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Happy Sunday, everybody!
As a Brit, on a Sunday, I often have to wait until the afternoon to begin to get my sporting fix. The great thing about sporting events being held in Australia is that I can feed my habit much earlier in the day. Today, for example, I was treated to the skills (if not the likeability) of Novak Djokovic during my morning cornflakes. I'm looking forward to the Australian Open and seeing if anyone can put up some semblance of challenge to the Serb. I'm not particularly hopeful especially as it seems Carlos Alcaraz has gone off the boil a little.
Let's move swiftly onto the round-up. We start with a familiar face and good friend of the team, Bo McCready who has produced this fantastic exploratory viz tracking the important moments of the recent NFL National Championship game between Michigan and Washington. Despite not knowing the rules of American Football in any great detail I was able to follow along with Bo's clearly defined legend. I particularly enjoyed seeing the progress of each team (indicated by the small bars) and the moves panned out.
We stick with football of the American type next with another detail-busting design from Samuel Epley. In this viz, Samuel concentrates on the top 100 NFL players (according to ESPN) and how they compare to the salary cap. There are a number of interesting insights to be gained in the static view but I'd encourage you to check out the interactive view to as each player bar contains a veritable wealth of information. Great job, Samuel!
One final, NFL-related viz before we move onto a different egg-shaped ball sport. This cool flow view from Micah Blake McCurdy is tracking the chances of each of the NFL teams making the end-of-season playoffs. What's great about this is that Micah is continually updating the viz after every game. So, if you want to know your teams chances after their latest match, bookmark this thread now!
We cross the Atlantic now and head to the 'ruffian's game played by gentlemen' (I may have paraphrased that slightly!)–Rugby Union. Russell Forbes has created this fantastic small panel of radar charts which track each of the Rugby Union Premiership teams across 16 different metrics ranging from passes to kicks to tackle %'s. With so much detail, Russell has done a great job of making this easily scannable too. It's easy to see, at a glance, the most (and least successful) teams so far this year.
Last but certainly not least we take a look at a fascinating piece of football analysis from David Sumpter. He explores a couple of different aspects (passing and pressing) and how players perform as they move between leagues. Often it's said that the Premier League is the hardest to play in because of the speed and physicality. Maybe we are now beginning to see the proof behind those claims. Great work, David and the team at Twelve Football!
That's all for this week. Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead and all the best of luck with whatever sporting endeavours you have planned.
Simon & the #SportsVizSunday team