GVL Data | A deep dive into how Kyabram’s best performed against the league’s top players

By Rohan Aldous

Sep 12, 2024

Kyabram’s Bailey Tome was one of two best Bombers all season alongside Anthony Depasquale. Photo: Bruce Povey

Anthony Depasquale’s 71-goal Goulburn Valley League season has been almost perfect according to a simplified version of a statistical formula used as a yardstick by a leading AFL statistical source.

The Kyabram gun and league runner-up goal-kicker has had a season which a summarised format of the formula suggests would be rated as 99.1 out of 100.

Depasquale’s Donald Bradman-like result was deduced by using five components under the AFL organisation’s key forward formula: goals, marks inside 50, contested marks, score involvements and contested possessions.

For each of these five categories there is a score given out of 20, according to the player’s average, measured against other key forwards in the competition.

The AFL statistical group does the same for midfielders, key defenders, rucks, general forwards and general defenders.

Depasquale and Bailey Tome are the Bombers’ two highest players for this season, the latter having a 93.5 season for his nine games, including the losing final against Mooroopna.

Only five other Bombers feature in the top 15 per cent of players in the GVL using the statistical formula (85 ranking or above) for their particular area of the field.

Rochester's Dylan Gordon is one of the reasons the Tigers have risen up the ladder so dramatically. He is the competition’s number one key defender. Photo: Bruce Povey Photo by Bruce Povey

Midfielders Liam Ogden and co-coach Kaine Herbert, general defenders Brad Whitford and Jake Parkinson and ruck Marcus Khoo all rated 85 or above.

The formula, or at least how I applied it in a less complicated fashion, did not assist those players who played at either end of the ground.

Depasquale finished the season with 315 disposals (16.6 average) and two-thirds of those (202) were contested. He rated 19.7 out of 20 in this space.

He took 54 contested marks from a total of 117 to earn another 19.6 points. Seventy marks inside 50 earned him a perfect 20 result.

His 68 tackles as a key forward (averaging 3.6 a game and 37 in forward 50 for the season) earned him a score of 19.8.

His 171 score involvements (9.3 a game) was once again perfect and despite his 44 inside 50 entries not contributing to the total figure, his return of 71 goals and 36 behinds also earned a perfect 20.

His outstanding season came with two bags of seven goals and a pair of six-goal games. In the previous two seasons he had kicked 27 goals from 18 games (2022) and 31 goals from 22 games (2023).

TOP TWO RATED PLAYERS IN GVL (by position)

Key forward

Anthony De Pasquale (Ky) 99.1, 1; Riley Mason (Sey) 98.2, 2.

Key defender

Dylan Gordon (Roch) 99.2, 1; Ryan O’Keefe (Roch) 98.7, 2.

General forward

Luke Smith (Shepp) 99.6, 1; Trent Herbert (Shepp) 98.6, 2.

General defender

Curtis Ryan (Tat) 99.4, 1; Andrew Riordan (Swans) 98.6, 2.

Midfielder

Jack McHale (Ech) 99.5, 1; Adam Decicco (Shepp) 99.2, 2; Coby McCarthy (Moor) 99, 3.

Ruck

Ash Holland (Shepp) 99.8, 1; Keelin Betson (Moor) 99.1, 2.

Bailey Tome was the next highest rated Bomber from the 2024 season. His 98.4 rating was only impacted by his lack of goals and inside 50 entries.

He averaged only 3.3 inside 50s this season (compared to Herbert’s 5.3 and Ogden’s 4.8) and kicked just six goals. He collected 18.7 for the first category and just 14.8 for his goal-kicking.

Tome was perfect for his tackles (9.1 average), contested possessions (19.7) and clearances (12 average).

Herbert kicked 20 goals as a midfielder this season, a return that earned him a 19.8 rating, while his 5.3 inside 50s was rewarded with a 19.1 score. His clearances, tackles and contested possession (where he was only rated above average by GVL standards) impacted his final score of 88.9.

When the simplified formula was applied to the competition’s general defenders, it was Tatura’s Curtis Ryan who was number one. Photo: Megan Fisher Photo by Megan Fisher

Whitford played only 12 games for the season, but did enough in those games to earn his place among the GVL’s elite players.

As a general defender he was judged on rebound 50s, intercept possessions, kicks, one percenters and marks. He was elite for intercept possessions (6.9 a game, 19.1 score), kicks (18.2, a rating of 19.4) and rebound 50s (5.3 for a score of 19.2), which made up the bulk of his 86.8 ranking.

He was still above average for one percenters (14.6 rating) and marks (14.5 score).

Khoo finished with an 85.5 rating on the back of his hitouts, clearances, contested marks, one percenters and contested possessions.

His 10.8 contested possessions a game, 5.1 clearances and 36.7 hitouts all rated 19 or above, while his contested marking was above the league average.

Parkinson started the season on track for a top 10 per cent season, but ended up sneaking into the top 15 per cent (a rating of 85.2) on the back of his elite rebound 50 average, his 6.3 intercept possessions and 4.8 marks a game.

Ogden’s season finished with an 85 ranking, his strongest areas being contested possessions (11.2 a game, earning 18.6 towards his total score), clearances (6.1 average for a 17.7 rating), inside 50s (17.8) and tackles (16.4).

His five goals for the season earned him a rating of just 14.5.

To provide an example of where the Kyabram players sit within league ranks, we have listed the top two players in the league for all six of the areas using the summarised formula from the AFL statistical source.