The Blueseum wrote:
Nick Riewoldt 78
Justin Koschitzke 48
Stephen Milne 46
Adam Schneider 34
Andrew McQualter 22
Nick Dal Santo 16
Brendon Goddard 15
Jason Gram 12
271
Cameron Mooney 46
Steve Johnson 40
Paul Chapman 37
Tom Hawkins 34
Shannon Byrnes 32
Mathew Stokes 29
Gary Ablett 27
Max Rooke 24
269
Just for reference - 2009's better teams were perceived as being better defensive units by some way but still outscored our top 8 (if as per Bondiblue's post that is indeed the right metric).
From the Blueseum
WOW, that was quick. Thanks for the info.
I have no doubt that defensive pressure whether its from the back six, midfield or forwardline determines what score needs to be kicked to win. As Ratts said in his recent 1 on 1 interview, the less points we have kicked against us, the less goals we need to kick to get over the line.
The KPI's show that we have improved in both areas points for and against, so the trend is in the right direction. Fev really had nothing to do with the defensive improvement, but he did on the scores for.
It's obvious from the examples from the incomparable Bluseum that the spread of goal kickers to be up there is an obvious prerequisite for success, but also the avearage across the top 8 is much higher than I anticipated. Looking at Geelongs spread is what I would consider as our goal, whereas the more defensive StKilda have a reliance from there top 3 goalkickers to get them over the line. StKilda also created a VFL/AFL record for the lowest score against in a season, so that should also be factored in the equation.
Will we see something like the above 2 from Carlton in 2010?
1st Geelong: 46, 40, 37, 32, 29, 27, 24 = 269
2nd Saints : 78, 48, 46, 34, 22, 16, 15, 12 = 271
Give me Geelong's spread anyday (their forwards seem to have done their job across the board)
46 (Mooney)...CHF..Waite
40 (Johnson)...HF...Walker
37 (Chapman)..FP...Betts
34 (Hawkins)...FF...Henderson
32 (Byrnes).....FP...Setanta
29 (Stokes)....HF...Kreuzer
27 (Ablett).....M....Murphy
24 (Rooke).....HF...Judd
Interesting exercise. I tried to pick the most obvious goalkickers for Carlton and it seems I've found 5 talls, 2 more talls than Geelong use in their orwardline.
Sydney Blue said yesterday, we need lots of runners and avoid being too top heavy. He suggested that we don't play more than 2 talls in the forwardline. There's credence in that, but then again a horsed for courses policy should also be considered to suit the ground, weather or to stretch the opposition whilst not jeopardising balance.
I think it dependes on how often, and how we bring the ball into our forwardline, and what tactics we use to free up options. I'm sure we had more forward 50 entries than Geelong in 2009, so the supply should cntinue to be there in 2010 without Fev.
We really need to get the balance right. Perhaps players to be considered in our forwardline to create more balance will be the likes of Houlihan, Yarran, Robinson, Gibbs, Garlett and Simpson. Question is, can we extract more than 24 goals a piece from those guys? I think we can.
Lots of work to be done over the preseason. As Blue Vain once said drills drills and more drills will give the players confidence in what they are doing when they have and haven't got the ball.