Thrillers and Blowouts
After eight straight seasons of the average AFL margin decreasing, the last four have seen a slight increase.
Earlier this week Dejan Kalinic published a story on the AFL website about how the 2024 AFL season “delivered more thrillers than ever before”.
There were 216 games played this year, with 59 being decided by 10 points or less (27.3% of all games this season).
This is an increase from the 57 games decided by a similar margin in 2023, and the 42 that occurred in 2022.
But as Dejan points out:
“The introduction of Gather Round has made the past two seasons longer than ever before”
So, it’s potentially a little unfair to just look at the raw numbers, given the number of games played over the course of a season has fluctuated over time.
While the proportion of games this year that were decided by 10 points or less is well short…