I'm not going to try and play down the importance of kicking goals and high scores but it's not the be all and end all.
This year Richmond were 4th ranked with 331 while Adelaide were top with 395. Last year it was the Dogs 7th with 311 to Adelaide's 396. This definitely appears to tie in with the ongoing trends of the past couple of decades regarding the
In the last 17 years the premier kicked the most goals of any club 8 times (47%); that's the 2013-15 Hawks, 2011 & 2007 Geelong, 2006 Eagles and Brisbane in 2002 & 2003. I think we can all agree that they were pretty decent teams at the time too.
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Making the most of opportunities will make a huge difference. I don't see it so much as having a top 6 or 7 who kick 200-250 between them but rather having a larger number of players hit the scoreboard and spread the load. Instead of the top 6 kicking say 65% of the teams goals I'd rather have 12 guys make a more equal contribution. Maybe McKay, Casboult & Wright kick between 30 and 40 each, guys like Charlie and Jack can get to 25, then you have a heap in that 15 to 20 bracket with Cuningham, Murphy, Cripps, Kennedy, Kreuz, Samo, Lang, Pickett, Fisher, Ed and possibly even a new draft pick. Throw in a handful here and there from Simmo, Willo, Mullet, Weits, etc and the tally starts rising. We kicked an average of 11 a game this year, 3 below the competition average. If we can avoid blowouts like Sydney, Geelong and Port, kicking and additional 2 goals a game will do us a world of good considering our defensive systems (and hoping that losing Doc doesn't obliterate that).