Economics assumes that behavior is based on rational expectations and market efficiency. However, previous research into professional sports indicates that there are cases where decisions are consistently made that do not conform to this. This article examines this issue within the context of how indigenous Australian footballers are recruited via the Australian Football League (AFL) draft. A panel data econometric model was used to look at the relationship between player performance and the expectations placed on these players when they were first drafted. The results show that, on average, indigenous Australian footballers outperform their expectations. Therefore, the question is ‘‘Why do AFL teams not draft more indigenous players?’’ Some of the reasons why teams may be averse to drafting such players are discussed, although we are unable to rule out irrationality as a possible explanation.
In 1949 the Australian Football League (AFL) introduced a distinctive father–son rule, which allows its member teams to prioritize the recruitment of the sons of former players who had played in a minimum number of games with that team. This paper reveals that some teams have been able to access a statistically significant advantage via this rule, confirming and quantifying that this unique exception compromised the AFL’s reverseorder player draft. In more recent times, through complex reforms, this advantage has been significantly dissipated. Discussion presents this rule as a conundrum for managers as despite potentially compromising the draft, it provides opportunities for off-field marketing communications strategies.
Governments all over the world put huge amounts of money into bidding for, and then hosting, sports events like Football's World Cup or the Olympic Games. They also give money to professional sports teams and other mega-events to encourage them to locate within a particular constituency. This article examines the statistical relationship between tourism and three Football World Cups and five Olympic Games, finding very little positive effect. Given this conclusion, the article looks at why governments continue to bid for these competitions. It presents evidence that shows that these sports contests make people happy, and argues that politicians capitalize on this feel-good factor; harnessing the hubris associated with these events for political gain. The article then contends that the best way to reduce the politics associated with bidding for mega-events is to allocate them via an auction, rather than the wasteful rent-seeking methods that are currently used.
Efficient recruitment to Australia’s most popular professional sporting competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), requires evaluators to assess athlete performances in many lower tier leagues that serve as pathways. These competitions and their games are frequent, widespread, and challenging to track. Therefore, independent, and reliable player performance statistics from these leagues are paramount. This data, however, is only meaningful to recruiters from AFL teams if accurate player positions are known, which was not the case for the competitions from which most players were recruited. This paper explains how this problem was recently solved, demonstrating a process of knowledge translation from academia to industry, that bridged an important gap between sports science, coaching and recruiting. Positional information which is only available from the AFL competition was used to benchmark and develop scientific classification methods using only predictor variables that are also measured in lower tier competitions. Specifically, a Multinomial Logistic model was constructed to allocate players into four primary positions, followed by a Binary Logit model for further refinement. This novel technique of using more complete data from top tier competitions to help fill informational deficiencies in lower leagues could be extended to other sports that face similar issues.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.