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#1
Are we as simple to beat as two lose men 30 metres out in front of goal, or are our forwards lazy? Is it the rushed nature of the men behind the ball game plan that is to blame? I am not for the coach being at fault, but can somebody tell me how it has gone so dramatically wrong?
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21895730-11088,00.html
ST Kilda kicked more goals than any other team in 2005, Mark Stevens writes.
This year it is tracking to finish as the fifth lowest-scoring team in the past 20 years.
Footy is still a simple game.
If you pump the ball inside 50 more than the opposition, odds are you will win.
Official stats kept since the start of 1999 reveal 73 per cent of teams winning the inside 50s take the four points as well.
Yet St Kilda's class of 2007 continues to defy logic.
The Saints have won the inside 50s in seven of 11 games this year for just four victories.
It happened again on Sunday. St Kilda won the inside 50s 51-49 against the Kangaroos, yet had seven fewer scoring shots and lost by 22 points.
Saints coach Ross Lyon is well aware of the conversion problem, raising it at his post-match media conference.
But there is plenty more in the devilish detail.
St Kilda, which kicked more goals than any other team in 2004 and 2005, is now ranked 16th and averaging just 10.4 goals a game.
The Saints are tracking to finish as the fifth lowest-scoring team in 20 years.
Fitzroy, in its final year of 1996, averaged just 9.4 goals a game.
Melbourne in '97 averaged 9.4, the Bulldogs of 1989 10.1 and Fitzroy of 1995 10.5.
St Kilda has time to lift its average before the end of the season, and surely it will not get any worse.
But the Saints' scoring has dropped dramatically in the past month.
In losses to Hawthorn, Fremantle, Geelong and the Kangaroos, they have managed 222 points, 73 fewer than any other team in those four rounds. And the root of the problem is the important art of converting forward 50 entries into goals.
Consider these facts:
ST KILDA this season scores a goal just 21.3 per cent of the time once inside 50, ranked 16th in the competition and clearly the worst conversion rate since Champion Data has been keeping the stat.
THE second-worst conversion rate recorded is St Kilda's 23.3 per cent back in 2000, the year the Saints finished last with two wins and a draw.
IN THE past four rounds, the Saints are turning just 15.3 per cent of forward entries into goals, 5 per cent less than any other team in that time.
BACK in 2004 when the Saints scored the most goals in the competition, they converted 30.6 per cent of forward 50s into goals.
So what's going wrong?
The Saints have genuinely dangerous marking targets in Nick Riewoldt, Fraser Gehrig and Justin Koschitzke and a buzzing crumber in Stephen Milne.
On paper, it should be a matter of getting it in there and letting the foursome do the rest.
But in the past four weeks, the Saints haven't produced one bag of more than two goals. Gehrig has kicked two goals three times and Riewoldt two twice.
A Champion Data investigation has revealed key reasons for the big dry.
When the Saints are getting it into 50, they are invariably being forced wide.
Just 57.7 per cent of all St Kilda's shots on goal have been from the corridor, ranked 16th in the competition.
The Kangaroos, the Saints' masters on Sunday, have had 75.4 per cent of shots from the corridor.
The wider you go, the more inaccurate you will be.
And the Saints rank 16th for accuracy, converting 51.4 per cent of shots.
Then there is the basic fact that Riewoldt, Gehrig and Milne are spending less time inside 50.
Riewoldt, working as hard as ever this year, is winning 35.9 per cent of his possessions inside 50. Through 2004-06, Riewoldt was winning 41.4 per cent of his ball in the arc.
Gehrig is now winning only 55.8 per cent of his stats inside 50, down from 77.1 per cent in 2004-06.
And Milne, once the king of patrolling close to goal, has won just 39.7 per cent of his ball in the forward arc. In the previous three years, he tracked at 52.1 per cent.
Lyon doesn't need reminding he has a problem on his hands. Finding a way to get reward for hard work down the field will be high on his list of priorities for the mid-season break.
The Saints' opponents are converting inside 50s into goals 27.1 per cent of the time.
