players’ and coaches’ performances can only properly be judged from the context of each club’s inner sanctum.

 

We’re moved to mention this after watching On the Couch last night. Chris Scott, rookie Geelong coach, was in the chair and was questioned by Mike Sheahan about his post-match comments about Steve Johnson.

 

Sheahan’s point was that Johnson had gathered 21 possessions and kicked seven goals. What, he wondered, could Scott have been upset about.

 

And here’s the nub of the problem. The media’s focus is on the tangible elements of the game. If Johnson had gathered only 7 possessions and kicked 7 goals, Sheahan and his media colleagues would still have been in raptures.

 

Scott prefaced his answer to Sheahan by making the point that, internally, the club judged players’ performance by measures other than raw possessions. It’s about the often-invisible, so-called “one-percenters” such as positioning at a stoppage, picking up a loose opponent, running to block a space, unrewarded running and the like.

 

The truth of the matter is that we cannot judge players or coaches because we aren’t privy to the detailed instructions and game planning, the training drills and team meetings, the match committee and boardroom discussions. Without that context, it’s all more-or-less uneducated guesswork.

 

Of course there’s a place for the media, but it would be nice if they were, generally, less obsessed with statistics and more concerned with context and nuance. Among the chief stat obsessors is (Captain Obvious) Robert Walls, and the standout for context and nuance is Dermott Brereton.

 

I would encourage AussieRulesBlog readers to take media hyperbole over stats with a very large pinch of salt and think about context and nuance.