Last preseason, I created tables of PIT Averages for Defs/Mids/Fwds (click here to revisit) and I thought I'd update them with the 2017 data to see how the premiums went last season. For those who haven't heard the term before, PIT (or Points in Team) was first coined by SCS statistician Rowsus to highlight the importance of aggregates over Average when choosing players in your side.

Again, I've used a 70 average for mids and a 60 average for forwards & backs (to account for rookies covering their missed games).

Mid only


From 2016, only Danger, Sloane and Neale remained in the top 12 for 2017. Probably also fair enough to class Zerrett, Dusty, Zorko in this category as they topped the fwds in 2016 with 111, 108, 105. Funnily enough, most would have expected Sloane and Neale to drop out due to their interrupted preseasons but alas it was all those "locks" for the top 8 in Treloar, Hanners, JPK, Selwood, Pendles, Parker, Bont, who dropped out.

Also, every season, we expect our mids will average 115+. However, in reality, only 3-4 mids every season reach a PIT115. Looking at the the 8th-12th best mids over the seasons (including last), PIT108 seems to be what you would want from your starting mid.

Defenders


In defence, Doch, Simpson, Rance and Howe remained from 2016. Probably also fair enough to count Laird in this group too (as he was 13th in 2016 due to missed games). Usually the defence varies most from year to year so it was not a bad result for 5 of the top 13 to make the top 12 for 2017, especially with Bartel and Enright retiring from the year before.

The D4-D6 averages remained similar to previous years. You'd probably still be happy with PIT90-95 from your starters.

Forwards


The forwards went quite poorly in 2017. In previous years we've had at least 7 PIT95 forwards, but in 2017 we only had 4. Although Heeney did go 95+ from R4 (bit similar to Titch going 100+ from mid 2015). The lack of high scoring forwards probably made having one or more players averaging PIT88-90 (ie: Steele, Nank, Higgins) pretty reasonable to finish with last season. Also of note is that Westhoff has featured every year but 2016 in the PIT tables (when he averaged 85 from 22 games and finished 21st).

I think we'll be back to aiming for a PIT95 from our forwards, just on the back of some of the new names available.

Top 20 PIT60 Forwards

Seeing how poorly the forwards went, I thought it'd be interesting to look at the top 20 from 2017.
Looking at the table, funnily enough, starting Roughead (who most probably saw as a failure and traded out, including myself) would've gotten more points for your than starting Greene and JJK last season :p.
Just goes to show starting one of those cheaper, lower ceiling players like Rough, Steele, Nank who end up playing 21-22 games can end up being more valuable for your side.

That sums up my main thoughts on these PIT tables. Keen again to hear everyone’s thoughts.