The gap to the Saints' 21.3 is the widest in the competition, and that is what is hurting them on the scoreboard.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21895730-11088,00.html
ST Kilda kicked more goals than any other team in 2005, Mark Stevens writes.
This year it is tracking to finish as the fifth lowest-scoring team in the past 20 years.
Footy is still a simple game.
If you pump the ball inside 50 more than the opposition, odds are you will win.
Official stats kept since the start of 1999 reveal 73 per cent of teams winning the inside 50s take the four points as well.
Yet St Kilda's class of 2007 continues to defy logic.
The Saints have won the inside 50s in seven of 11 games this year for just four victories.
It happened again on Sunday. St Kilda won the inside 50s 51-49 against the Kangaroos, yet had seven fewer scoring shots and lost by 22 points.
Saints coach Ross Lyon is well aware of the conversion problem, raising it at his post-match media conference.
But there is plenty more in the devilish detail.
St Kilda, which kicked more goals than any other team in 2004 and 2005, is now ranked 16th and averaging just 10.4 goals a game.
The Saints are tracking to finish as the fifth lowest-scoring team in 20 years.
Fitzroy, in its final year of 1996, averaged just 9.4 goals a game.
Melbourne in '97 averaged 9.4, the Bulldogs of 1989 10.1 and Fitzroy of 1995 10.5.
St Kilda has time to lift its average before the end of the season, and surely it will not get any worse.
But the Saints' scoring has dropped dramatically in the past month.
In losses to Hawthorn, Fremantle, Geelong and the Kangaroos, they have managed 222 points, 73 fewer than any other team in those four rounds. And the root of the problem is the important art of converting forward 50 entries into goals.
Consider these facts:
ST KILDA this season scores a goal just 21.3 per cent of the time once inside 50, ranked 16th in the competition and clearly the worst conversion rate since Champion Data has been keeping the stat.
THE second-worst conversion rate recorded is St Kilda's 23.3 per cent back in 2000, the year the Saints finished last with two wins and a draw.
IN THE past four rounds, the Saints are turning just 15.3 per cent of forward entries into goals, 5 per cent less than any other team in that time.
BACK in 2004 when the Saints scored the most goals in the competition, they converted 30.6 per cent of forward 50s into goals.
So what's going wrong?
The Saints have genuinely dangerous marking targets in Nick Riewoldt, Fraser Gehrig and Justin Koschitzke and a buzzing crumber in Stephen Milne.
On paper, it should be a matter of getting it in there and letting the foursome do the rest.
But in the past four weeks, the Saints haven't produced one bag of more than two goals. Gehrig has kicked two goals three times and Riewoldt two twice.
A Champion Data investigation has revealed key reasons for the big dry.
When the Saints are getting it into 50, they are invariably being forced wide.
Just 57.7 per cent of all St Kilda's shots on goal have been from the corridor, ranked 16th in the competition.
The Kangaroos, the Saints' masters on Sunday, have had 75.4 per cent of shots from the corridor.
The wider you go, the more inaccurate you will be.
And the Saints rank 16th for accuracy, converting 51.4 per cent of shots.
Then there is the basic fact that Riewoldt, Gehrig and Milne are spending less time inside 50.
Riewoldt, working as hard as ever this year, is winning 35.9 per cent of his possessions inside 50. Through 2004-06, Riewoldt was winning 41.4 per cent of his ball in the arc.
Gehrig is now winning only 55.8 per cent of his stats inside 50, down from 77.1 per cent in 2004-06.
And Milne, once the king of patrolling close to goal, has won just 39.7 per cent of his ball in the forward arc. In the previous three years, he tracked at 52.1 per cent.
Lyon doesn't need reminding he has a problem on his hands. Finding a way to get reward for hard work down the field will be high on his list of priorities for the mid-season break.
The Saints' opponents are converting inside 50s into goals 27.1 per cent of the time.
The gap to the Saints' 21.3 is the widest in the competition, and that is what is hurting them on the scoreboard.

