pfft - defence isnt the issue

[liz]

Are there any stats available to show how the clearance stats have changed over the season?

It's pure gut feel only, but we were so utterly woeful at clearances early in the season and I get the impression we have improved considerably in recent week, not to "good" but maybe to "average".

Are there stats to back this hunch up?

Mind you, recent weeks' stats will be influenced by the Port game when we had no ruckman and consequently got killed out of the middle. Looking at simple means without any measure of variances is fraught with danger.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by lizz
Are there any stats available to show how the clearance stats have changed over the season?

It's pure gut feel only, but we were so utterly woeful at clearances early in the season and I get the impression we have improved considerably in recent week, not to "good" but maybe to "average".

Are there stats to back this hunch up?

I think it's the other way around. Here are the stats:

Opp          Clear (F-A)  Cum.Net   CB Clear (F-A)
Brisbane      34-25         + 9        12-10
Fremantle     41-46         + 4        10-10
Geelong       36-29         +11        10-12
Kangaroos     39-27         +23        15-11
Melbourne     31-35         +19        13-16
Essendon      30-51         - 2        10-17
Richmond      46-43         + 1        10- 7
West Coast    40-36         + 5        18-14
Hawthorn      23-27         + 1         8-10
W Bulldogs    40-30         +11        11-11
StKilda       18-29         --          8- 8
Port Adelaide 22-31         - 9         9-14
Collingwood   36-33         - 6        10- 8
Carlton       33-40         -13        11-12

[liz]

Oh well. It was a nice theory anyway.

[chammond]

Richmond 46-43 + 1 10- 7
West Coast 40-36 + 5 18-14

How the hell did we lose to Richmond and West Coast??

Even though I've watched the tapes several times, I still can't believe how we wimped those two final quarters!

[dendol]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
I think it's the other way around. Here are the stats:

StKilda       18-29         --          8- 8

that one surprised me.

also, our centre break clearances havent been too bad at all this year. We really only got slaughtered by Essendon, whereas the Port one is excusable.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by dendol
that one surprised me.

also, our centre break clearances havent been too bad at all this year. We really only got slaughtered by Essendon, whereas the Port one is excusable.

The Saints one is possibly because it was quite an open game and we didn't attempt to clog it up.

CB clearances don't appear too bad, however that is a bit deceptive we are 12th in the comp, and also we are only 11th in goals from CB clearances.

[dendol]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
CB clearances don't appear too bad, however that is a bit deceptive we are 12th in the comp, and also we are only 11th in goals from CB clearances.

11th because our midfielders cant hit targets once they clear the ball. Any stats on effective kicks into attacking 50?

[swansrule100]

I know these are all good ways to see where improvement can be and so on

but to me only one stat matters

P W D L F A % Total
1 St Kilda 14 11 0 3 1593 1132 140.72 44

2 Brisbane Lions 14 10 0 4 1523 1239 122.92 40

3 Port Adelaide 14 10 0 4 1540 1292 119.2 40

4 Melbourne 14 10 0 4 1428 1231 116 40

5 Geelong 14 8 0 6 1286 1171 109.82 32

6 Fremantle 14 8 0 6 1256 1154 108.84 32

7 Sydney Swans 14 8 0 6 1247 1215 102.63 32

8 Essendon 14 8 0 6 1462 1461 100.07 32

9 Kangaroos 14 7 0 7 1422 1309 108.63 28

10 West Coast Eagles 14 6 0 8 1259 1420 88.66 24

11 Carlton 14 6 0 8 1254 1471 85.25 24

12 Adelaide 14 5 0 9 1353 1309 103.36 20

13 Collingwood 14 5 0 9 1173 1306 89.82 20

14 Western Bulldogs 14 4 0 10 1309 1523 85.95 16

15 Richmond 14 4 0 10 1088 1487 73.17 16

16 Hawthorn 14 2 0 12 1077 1550 69.48 8


i just want to be top of that... granted we need to be doing well in all the stats to get there

[floppinab]

Originally posted by dendol
umm. how is it done then? if a smallish player who has good skills below his knees and a great handball cant be relied on to get the bulk of our clearances, who will? Care to elaborate?

Yeah what I was trying to say is that I believe we've got players that are good enough getting the footy in close it's the technique they use in getting it out, too many handballs to other in close players under pressure. We need good clearing handballs and sometimes just a good kick forward to give the forwards a chance.

[sharp9]

The reason we seem to be ahead on CB clearances (relative to our opposition) but only 11th overall is that there are so few goals scored in our games.

Naturally the Bulldogs and St. Kilda will have higher CB clearance totals than us regardless of how good they are (or not)

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by dendol
11th because our midfielders cant hit targets once they clear the ball. Any stats on effective kicks into attacking 50?

No, only total I50s AFAIK. But I agree with your point.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by sharp9
The reason we seem to be ahead on CB clearances (relative to our opposition) but only 11th overall is that there are so few goals scored in our games.

It's done on a net basis.

[penga]

Re: Re: pfft - defence isnt the issue

Originally posted by Rob-bloods
These stats are interesting, does that mean if we rank No 1 in defence on Prostats we get the Premiership Cup?

Afraid not, we have to hold players like Lynch, Brown,Lloyd, Neitz etc in tight finals, and we need a defensive BBBH option IMHO to complete the picture.

Yes we can improve with a midfield 'star' , but our small brigade is OK and improving. Give me a Leppitsch Harley Maguire Scarlett type and I would feel a lot happier.

thats the thing though - we compare very well against brisbane with points against... you can only hold a team to so low a score, the key is kicking a winning score and when we have a star studded forward line the problem lies on the midfield

who cares if you'll "FEEL BETTER" with a gorilla FFS! its what they score against us that counts... and the stats dont lie... dont let emotion get in the way of your judgment on our defence and our apparent lack of KP backmen

the fact is that we need better supply to our forwards and our midfielders to get their hands on the ball more... we need to concentrate on our midfield not on a KP back