Skip to main content
Your browser is not up to date. We encourage you to change or update your browser to ensure the best possible experience on our site.
Login

Australasia's Best Sporting Team

Powered by GAIN LINE Analytics

What makes a winning team?

Jump to

Concept Overview

Australasia’s Best Sporting Team was designed to bring an analytical approach to answering questions like whether great historic teams could have survived in today’s competitions, or about which football code is the best of all. In doing so it aims to start a new conversation about greatness. The aim is to reward success, whilst unearthing some hidden gems and most importantly, helping those in need.

The concept appealed to Platinum given the body of work we have done with GAIN LINE on our own team cohesion

In 2018, Platinum Asset Management, in conjunction with GAIN LINE Analytics, conducted a huge statistical analysis of 14 sports over 25 years and determined that the Crusaders rugby team, based in Christchurch, New Zealand were Australasia’s Best Sporting Team over that period.

ABST Annual Award

Since 2019, Platinum has presented an annual award to the team that is at the top of its game, achieving the best outcome over the most recent rolling 5-year period. The basic principles are the same, but reflect excellence over shorter, yet still meaningful, periods. The goal continues to be to help those in need, whilst recognising success.

The annual award recognises the evolving sporting landscape, the emergence of new competitions, and the rise of women’s sport. During 2019, Platinum was pleased to be involved in the FPA’s Women in Wealth initiative, presenting Giants Netball superstars, Caitlin Bassett (Australian captain) and Jo Harten (England) to advisers around Australia. In 2022, Sydney FC’s female captain Natalie Tobin spoke to our clients about her experiences at an event in Sydney.

Top 25

ABST originally started as a research project at GAIN LINE Analytics in trying to decipher what a truly successful team could be defined as. The inaugural award was presented to the best franchise of the last 25 years in line with the tenure of Platinum, GAIN LINE Analytics research partner. The annual award recognises the strongest franchise on a rolling five-year period. It has been won by Melbourne Storm (NRL, 2019-20) and Sydney FC (A-League Men’s, 2021).

Understanding the size and variety of the sporting landscape in Australia gives some idea of the complexity of determining the best team.

Rank 2021 Rank Team Name Competition Country/State ABT Score
1 2 Crusaders Super Rugby NZ 2.97
2 13 Melbourne City A League Men VIC 2.90
3 7 Geelong Cats AFL VIC 2.86
4 10 Penrith Panthers NRL NSW 2.70
5 20 Melbourne Demons AFLW VIC 2.65
6 5 Sydney FC A League Women NSW 2.40
7 3 Sydney Sixers BBL NSW 2.25
8 4 Melbourne Storm NRL VIC 2.16
9 22 Adelaide Crows AFLW SA 2.16
10 9 Melbourne United NBL VIC 2.16
11 - Melbourne Boomers WNBL VIC 2.12
12 24 Brisbane Lions AFLW QLD 2.06
13 - UNSW Wests AWL Men's NSW 1.99
14 - Chiefs Esports Club LCO/eSports NSW 1.93
15 - Waratahs Super Rugby W NSW 1.90
16 8 New South Wales Breakers WNCL NSW 1.90
17 12 Brisbane Heat WBBL QLD 1.89
18 1 Sydney FC A League Men NSW 1.85
19 - Brisbane Lions AFL QLD 1.79
20 - CBR Brave AIHL ACT 1.68
21 - West Coast Fever Netball WA 1.67
22 21 South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL NSW 1.60
23 - Blues Super Rugby NZ 1.60
24 6 Perth Wildcats NBL WA 1.52
25 - Brisbane Broncos NRLW QLD 1.52
  • Male
  • Female

Award

As part of the Australasia’s Best Sporting Team and the team cohesion work between Platinum Asset Management and GAIN LINE Analytics, Platinum will award A$10,000 to this year’s winning team, Crusaders (Super Rugby), to donate to a worthwhile cause of their choice.

A$10,000 Grant

The club has chosen to support the Child Cancer Foundation. For over 40 years, Child Cancer Foundation has stood by their kaupapa [principle] of ensuring that every family going through childhood cancer in New Zealand has someone there to support them at a time when they need it most.

Australasia’s Best Sporting Team 2022

Winners

The Crusaders have a long and proud history in Super Rugby, and their organisational culture is based on the core values of identity, resilience, connection and good people. Founded on these concepts and the idea that people are at the heart, the connection is apparent within – 22 centurions and 267 capped Crusaders across 26 years.

In this time, the Crusaders have successfully achieved 13 titles, and more recently 6 titles in a row – including taking out the inaugural Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby Pacific competitions. The Crusaders are the only Super Rugby team to have gone back to back, twice.

Find out more

Methodology

The period of observation for the 2022 award is 2018-2022. Every game in every sport in Australasia that conducts an ongoing home/away or equivalent competition that included Australian teams has been analysed subject to the competition meeting specific criteria. More than 9,500 individual match results are in the dataset, including almost 1700 from the 2022 seasons.

To be considered for the award a team must have played in each of the last 5 seasons, with some judgement around COVID impacts. For each team in each competition, their win/loss record is looked at season by season, along with their competition position. More recent years are weighted more highly. Win-loss record weights higher than position. This recognises consistency over seasons as opposed to the one-off nature of finals.

For each of these measures, a Z-Score is created to show the relative raw performance within competitions and to enable comparison across all the competitions.

An adjustment reflects competition stability over the last 10 years to place performance in context. Stable competitions are harder to perform well in consistently as player trading cycles impact on competitiveness.

154 eligible teams are ranked by adjusted Z-Scores, producing a definitive list of Australasia’s Best Sporting Teams over the period.

