On Footy Classified, ML once again made mention of Freo's lack of scoring.
He posted some stats of points scored by teams since Round 10. The Hawks (no surprise) on top with an average 120.3 points per game, The Slime second with 101.5, Sydney 10th with 80.3 and Freo 16th with 70.8. His comments "...the two, they are a class above over the 100's in the last six weeks. Look at Sydney and Fremantle. That is why we've had concerns on them over six weeks. This isn't just a one or two week knee jerk reaction, this is over six weeks where they have to start scoring 'cause you can't hold Hawthorn and West Coast".
ML's theories presented as facts continue to frustrate me.
He picked the last six games where the Hawks won all six with points over 100. But in round 8, they were beaten by Sydney who kept the Hawks to 69 points. The week after the Hawks scored 93 points to beat the Gold Coast in Tassie.
The West Coast have scored over 100 points twice in those last six games. Once vs Melbourne and the other vs Adelaide (at Subi the week after they lost their coach). Norths beat them by scoring 85 points. The Slime won last week kicking 87 vs Collingwood.
Why does this frustrate me ... because Freo are on top of the ladder because we are the best defensive team in the competition. Everybody seems to be forgetting that ... or wanting to ignore it. I am still confident that Defense is more important than Offense in the modern game.
To further make my point, go to the AFL ladder and click on the points against column and see how the ladder ends up sorted ... 1,2,3,4,5 will remain accurately in the correct positions ... meaning the defensive points against is a very good indicator for how well a team is travelling. Now click on the points For column and see what happens ... that ladder has far far less correlation to the actual current positions of teams.
