Most Improved teams in NRL after Round 14

Just been thinking about the improvement, or detriment of some of the teams in the NRL this year. Couple of standouts come to mind; St George, North Queensland for example. Also some teams having shockers (Newcastle, Tigers). But I was wondering about them quantitatively.


So I dusted off my ELO figures from last year (it was the same methodology as this year, so no worries about comparing the two) and compared the ELO rankings from last year (at round 14), to this year (at round 14). Have to compare apples to apples after all. I then calculated the % improvement in ELO compared to last year to get an indicative value of how much a team has improved. And the results are below (Titans are on fire, Panthers having a shocker)

Team	2015	2014	Improvement %
Gold Coast Titans	1532.995	1244.093	23.22%
St. George Illawarra Dragons	1599.938	1317.792	21.41%
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	1473.78	1221.782	20.63%
North Queensland Cowboys	1802.804	1539.088	17.13%
Canberra Raiders	1513.072	1346.524	12.37%
Melbourne Storm	1552.02	1467.549	5.76%
Brisbane Broncos	1759.998	1743.712	0.93%
Newcastle Knights	1179.518	1188.216	-0.73%
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	1442.658	1481.917	-2.65%
Wests Tigers	1463.896	1524.478	-3.97%
New Zealand Warriors	1408.389	1507.419	-6.57%
Sydney Roosters	1644.552	1813.259	-9.30%
Parramatta Eels	1469.81	1623.714	-9.48%
South Sydney Rabbitohs	1484.516	1746.982	-15.02%
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	1321.642	1620.173	-18.43%
Penrith Panthers	1271.91	1692.096	-24.83%

Just goes to show what can happen in a year. Who would have picked Titans and St George as most improved. Or Penrith and Manly bringing up the rear.