Re: 2018 Rd 13: Pre Game Pressure: Carlton vs Fremantle at Etihad
Reply #6 –
Winning hitouts is as pointless as recruiting Warnock!
Kreuzer is currently ranked 6th in the AFL ruck ratings, despite missing games with injury, and rarely doing better than a break even in the taps to advantage! In the other 80% of ruck work he is excellent!
Dockers have won the hitouts in all but two games this season, against Norp and Collingwood(No Sandilands) they were beaten in hitouts to advantage, but Freo lost 7 games out of 11 games! Even with Fyfe back to nearly career best form! That is because taps are worthless if your ruck doesn't follow them up with shepherds, tackles, clearances and linked possessions.
When Sandilands taps these days that is almost the end of his participation in the game, he does not recover well, and rarely makes it to the fall of the ball in time to give assistance to his mid-fielders. It's not his tap work that has diminished, it's his 2nd or 3rd efforts that have almost evaporated!
Levi Casboult please take note, although I concede you have been better in 2018. If only you would learn to do something instantly when your feet return to the ground!
Winning hitouts is one of SIX key stats;
Three other statistics are more important to team success this year compared to last.
Hit-outs (the ruck revolution), shot-at-goal accuracy (amid 50-year lows in scoring) and handball metres gained (the Tiger effect) have all rocketed in statistical influence on victories.
The club with more hit-outs wins 57.3 per cent of the time in 2018 (43.7 per cent in 2017), better shot-at-goal accuracy is 72.6 (up from 60.3), and extra handball metres gained is 57.1 (44.4).
The first three are contested possessions (65.6 per cent success rate), disposal efficiency (69 per cent) and pressure factor (62.2 per cent).