I always like looking at corresponding stats, as it tells more of a story rather then focusing on one particular area.
Contested Possessions - 134 (15th) vs Uncontested Possessions - 234 (2nd)
Those stats worry me, as it shows obviously shows we don't get enough of the hard ball and therefore it could be said we have to many passengers in the team which is pointless as we first must win then ball to allow players like peake, ray, gram, montagna, etc to be effective in their roles. Also take a look at those names and think back to last season, they all had below par seasons (besides peake who improved in the latter half of the year)
Inside 50's - 50 (12th) vs Rebound 50's - 37(5th)
Now this can be interpreted in many ways, the first being that our attack breaks down in the midfield as we struggle to get on the end of a rebounding ball making it impossible to get any momentum going into our 50 to create a scoring opportunity.
The second being that our defenders are not hitting up the right options when kicking out of defense and are not hitting up our midfielders therefore not giving them a chance to give enough supply to our forwards to kick a winning total.
It would be great to have access to those specific stats to find out which is the case, but I doubt they would be accessible on the internet.
Another interesting way to interpret stats is by comparing them with previous years.
In 2009 we averaged
129 contested possessions and 260 uncontested (difference of 131)
38 hitouts
37 clearances (highest in the league)
In 2010 we averaged
132 contested possessions and 258 uncontested (difference of 126)
35 hitouts
34 clearances
In 2011 we averaged
134 contested possessions and 234 uncontested (difference of 100)
36 hitouts
34 clearances (lowest in the league)
So in the space of 2 years we have gone from being the best clearance team to the worst clearance team, with possessions and hit outs virtually the same the problem may lie somewhere else (i.e. the ability of our mids to get on the end of a ruck knock and take the ball into our 50, or opposition coaches have worked out ross lyon's tactics and have been able to prevent us from playing the way we would like to)
However stats never tell the whole story so read into all of that what you will.
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Sainter for life.