Autopsy I know stats dont mean everything.....

[Da Main Man]

...but they are sometimes more relevent then a 22 week old drunken memory.

I was looking through our season stats and a few things surprised me, but not all in a good way.

Total Hitouts 720 (17th in the league)
Considering our ruck stocks this is not a real surprise, but second last is still a real concern. Hopefully Grundy will help us out in 2014 and beyond to at least get this stat up.

Total Tackles 1506 (8th in the league)
This is alarming from 2009 - 2011 we were THE tackling team, I know Bucks game plan has changed, but this was our bread and butter.

Disposal effiency 72.8% (5th in the league)
I know some think this stat is a crock of sh!t but we are at least in the ballpark. Granted the range is 70% - 74%, i'd like to find a stat for I50 effiency as i'd believe it to be considerably lower.

Clearances (14th in the league) & Centre Clearances (14th in the league)
We brag about how good our midfield is but it shows a clear lack of tough inside mids. Ball needs some real help, JT is there abouts but we need to address this.

Frees For (15th) Frees Against (16th)
Damn umps, we are disciplined in not giving away too many free kicks at the same time we arn't getting our fair share either. not an issue just a surpsing stat.

Rebound 50's (Dead Last) & Running Bounces (3rd)
Heath Shaw 10th in the league (2013) in R50's whilst playing in a position not becoming of his character still up there in this stat with no support from other team mates in any meaningful way. Why do we want to trade him again? silly collingwood. (2012 with toovey in the team Shaw ranked......wait for it, Number 1) Shaw and Tooves are a 1-2 punch.

Running bounces in my mind are a clear indication of us 'taking them on' we we are pretty good in this regard but primarily due to one Heath Shaw (1st in the league by a loooooong way) really, trade him? *mind blown*.

Contested Possessions (8th) & Uncontested Possessions (4th)
Ok every week before a game Bucks is interviewed and it usually goes along the lines of 'yeah Richo we'll go out there and focus on the contested ball and clean ball movement'
It's plainly obvious we are playing an uncontested high possession style of footy but we dont have the talent to pull it off. We used to be the team opposition dreaded playing, now we are getting into a bruise free stlye of play suited for womans under 17 comps. I don't like it, I loved our hard tackling head first into the pack style of play.

anways, feel free to add to this our completly rip it apart I was just having a look and a few things really popped out at me.

 

[Jonno94]

I will cry if we play Uncontested, bruise free football next year.

 

[Chilli Con Incarnate]

Frees For (15th) Frees Against (16th)
Damn umps, we are disciplined in not giving away too many free kicks at the same time we arn't getting our fair share either. not an issue just a surpsing stat.

I am bringing this stat up every time some numpty tells me how Collingwood always get the best go with umpiring.

 

[RobbyTMagpies]

Good thread, very informative, I too am shocked with the umpiring against us.
Round 3 against Hawthorn when the free kick count was 22-13 in Hawthorns favor.
I keep getting told by my Richmond mates "your just bias because your a Collingwood supporter"
The week after we played Richmond and won.
The umpires did favor us that game and so they should have given the week before with Hawthorn.
My Richmond supporters said during the match "Umpires omg umpires love you, look at the frees" blah blah, etc.
I simply replied "your just bias because your a Richmond supporter"

 

[Premier Pies]

Have you considered that we are putrid at clearances and centre clearances due to the fact we rank 17th in the league for hitouts? Ball was back from a knee reco and Thomas is effectively playing his first season in AFL. I suggest it's not all doom and gloom but they are certainly three key areas where we need to improve dramatically.

 

[mattys123]

Have you considered that we are putrid at clearances and centre clearances due to the fact we rank 17th in the league for hitouts? Ball was back from a knee reco and Thomas is effectively playing his first season in AFL. I suggest it's not all doom and gloom but they are certainly three key areas where we need to improve dramatically.

This.

Wasn't Libba jnr the leading clearance player in the comp, who just happened to be fed by the best ruckman in the comp?

This is why I think we should try out 2 genuine rucks in 2014, forget the 1 1/2 crap, it's not working and hasn't worked since 2010.

 

[sr36]

Have you considered that we are putrid at clearances and centre clearances due to the fact we rank 17th in the league for hitouts? Ball was back from a knee reco and Thomas is effectively playing his first season in AFL. I suggest it's not all doom and gloom but they are certainly three key areas where we need to improve dramatically.

We set up poorly. We're badly coached.

 

[Soul_Pie]

The clearance stat to me is not too much of a worry given the likes of Geelong, Freo and Hawthorn are not particularly strong in that area either. To me it's more about the quality of clearances rather than the actual numbers themselves. The way teams are setting up these they often look almost to lose the clearance and gain the ball back after a scrappy kick forward is marked or rebounded, it's almost like the clearance is secondary to what happens afterwards in the minds of most coaches. Clearance + possession retention would be a far more interesting statistic.

To me the biggest stat at the moment is that we are third in the comp for inside 50s yet seem to get no value for them, that suggests our forward setup is extremely lacking. We are decent at taking marks inside 50, second in the comp in fact, but most seem to be coming from Cloke who leads this stat by an absolute mile, but he squanders his opportunities. We had 58 inside 50s against Port yet kicked 9 goals. Something is clearly amiss here, as it has been for a while now. (Lappin would have to take some blame for that) Our efficiency going forward, our ball movement, our quality at ground level, our seeming inability to score outside of kicking it on Cloke's head are pressing issues. You watch the way the Hawks spread the opposition defence, the way they work the angles and then you compare it to our disorganised, chaotic forward movement and it's just world's apart. We find more of the ball than any other team in the competition, (we're first in disposals) yet seem to do very little with it.

 

[loki04]

Our delivery into the f50 is piss poor but we also have a static forward line who don't create space for each other bit of a chicken or the egg scenario.

 

[Da Main Man]

Have you considered that we are putrid at clearances and centre clearances due to the fact we rank 17th in the league for hitouts? Ball was back from a knee reco and Thomas is effectively playing his first season in AFL. I suggest it's not all doom and gloom but they are certainly three key areas where we need to improve dramatically.

Collingwood have had several thousand years of practice 'sharking opposition ruckman' why was this year such a standout of mediocrity?

Geelong can allow the opposition to win the clearance because thier defense is easily able to turnover possession in thier defending half, rebound and get back inside attacking 50. Our defense is not able to accomplish this so we are behind the 8-ball on every lost clearance.

but again, Hopefully we can address this we some smart recruiting and the improvement of Grundy.