Mercurial89
Brownlow Medallist
Article on the AFL website about momentum, momentum swings and which clubs do well and badly on that.
The "team defence" related stats given for Essendon are;
6 five goal runs conceded this year, which is equal 6th most (worst) in the league. Teams that are worse than us in this area: Melbourne, North, Carlton, Gold Coast, St Kilda. We're tied with the Bulldogs and Richmond. Elite company...
21 three goal runs conceded this year, equal 5th most (worst) in the league. North, Carlton, Melbourne, Brisbane ahead of us. Tied with GC, Bulldogs, Sydney, Hawthorn.
The "team offence" stats they provided are (hampered obviously by our decimated forward line, but nonetheless);
2 five goal runs executed by us this year. 6th least, with Sydney, Melbourne, St Kilda, Gold Coast below us with 1 and Port with 0.
18 three-goal runs executed by us this year. That's 8th (dead centre of the pack). We're tied with North, Freo and Hawthorn.
Stats Files: The AFL's kings of momentum revealed
Who's had the most runs of goals this year? Plus, the stats that will have Dogs fans shaking their heads, and the three Demons who stood up against Freowww.afl.com.au
Clearly an area of deficiency, to get and maintain forward momentum, capitalise on it and prevent the opponent from turning the tide against you. I think that comes back to consistency, ability to think on your feet and our on-field leadership. We can't expect the coach to single-handedly force the team to switch strategies mid-quarter, they need to be coached so that they can do it themselves, and fast. It's the kind of thing that James Kelly was exceptionally good at it most recently, but he retired in 2017. Perhaps he can be better utilised as a coach to teach these concepts.
It also highlights how important free kicks can be, when they help to turn the momentum of a game. It's not the number of them that matters, but where, when and with what frequency. Three in succession mid-quarter can quickly turn the momentum, while three at the end of a quarter is unlikely to have a significant impact. That'd be an interesting stat actually. A timeline with free kicks and scoring labeled on it. We all know it happens, but if you can prove it, it becomes damning.
I can think of a few opposition goal bursts that have flown on from highly contentious umpiring decisions.