With the 2017 season now kicking off in under three weeks, every AFL side is beginning to ramp up preparations ahead of what should be an interesting season. Teams will look to play near full strength sides in this weekend's final round of JLT Community Series matches, before having a week off leading into the opening round of the season. Before round one each season, fans like to analyse each team's list and best 22 to determine which sides are ready to challenge for a premiership, but we've decided to enlist the help of Champion Data to look at how each side sits statistically at this stage of the year. Hawthorn and West Coast are the only two sides with an average age of above 25, and those two sides also have the most experienced lists in terms of games played, with both clubs sitting on an average of 89 games. The biggest differential between the two categories lies with GWS, as their average age of 24 years and 53 days sees them 12th on that list, but their average games played of 75 sees them fourth, meaning they've been able to retain a high amount of foundation players. Average age: Team Age Hawthorn 25y 11d West Coast 25y 5d Fremantle 24y 342d Geelong 24y 243d Essendon 24y 202d Richmond 24y 153d Sydney 24y 90d St Kilda 24y 77d Western Bulldogs 24y 76d Collingwood 24y 63d Port Adelaide 24y 62d GWS 24y 53d Melbourne 24y 17d North Melbourne 24y 360d Adelaide 23y 323d Carlton 23y 314d Gold Coast 23y 304d Brisbane 22y 337d Average games played: Team Games West Coast 89 Hawthorn 89 Fremantle 78 GWS 75 Essendon 75 Port Adelaide 74 Collingwood 72 Richmond 70 Western Bulldogs 70 Sydney 69 Geelong 69 St Kilda 68 Melbourne 66 Adelaide 66 North Melbourne 65 Gold Coast 65 Carlton 58 Brisbane 49
