A NUMBERS GAME
FOOTY FIGURES
THE return of the AFL tonight has sports fans excited.
But footy is more than just a sporting spectacle. Did you know it’s also full of mathematics?
From adding up scores and player possessions to calculating goal kicking angles and salary caps, football is bursting with real life opportunities to experience maths in action.
Here are some maths activities kids can try at home to prove footy is more than just a game.
EASY MULTIPLES OF 6
Practise chanting the 6 times tables using goals. For example: 1 goal is 6; 2 goals are 12; 3 goals are 18 …
DICE ROLL FOOTY
Each player chooses a team.
Roll a dice twice — the first roll is the number of goals and the second number is the number of points scored for the quarter. Calculate your team’s score.
Repeat 3 more times, so you have a score for each of the 4 quarters.
Add together your score to get your team’s final score. The team with the highest score wins!
(This game can also be played with a larger number of players in a “sudden death” format to find an overall winner.)
ON TARGET
Create a handball or kicking target with number scores. Each player has 10 shots at the target, mentally calculating their progressive score as you play. Adjust the difficulty of this task by changing the numbers used on the target, or, instead of adding the numbers, multiplying them.
INTERMEDIATE GUERNSEY NUMBER MATH
How well do you know the guernsey numbers of your team? Challenge a partner by giving them the name of two players. They must come up with an equation using the numbers of the two players and give a player name for their answer. For example: Melbourne Football Club — Tom McDonald minus Adam Tomlinson equals Christian Petracca (25-20=5).
POINT POSSIBILITIES
Choose a number between 100 and 300. This is the total combined score of both teams at the end of a match. How many different sets of possible full-time results can you think of for the match?
For example: Essendon v Port Adelaide — total combined score = 204. Possible results: Ess 15 10 100 v PA 14 20 104; Ess 5 7 37 v PA 25 17 167; etc.
A DAY AT THE FOOTY
Imagine you have $40.00 to spend on a day out at the football. Here is a price list — what will you buy? Think about which costs are essential and which ones are not, and how you might save money so that you can get the things you want or the best value for your money.
●Train fare $4.50
●Entry ticket $5.00
●Hot chips $4.50
●Pie $5.00
●Hot dog $4.80
●Burger $7.90
●Sushi $6.20
●Soft drink $4.10
●Water $3.50
●Kids meal with drink $7.40
●Ice cream $4.40
●Team flag $10.00
●Team beanie $20.00
●Team scarf $25.00
●Team badge $6.00
LUCKY SCORE
Invent a new scoring system for the AFL. Write down how your new scoring system works. Now watch a game of football and keep score using your new system. Is the result at the end the same as with the real scoring system? Did the same team win?
DIFFICULT GRAPH PLAYER POSSESSIONS
Choose five players taking part in tonight’s game. As you watch the game, on a graph, plot the number of disposals of your players at the end of each quarter. When your graph is complete, write down four statements about the information you can see in your graph.
For example: The player who consistently had the most disposals over the course of the game was Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury; Richmond’s Dustin Martin had twice as many disposals in the third quarter as he did in the first quarter; etc.
MEASURING ANGLES
Begin with a diagram of a football oval (see example above). Draw a dotted line between the centre point between the goalposts and the centre point on the 50m line.
Each time a goal is kicked, mark the approximate location on your diagram of where the goal was kicked from. Use a protractor to measure the angle from which the player kicked the goal. (The dotted line is 0 degrees.)
PLAYER SALARIES
Your favourite player, Harry VonHandball, is on a salary of $460,000 this year. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 salary cuts, Harry has had to accept a 50 per cent reduction for the final seven months of this year’s contract. Calculate Harry’s new salary for the 2020 AFL season. Find out the salaries of some real players to see how much they have given up with COVID-19 pay cuts.
TICKET SALES
Football tickets at the MCG are $27 for adults, $18 for concession and $5 for juniors. The ground’s capacity is 100,024. Can you work out how much money is received for ticket sales if 50 per cent of attendees are adults, 20 per cent are concession and 30 per cent are juniors?
ATTENDANCE FIGURES
2010 / 100,016 (drawn GF) 2010 / 93,853
2011 / 99,537
2012 / 99,683
2013 / 100,007
2014 / 99,454
2015 / 98,632
2016 / 99,981
2017 / 100,021
2018 / 100,022
2019 / 100,014
● Practise reading the numbers aloud.
● Put the numbers in order from smallest to largest.
● Find the median Grand Final attendance for the period.
● Find the mean Grand Final attendance for the period.
● Find the range of the Grand Final attendance for the period.