Agree - a team's defence is only as good as its midfield. The best defence will be cut up when the opposition gets clean clearances. We had too much ball streaming forward from the centre because our rucks could not get a hand to the ball and we had no defensive mids. Introducing Reeves, Nash and Newcombe started to change that dynamic. I am hoping that there will be much less pressure on our defence and much more pressure on opposition defence next year.We may have only been two goals a game behind them over the regular season but we are a long way away from being able to do what Melbourne did offensively over the finals season.
I think those figures about our defense being 3.5 goals behind are a bit skewed as well given how badly our midfield got pumped the first half of the year (and how often we lost the inside 50 count).