This website contains the Top 25 overall, Top 3 by sport and Top 3 by state/country.

To be the best team in a sport over a prolonged period requires dedication, endurance, excellence and cohesion. To be the best overall, is a step beyond.

Top 3 by sport

Australian Rules Football

Geelong Cats
Melbourne Demons
Adelaide Crows

Basketball

Melbourne United
Melbourne Boomers
Perth Wildcats

Cricket

Sydney Sixers
New South Wales Breakers
Brisbane Heat

eSports

Chiefs Esports Club
ORDER
Dire Wolves

Football

Melbourne City
Sydney FC
Sydney FC

Ice Hockey

CBR Brave
Newcastle North Stars
Sydney Bears

Netball

West Coast Fever
Melbourne Vixens
Giants Netball

Rugby League

Penrith Panthers
Melbourne Storm
South Sydney Rabbitohs

Rugby Union

Crusaders
Waratahs
Blues

Water Polo

UNSW Wests
Drummoyne Devils
Sydney University Lions

Top 3 by region

ACT

CBR Brave Ice Hockey
Canberra Capitals Basketball
Brumbies Rugby Union

NSW

Penrith Panthers Rugby League
Sydney FC Football
Sydney Sixers Cricket

NZ

Crusaders Rugby Union
Blues Rugby Union
Chiefs Rugby Union

QLD

Brisbane Lions Australian Rules
Brisbane Heat Cricket
Brisbane Lions Australian Rules

SA

Adelaide Crows Australian Rules
Adelaide Strikers Cricket
Port Adelaide Australian Rules

TAS

Tasmanian Roar Cricket
Hobart Hurricanes Cricket
Tasmania Cricket

VIC

Melbourne City Football
Geelong Cats Australian Rules
Melbourne Demons Australian Rules

WA

WC Fever Netball
Perth Wildcats Basketball
Perth Scorchers Cricket
  • Male
  • Female

The following leagues were considered. They all currently exist and have done continuously for at least five years in a full league format (as opposed to carnival). They are stipulated to be the top tier in Australian sport. Any NZ-based teams playing in combined Australia/NZ leagues (such as Super Rugby) are included, thus creating an Australasian based ranking.

  • AFL: Men’s Australian Football League
  • AFLW: Women’s Australian Football League
  • A League Men: Men’s Football (Soccer)
  • A League Women: Women’s Football (Soccer)
  • AWL Men's: Australian Water Polo League (Men’s)
  • AWL Women's: Australian Water Polo League (Women's)
  • AIHL: Men’s Ice Hockey
  • NBL: Men’s Basketball
  • WNBL: Women’s National Basketball League
  • Netball: Women’s Netball League
  • Super Rugby: Men’s Rugby International Provincial Competition
  • Super W: Women’s Rugby Union
  • NRL: National Rugby League
  • NRL W: National Women's Rugby League
  • Sheffield Shield: Men’s Long form Cricket
  • WNCL: Women’s National Cricket League
  • BBL: Men’s Big Bash Cricket
  • WBBL: Women’s Big Bash Cricket
  • LCO: League of Legends Circuit Oceania (was Oceanic Pro League)
  • ABL: Australian Baseball League (Men’s)
  • AWIHL: Women’s Ice Hockey

Bold competitions were new in 2022.

italicised competitions were removed from 2022 rankings due to severity of COVID impact.

The top 25 in 2022 includes teams from 17 of the 19 eligible competitions with ten women’s teams, from eight leagues, in this list of top performers . As previously forecast, women’s sport has grown substantially in recent years with currently 84 female franchises in our survey, up from 59 last year (62 meeting the qualifying criteria) and 109 men’s (88 qualify). The WNBL has the teams with the longest tenure in women’s sport.

  1. Crusaders (2nd in 2021) – Our winners added to their 2018 ABST title, having become Super Rugby champions for the 11th time in 2022, the competition’s 25th edition. They had won a hat-trick of titles in 2017-2019 to add their 7 titles between 1998-2008, their other period of total dominance. In 2020 and 2021, the competition was impacted by COVID and the Crusaders won the NZ-only Super Rugby Aotearoa in both years.
  2. Melbourne City (13th in 2021) – Our runners-up won back to back Premierships in 2021 and 2022, and this year made their third Grand Final in a row. They were Champions in 2021 and have spent 5 years in a row in the top 5 of the A-League ladder.
  3. Geelong Cats (7th in 2021) – The 2022 AFL Premiers, were also Minor Premiers in 2019 and 2022, and made the Grand Final in 2020. They have been in the AFL Ladder’s Top 4 in each of the last 4 years. The Cats were 3rd in our 25 year study published in 2018.
  4. Penrith Panthers (10th in 2021) – Back to back NRL champions (2021-2022), after losing 2020’s Grand Final, the Panthers won the Minor Premiership in 2020 and 2022, and were runner-up in 2021 on the ladder. The home-grown nature of the team captures headlines.
  5. Melbourne Demons (20th in 2021) – Newly crowned AFL W Premiers in their second grand final of 2022, as the AFLW moved from beginning to the end of the year. In each of the last 3 seasons, no team has had a superior win-loss ratio in the regular season than the Demons.
  6. Sydney FC (Women) (5th in 2021) – The top placed female team in ABST made their 5th Grand Final in a row, having been Champions in 2019. They won their second Premiership in a row, in their seventh consecutive season in the A-League Women’s top 3 on the ladder.

Results based on all competitions completed by 30 November 2022.

More Information

Australia's Best Sporting Team

Contact us

Get Platinum's Latest
News & Insights

Subscribe

Connect to
GAIN LINE Analytics

Game changing analytics

Blog

Insights