Bizkit, in support of your post, in 2015, Freo had;
The highest average of stoppages per game.
The best Hit Out differential (For - Against) by a large margin over the next best (courtesy of 211).
The best Clearances differential by a large margin (courtesy of 211, Fyfe, Mundy, etc...).
Yet their i50s are comparatively poor versus Hawthorn and West Coast ... and that then leads to poor Scoring points for, Marks inside 50 etc...
All other stats, when compared to Hawthorn and West Coast, eg, rebounds, disposal efficiency, bounces, contested possession, etc... appear to be good.
Compared to the Slime and WeePoos, Freo have far fewer players consistently providing i50s. After D.Pearce, S.Hill, Fyfe and Mundy, the i50 providers fall off quickly. Crowley, Duffield, Mzungu, DeBoer & Sutcliffe were good i50 contributors in 2014, but not there in 2015 and not replaced by others.
I'm a huge Roly fan, (a good team defence is essential, which Hawks and Slime have) but the one thing I will say in regards to this i50 stats concern, is some of these players appear to be becoming more defensive and in the process being too concerned of their opposition players, instead of contesting and attacking the football. The Slime are spreading with quick wide handballs extremely well. Hawthorn use short efficient uncontested possession to great effect and both of them are great at lowering the eyes and hitting targets i50. Freo is not.
Harley Bennell, in my opinion, will be a massive get for Freo to improve this area of deficiency. Apart from that, I'm praying for McCarthy or some much needed dramatic improvement in some of Freo's younger players in the squad.
