CBAs – Centre Bounce Attendances – is a statistic that measures the number of times a player is present at a centre bounce at the beginning of a quarter or following a goal. A player that has a high attendance rate at CBAs is around the footy more and (in some cases) in a more fantasy-friendly midfield role.
Analyse the CBAs from the weekend of football in our user-friendly tables in our premium resources section – featuring advanced analytical tools to better measure the biggest changes, both seasonally and week-to-week.
Below, see who some of the winners and losers were from a CBA perspective over the weekend.
Connor Rozee
Rozee was a big talking point from round 5.
After not attending a centre bounce for the past two weeks and only averaging 7% of Port Adelaide’s CBAs prior to this game, he went to 33% of the centre bounces on Sunday.
Interestingly, the majority were in the second half which coincided with Port Adelaide’s comeback against Carlton. It’s hard to pinpoint a reason for this move, but we must note that Robbie Gray was back in the side for Port Adelaide and was performing well in the forward line, so this could have freed up Rozee to play in the midfield.
It is also interesting to note for Port Adelaide that Willem Drew and Travis Boak decreased in CBAs this week, but Karl Amon increased after being deployed to tag Sam Walsh.
Could there be a change of the guard for Port Adelaide’s midfield? It’ll be interesting to see what happens now they’re out of finals contention.
James Rowbottom
It’s hard to get a read on what Sydney does with their midfield on a week-to-week basis.
After a few weeks of only receiving a small number of CBAs and sometimes starting out of the midfield completely, James Rowbottom saw a spike in CBA numbers this week. He attended 65% of the centre bounces for Sydney – his most since round 1 where he attended 68%. Coincidentally, his score of 88 points was also his best AFL Fantasy score since round 1.
So it seems obvious that there’s a direct correlation between James Rowbottom’s scoring and getting CBAs. The issue is Sydney tends to share them around among the team and it’s hard to get a gauge of who is going to get a run each week.
This will lead to some very frustrating scores from players like James Rowbottom.
Scott Pendlebury
Owners of Pendlebury would be very happy he’s received defender status in both Ultimate Footy and AFL Fantasy, but looking at his recent CBA numbers, you might have gotten lucky with this one.
Over the first few rounds, it was clear that Pendlebury was in defence but over the past few rounds, he has slowly upped his CBA numbers as Collingwood has started to lose a few games. Last week, he attended a whopping 81% of the CBAs after only averaging 41% for the round prior.
This co-incided with a few things. Firstly, Taylor Adams was coming back from injury so he was used sparingly playing low TOG. Also, Jamie Elliot is out injured who had previously attended 35% of the CBAs for Collingwood.
There was also another factor which leads nicely into the next player…
Patrick Lipinski
What the hell?!
After attending 47% of the CBAs for Collingwood this season, and 79% the week prior, Patrick Lipinski did not attend one centre bounce on Thursday night.
Luckily this didn’t affect his fantasy scoring too much, as he still put up a respectable score of 77 but it seems like he was playing majority of the game up forward. Luckily for owners in the AFL Fantasy format, he has now been given forward status which could come in handy.
But if he’s not attending centre bounces then we may see his ceiling reduced. Hopefully it was just a one-off and we see his CBA numbers increase soon.
Josh Ward
The Hawthorn midfield is an absolute roller coaster right now.
But the one thing that’s clear is they’re backing in the kids and Josh Ward’s CBA numbers are evidence of this.
In 2022, Ward has attended 52% of the centre bounces for Hawthorn and attended a season high 75% on Monday.
The week prior to round 5, he only attended 18% of centre bounces but I see this as good thing as it’s clear they’re going to play him throughout the year and give him some match experience, despite him needing a rest from time to time.
Another big factor is that Hawthorn actually beat a premiership contender in Geelong on the weekend, so they will be happy with their onfield structure for the time being.
Whilst big scores from Ward might not come this year, he’ll be better for the experience gained and this should hold him in good stead for the future.
Preview of Advanced CBA Stats:
| Player | Club | Pos | LG% | LG%vsPG% | Avg% | L3Avg% | LG%vsAvg% | L3G%vsAvg% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Steele | SK | C | 81 | -5 | 88.4 | 87 | -7.4 | -1.4 |
| Reilly O'Brien | AD | R | 80 | -4 | 87.7 | 84 | -7.7 | -3.7 |
| Rowan Marshall | SK | R | 88 | 12 | 87.7 | 87 | 0.3 | -0.7 |
| Max Gawn | ME | R | 90 | -2 | 86.6 | 89 | 3.4 | 2.4 |
| Tom Green | GWS | C | 85 | 5 | 86 | 83 | -1 | -3 |
| Luke Davies-Uniacke | NM | C | 83 | 3 | 85.1 | 83 | -2.1 | -2.1 |
| Ned Reeves | HW | R | 82 | -5 | 84.5 | 79 | -2.5 | -5.5 |
| Lloyd Meek | HW | R | 77 | -13 | 84.4 | 82 | -7.4 | -2.4 |
| Jarrod Witts | GC | R | 82 | -11 | 84.2 | 86 | -2.2 | 1.8 |
| Tristan Xerri | NM | R | 83 | 3 | 83.4 | 82 | -0.4 | -1.4 |
View more CBA Analysis numbers here.
Key:
LG% – Percentage of CBAs last game
LG%vsPG% – Percentage of CBAs last game versus percentage of CBAs previous game
Avg% – Average of CBA percentage in games played
L3Avg% – Average of CBA percentage over the past three games
LG%vsAvg% – Last game CBA percentage vs average CBA percentage
L3G%vsAvg% – Last three games CBA percentage vs average CBA percentage
