Promising Player Leads to Decline in Play: Braess’s Paradox
The Sydney Swans, an Australian Rules Football Club, acquired Lance Franklin about three months ago, who is one of the best forwards in Australian Rules Football. Even though he is considered to be one of the best forwards, their forward line has proven to be much worse since he arrived. It doesn’t make much sense because he should be benefiting the Swans instead of hurting them. This is where Braess’s Paradox comes into play, but, first, let me explain the rules of Australian Rules Football, and then I will get into how Braess’s Paradox ties into the Swans acquiring a new player.
Australian Rules Football is different from American Football (NFL) for a few reasons. ARF is played with two teams of eighteen players. The goal of the game is to kick an oval shaped ball through two goal posts while playing on an oval shaped field. On each team, there are six forwards, six midfielders and six defenders. There are four quarters, like the NFL, but, each quarter is 20 minutes long. If a player has possession of the ball, he may only hold onto the ball for 15 meters before having to either touch it on the ground or bounce it on the ground. A player scores a goal by kicking the ball through the goal posts, without the ball having been touched by any other player as it flies through air. An extra point, like in American Football, can be scored if a player kicks the ball through the two behind posts, which are on either side of the main goal posts.
Now, how does all of this tie into Braess’s Paradox? Franklin has, in a way, been hurting the performance of the Sydney Swans. Of course, it is not entirely his fault, but the team expected him to be beneficial to the team instead of being hurtful. That is why they are confused. Braess’s paradox describes the phenomena where adding another part to a road network could in fact hurt a community instead of actually helping it. Franklin is one of the leading goal scorers in ARF but, the team is the second-lowest scoring team out of the top eight teams. The real question to ask is whether or not a star player can actually lead to a decrease in overall team performance. This situation is similar to the situation of Patrick Ewing, a former NBA basketball player who was the star of his team. When he left, they actually ended up doing better than they did when he was on the team. The main problem with Franklin is that he is considered to be one of the best players on the team. This sounds good, but, if the defense realizes that Franklin will be getting the ball most of the time, they will make sure that he is heavily defended and they will decrease his overall efficiency. If a team becomes solely dependent on a new player, then they will not obtain the results that they had hoped for due to this idea that something that seems beneficial could in fact hurt.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/sydneys-reliance-on-lance-franklin-unpacked-new-footy-paradox-threatening-swans-flag-hopes/news-story/795f0223322fc951d2158d135b52f105