The 2015 Gigs Ladder Comp
Welcome to the 25th annual GIGS LADDER COMP, proudly brought to you by australianfootball.com.
First held by Andrew Gigacz (aka Gigs) in 1991 with just three people involved, and with 153 paying entrants in 2014, the Gigs Ladder Comp is your one-stop set-it-and-forget-it footy tipping comp that requires just a few minutes (or, for some people, seconds) of your time once before the season begins. All you have to do is list the 18 teams as you think they will be placed on the ladder AFTER season 2015's end. (That's after the Grand Final, NOT Round 23.)
The closest ladder we receive to the the actual end of year ladder (see Ladder Comp 101 below for how that's calculated), will be the winner. Throughout the year you'll get a chance to see how your ladder is tracking via weekly updates, which will appear on the Australian Football websites each Wednesday. You'll also get a spreadsheet sent to your email address so you can compare your ladders to other contestants and other “so called experts” such as Rohan Connolly, Matthew Lloyd and any other footy "guru" who's prepared to make their full ladder public.
"But isn't one of the big betting sites running a similar comp this year?"
Yes, BUT...
1. Their comp is based on the ladder as at the end of the home and away season; ours relies on you picking the REAL final ladder - the post Grand Final one.
2. We can almost guarantee you that they won't give you a weekly update on the progress of your ladder that features an anagram or a bad pun related to your or your team's name.
"But I've never done this before - I won't be any good at it."
If that's what you're thinking, then think again because in 2013, four of the year's top-five place-getters, including the winner and runner up, had never entered this competition before!
So put your ladder together, give it a name (or it will be given one in the format First Name Last Intial, for example Thomas P), send it in and join in the fun!
LADDERS CAN BE EMAILED TO andrew.gigacz@gmail.com.
Details on how to pay will then be forwarded to you.
BORING BITS
The format of the comp remains the same as ever. For those of you who are newcomers, a detailed description of how it works appears further down the page (see “LADDER COMP 101″). The inherent beauty of this competition is, of course, the fact that entrants need to submit their ladders once only prior to the season starting, before sitting back and relaxing and observing the weekly progress of their efforts. It’s a kind of “set-it-and-forget-it” footy tipping comp.
The entry fee for 2015 will $10 per person, to be received as early as possible in the season, with prizes to be distributed amongst the top five place-getters (45%, 25%, 15%, 10% and 5% of the pool respectively), after the lucky wooden-spooner receives their money back. Payment can be made to me in person or anybody can deposit directly into my bank account. (These details will be provided to entrants who email me their ladder at andrew.gigacz@gmail.com.)
LADDER COMP 101 – A basic rundown for newcomers
The object of this game is to predict the full AFL ladder as you believe it will look at season’s end. By “season’s end”, we are referring to the POST-GRAND FINAL ladder. This obviously means the winner of the GF in position number one, with loser in second-place. Positions 3-8 are determined by the official AFL method, in which the losers in each of the first three weeks of the finals are placed 7th and 8th, 5th and 6th, and 3rd and 4th. The ladder position as at Round 23 decides which of the two teams finishes in the higher spot in each of those three weeks. Positions 9-18 obviously don’t change after Round 23.
All you need to do is submit the 18 teams in the order you believe they will finish. A score will then be allocated based on the difference between your ladder and the actual ladder. For example if you select Collingwood to finish 7th and they finish 11th, you will have 4 points (11 minus 7) awarded “against” you. This is done for each team and your score totalled. Using this method the lower your score, the better you are doing. A perfect ladder, with all 18 teams in their correct positions will achieve a score of zero.
As a guide, the 2013 scores ranged from 36 (the winner) to 150 (wooden-spooner), although these can vary from year to year depending on the unexpected rises and falls of various teams. Our 2014 winner - Tom R - had an unprecedented low score of just 16! Reckon you can top that? Get on board!
Weekly updates will be provided each Wednesday during the season via the Australian Football websites (with a spreadsheet also emailed directly to you) so you can track the progress of your ladder against other experts.
Q & A
I’ve probably forgotten to mention something so please email me at andrew.gigacz@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Please pass this link on to anyone who might be interested in joining in. All welcome.
In the mean time happy laddering!
Cheers
Gigs
Comments
Andrew Gigacz 25 March 2015
For what it's worth, my 18 is: My 2015 ladder: 1 SYDNEY 2 HAWTHORN 3 PORT ADELAIDE 4 FREMANTLE 5 NORTH MELBOURNE 6 GEELONG 7 RICHMOND 8 ADELAIDE 9 Gold Coast 10 West Coast 11 Collingwood 12 Western Bulldogs 13 Carlton 14 Brisbane 15 GWS 16 Melbourne 17 Essendon 18 St Kilda
Andrew Gigacz 1 April 2015
Okay, I'm exercising my right to move the Bombers after yesterday's tribunal ruling on Essendon. The new improved Gigs ladder is My 2015 ladder: 1 SYDNEY 2 HAWTHORN 3 PORT ADELAIDE 4 FREMANTLE 5 NORTH MELBOURNE 6 GEELONG 7 RICHMOND 8 ADELAIDE 9 Gold Coast 10 West Coast 11 Collingwood 12 Western Bulldogs 13 Carlton 14 Brisbane 15 Essendon 16 GWS 17 Melbourne 18 St Kilda
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