Introduction to Data Science Using R Runestone Version 1

We can use an example to show how to use linear regression on real data. The example concerns attendances at Australian Rules Football matches. For all of you in the U.S., Australian Rules Football is closer to what you think of as rugby and not so much like American football. The data in this example concerns matches/ games at the largest stadium for the sport, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (note: Australian Rules football is a winter sport, cricket is a summer sport). The Melbourne Cricket Ground or MCG is also considered the most prestigious ground to play a football match, due to its long association with Australian Rules Football.

Australian Rules Football is the most popular sport to have been developed in Australia. The object is to kick the ball through the larger goal posts, scoring six points. If the ball is touched before it crosses the line under the large posts, or instead passes through the smaller posts on either side of the large goal posts, a single point is scored. The rules ensure that possession of the ball is always changing. There is full body tackling and possession is turned over frequently. This leads to continuous and exciting on-field action.

The main stronghold of Australian Rules Football is in the state of Victoria (south eastern Australia), where the original league, the VFL, became the AFL after its league of mostly Melbourne suburban teams added teams to represent areas outside Victoria, such as West Coast (Perth, the capital of the state of Western Australia) and Adelaide (capital of the state of South Australia). Note that Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria. Much of the popularity of the VFL was based on the rivalries between neighboring suburbs, and teams with long histories, like the Collingwood Football Club based in one of Melbourne’s most working class suburbs - have large and loyal fan bases.

While it isn’t necessary to know anything about how the sport is played to understand the example, it is useful to know that the Australian Football League, the premiere organization playing Australian Rules Football, was formerly the Victorian Football League, and although teams from outside the Australian state of Victoria have joined, more than half the teams in the league are Victorian, even though Victoria is only one of six Australian states.