I normally do a pretty intensive analysis mid season but have been strapped for time and cbf this year. But I did run some basic numbers just to see how we are tracking statistically, especially in some of the metrics that aren't widely publicised...
Given we've had Brad Hill (and his brother until recently) out for most of the year so far, it's impressive we have racked up some massive running numbers this season. We have run 62.7km more than our opposition in total. Only in two games has our opposition run further than us (Sydney and North). We ran 11.9km more than Richmond when they smashed us (clearly we ran harder but not smarter in that game). A lot of our run has come from our youngsters who have run hard pretty consistently and also each had some big running games (Giro - 16.7km, Crowden - 16.6km, Tucker - 15.4km, Langdon - 15.4km). Just imagine the running power when Brad Hill comes back in and guys like Giro, Crowden and Tucker are all running a bit smarter (like Langdon is now).
We've also run a total of 14.2km more at high speed than our opposition. Only four teams beat us at high speed running - North, Richmond, GWS and Sydney. But the differentials in those games weren't massive and we were missing some pretty pacy players in those games.
Probably the most interesting statistic I've found this season is Defensive Work Rate. Basically how hard we work when the opposition has the ball. In every single win we've worked harder defensively than our opposition. And in every single loss our opposition has worked harder than us defensively. Even more interesting is that in the games we got smashed in the differential for defensive work rate was big - eg Richmond -1.3km/h and Port -1.2km/h.
Obviously football is about more than just effort but you can see why with trend data like this that coaches (eg Ross) focus a lot on effort and especially defensive side of it. Supporting this even further is in our loss against Richmond and Port we actually ran a lot harder than they did when we had possession of the ball - like +1.5km/h and +1.4km/h respectively. And in our other losses the trend was the same - vs GWS +0.9km/h, WC +0.7km/h, Collingwood +0.7km/h. Meanwhile in wins our opposition often ran harder in attack - vs Dogs -0.4km/h, Carlton -0.2km/h.
So there is a fair case to make (at the least, theoretically) that if we had reallocated our energy in some games to work harder defensively instead of in attack, then we may have won more games or at least lessened the margins. And this isn't about just stopping goals or drying up scoring and keeping a lead, as the teams that are scoring big are often the ones with a much higher defensive work rate than their attacking work rate. Pressure creates turnovers and scoring opportunities, and (smart) running power is the key to creating that pressure.
tl;dr - We have some serious running power on our list now. Ross has arguably the best (raw) tools he's ever had at Freo. If he can continue to develop our players (especially the younger ones) to run smarter, we'll quickly start challenging top 8 teams and likely be finals bound next season.
Given we've had Brad Hill (and his brother until recently) out for most of the year so far, it's impressive we have racked up some massive running numbers this season. We have run 62.7km more than our opposition in total. Only in two games has our opposition run further than us (Sydney and North). We ran 11.9km more than Richmond when they smashed us (clearly we ran harder but not smarter in that game). A lot of our run has come from our youngsters who have run hard pretty consistently and also each had some big running games (Giro - 16.7km, Crowden - 16.6km, Tucker - 15.4km, Langdon - 15.4km). Just imagine the running power when Brad Hill comes back in and guys like Giro, Crowden and Tucker are all running a bit smarter (like Langdon is now).
We've also run a total of 14.2km more at high speed than our opposition. Only four teams beat us at high speed running - North, Richmond, GWS and Sydney. But the differentials in those games weren't massive and we were missing some pretty pacy players in those games.
Probably the most interesting statistic I've found this season is Defensive Work Rate. Basically how hard we work when the opposition has the ball. In every single win we've worked harder defensively than our opposition. And in every single loss our opposition has worked harder than us defensively. Even more interesting is that in the games we got smashed in the differential for defensive work rate was big - eg Richmond -1.3km/h and Port -1.2km/h.
Obviously football is about more than just effort but you can see why with trend data like this that coaches (eg Ross) focus a lot on effort and especially defensive side of it. Supporting this even further is in our loss against Richmond and Port we actually ran a lot harder than they did when we had possession of the ball - like +1.5km/h and +1.4km/h respectively. And in our other losses the trend was the same - vs GWS +0.9km/h, WC +0.7km/h, Collingwood +0.7km/h. Meanwhile in wins our opposition often ran harder in attack - vs Dogs -0.4km/h, Carlton -0.2km/h.
So there is a fair case to make (at the least, theoretically) that if we had reallocated our energy in some games to work harder defensively instead of in attack, then we may have won more games or at least lessened the margins. And this isn't about just stopping goals or drying up scoring and keeping a lead, as the teams that are scoring big are often the ones with a much higher defensive work rate than their attacking work rate. Pressure creates turnovers and scoring opportunities, and (smart) running power is the key to creating that pressure.
tl;dr - We have some serious running power on our list now. Ross has arguably the best (raw) tools he's ever had at Freo. If he can continue to develop our players (especially the younger ones) to run smarter, we'll quickly start challenging top 8 teams and likely be finals bound next season.