(AFL Article) - difference between winning and losing quarters

[didaksrightfoot]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-07-25/the-inquirer-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly

It's hard to know what to read into this, and I would love to see if someone had a full list of these stats so we could put it in perspective.

But I do think that this "snapshot" can be quite telling.
The 3 stats they listed which were (I presume) the biggest variations between our winning and losing quarters were:

Tackles - (biggest variation of all clubs)
Opposition Accuracy - (2nd)
Inside 50's - (7th).
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Now this could go into any of the threads about our gameplan/Bucks/roasts etc, but I would like to see what other peoples interpretations of this is.

My view currently is that this is all about our attack on the ball, and our defending all around the ground, and other than just getting the ball inside 50, it doesn't show that our kicking efficiency (though poor) has been the difference between our good and bad quarters.

So when people complain about someone like Taylor Adams getting a game (just an example, don't want this to become a discussion about him), I would say it is probably because the club has looked at numbers like this and seen that our best football is not when we are disposing efficiently and kicking plenty of goals, but is when we are winning the contests and shutting down the opposition.

 

[swiftdog]

I think it furthers the view that we tend to play our best football when we have a manic attack on the ball and play with high intensity. Tackles is a testament to that and I guess opposition accuracy is as well. It's easiest to kick goals from a set-shot or under little pressure whereas if we come with intensity we force teams to kick goals under pressure or if they do get a set-shot it's from a tighter angle. I don't make much of inside 50's as I think that's a stat that's a result of the state of the game rather than something we can change or "work on" at training.

 

[Winston_Smith]

And tellingly, opposition accuracy is the second. In a 50/50 game, our constant inaccuracy in front of goal kills us, because all the opposition has to do is kick relatively straight and we're cooked. Furthermore our goal-kicking inaccuracy does more damage than just missed opportunities, it saps the energy and confidence from the whole team (that means you, Trav ).

...Taylor Adams getting a game ...the club has looked at numbers...win the contests and shut down the opposition.

Which he does best as an in-and-under mid...and then they go and put him in the backline.

 

[manicmagpie]

The tackles stat stands out. Apologies if other people have gone over this in the various other threads but what has become glaringly obvious in the last month or so is that we rely heavily on creating turnovers in our half of the ground to kick all our goals. Teams have now worked out that if they hang on to the ball and just short pass it up the ground until they are a safe distance from our goal then even if a turnover then eventuates, due to our poor disposal and lack of effective options up forward, we find it very hard to score consistently.

Therefore whenever we drop off in our tackling and pressure and allow teams to clear the ball from our forward half we struggle. Personally however I don't see it as all doom and gloom as we have been screwed by injuries in this regard, with most of our best ball users and forward options have been unavailable in many games and some missing for the whole year. It obviously isn't all down to this and there are other things that need to be addressed but it is enough of a factor to explain some of the disturbing trends in our losses.