Who Are The Best Players Statistically At Polonia SideOut London from 2012 to 2022?

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Introduction

I’ve been with Polonia SideOut London for ten years.  With ten years’ worth of data, who are the best players statistically that have ever represented Polonia SideOut London since 2012?  Are any of those players on the 2021-22 team?  Well, I compiled the data to find out (see previous years of 2018, 2019 and 2020).  

Statistician Notes

This season, I completely reconstructed the spreadsheet yet again (last year, it was to accommodate calculating the reception average) so the tables and charts are powered by pivot tables.  It was because it was taking time to update all the tables and charts manually so the pivot tables and pivot tables should quicken this process considerably.  

I also re-exported and re-entered the DataVolley data from 2015.  This is due to a change that I don’t consider passing errors as a point lost (or true unforced error) and I could not easily separate this from the raw data on points lost that was already in the spreadsheet.  While I could do some calculations to get this figure, I thought it would be better simply to export the full dataset, i.e. every data I have statted, so I can directly calculate points lost.  It also gives me the flexibility if I wanted to make any future changes.  

One of these changes was to collate defence stats.  Since I statted digs this past season and that I statted digs when I used StatEasy from 2012 to 2015, I decided to create a Top 10 Best Defenders table.  Unfortunately, it only features players from 2012-15 and from 2021 to 2022 but it is still fun to see. 

I did change the reception chart to include in-play passes rather than total reception attempts.  I thought it was just a positive spin on passes.  

Final Thoughts

With data missing (e.g. digs) and differing definitions (e.g. passing and service quality), I did think that I could go back and restat all matches prior to 2021.  I could really standardise all the data and use better performance indicators to see who were the best players Polonia has ever had.  Rather than measuring serve performance by aces per set (see my issues with per set averages), I could measure it but service averages or even by expected break point percentage (the break point percentage you would expect for a given quality of serve – see link).  I could even go back and code setting stats (I am planning to – see link) so I have something to compare setters with.  That would be awesome.  

However, I know from my experience of statting every match in the Women’s Super League 2019-20 (see link) and modifying 3,000 to 4,000 free ball codes (see link and link for the result) that this would probably take me a very long time to do that.  Fun dream but I probably won’t undertake that project.