Every team’s minutes played by age: The Notebook, Round 4

It’s the 2025 season debut for one of my favourite features on The Shinboner.

Regular readers know how it works, but for new arrivals, welcome and here’s the explanation:

Plenty of analysis around list experience and demographics focuses on average age and games played, collating the playing 23 – or entire list of 45 – into one big blob.

Personally, I find using average age or games played from a single week can be easily manipulated and omits vital information – such as how much time players actually spend on the field.

It’s especially pronounced in the age of the sub. To use Hawthorn’s substitutes as a point of example, across their first four games the Hawks have named Sam Frost (twice), Jack Gunston, and Luke Breust as their starting substitutes.

It bumps up all these average age calculations, all while they’re playing bits and pieces in the game. Or in Breust’s case against the Giants, 15 total minutes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all important for a team in the moment, but as far as overarching conclusions on how young or old a team is, it doesn’t really help.

Then what about average age and games played when one team may have a group of veterans, a cluster of youngsters, and little in between? It can come out as roughly the same as a team with plenty of key players right in their prime, but the team makeup is completely different.

With all the above in mind, I’ve found tracking every player’s minutes played by game – then dividing each team into yearly age groups – allows me to learn more about each list. And hopefully it helps others reading too.

Here is the page where it’ll be updated regularly throughout the season for Patreon subscribers.

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The Patreon is up and running once again for 2025, which you can find right here. The three tiers are much the same as previous years, with refined features for the top two.

Patreon subscribers get early access to the Notebook each week as part of their benefits for signing up, and the concept for today’s post is regularly updated throughout the season behind the paywall.

In addition to Patreon, you can find me on Twitter – and also Bluesky, where vibes are much more pleasant and there’s much less hate. It’s nice.

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I’ve found dividing players into four categories helps providing a clearer look into how a team is allocating their minutes played by week, with ‘age <number> year’ meaning how old a player turns during the year:

1) Age 22 year and under
2) Age 23 to 25 years
3) Age 26 to 28 years
4) Age 29 year and over

To be clear, there’s no scientific reason for choosing these specific age groups as dividing points. It’s mainly vibes and, ‘that looks about right to me’.

Through four rounds of the season, here’s how every team ranks in each category:

Everyone will pick their own part of the graphic that jumps out the most, but for me it’s St Kilda’s breakdown. It largely fits with what I was mentioning pre-season – there’s a strong young block coming up, then a giant hole caused by poor list management in the years prior, and all supported by the remaining group of veterans after recent clear outs.

West Coast and Richmond have similar splits to the Saints, albeit earlier in their respective processes. And then Adelaide’s allocations reflect a list growing and ready to take the next step, which based on early 2025 form, they’re in the middle of doing.

In some of those rankings, the difference between several positions is negligible. So here’s each age group fleshed out with a bit more depth. This slideshow shows the total percentage of minutes for each club in each group.

An important disclaimer: I’m well aware I’ve probably committed several graph crimes with the layouts you’ll see from here until the end of the piece. I’m the furthest thing possible from a data viz expert.

(Depending on the device you’re reading on, the outer margins may be slightly cut off)

Collingwood’s large lead in the age 29 year and over category is amusing when laid out like this. The whole ‘average age can sometimes be distorted’ argument from the intro definitely doesn’t apply here.

Brisbane’s low total in the 23-25 range is mainly down to only having five players on their list in the category. Even so, the number should tick up a little bit once Keidean Coleman resumes from his ACL tear.

And Melbourne … Melbourne have decisions to make. Quickly. In the pre-season Look Ahead, their question was around who they decide to make their priority. The stealth retool might get fast tracked sooner rather than later.

But so far the graphics and graphs have just been league wide team rankings. Now we get to the individual team breakdowns.

This next slideshow has every team’s year by year breakdown. The format is to have every year listed up until age 30, and from there it’s as needed. It means some teams (Collingwood) have lots of columns, while others have fewer.

And yes, the slideshow is in alphabetical order, meaning fans of some teams will have to tap through a few times. Sorry.

(Depending on the device you’re reading on, the outer margins may be slightly cut off)

Hawthorn’s shift from last year – adding Tom Barrass and Josh Battle – reflects their changing priority and recognition they’re capable of success right now. At the other end of the spectrum, Richmond’s change shows the opposite, starting to pump as many minutes as possible into youngsters, shielding them with veterans where realistic, and buckling down for the ride.

The Bulldogs’ splits are arguably the most likely to shift dramatically from here. Marcus Bontempelli and Adam Treloar’s return will bump up the bottom half of their graphic, although it could be mitigated slightly if Jamarra Ugle-Hagan gets close to a return at some point.

All the above data – whether broken down by league-wide comparisons or individual teams – is a large help to me in understanding where teams are at and where they want to be in the short, medium, or long term.

In combination with the Team Structures page, linked below, the Create Your Own Depth Chart, and the list contracts + demographics, it all helps crystalise strategy. And – Patreon plug alert – it’s all updated regularly for subscribers, with previous years’ minutes played, structures, and demographics all available as well.

From here on out the minutes played by age graphics will almost exclusively be behind the paywall, peeking out for moments here and there when they’re needed to illustrate a point.

Today’s post serves as a scene setter for the season and a taste of what’s available for the rest of 2025.

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A few weeks into the season, we have enough posts to start rolling out the ‘in case you missed it’. So without any further ado, the last five posts on The Shinboner, plus…

2025’s Team Structures Page, now updated!
North Melbourne’s Round 4 analysis v Sydney
Method shifts: Round 3’s Notebook
North Melbourne’s Round 3 analysis v Adelaide
Trend checking: Round 2’s Notebook
North Melbourne’s Round 2 analysis v Melbourne

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