I must confess to being a critic of Josh Treacy, in spite of his youth, because he missed so many contested marks prior to this season. The five contested marks he took against the Bulldogs were decisive factors in our win, and his game has risen to an elite level. It's all very well to criticise our ball movement into the forward line, but we often fail to score because no-one has (or had) the ability to take a contested mark ( apart from the odd ones to Jackson and Amiss). The same goes for our clearances from defence - ironically, poor old Tabs was the only person who could regularly take a contested mark on the wing for us a couple of years ago, and I recall he was ranked highly in the AFL for that stat.
Sorry to bore you, and state the obvious, but so far this season contested marks have played a significant role in Freo's wins/losses. In our four wins we have totalled 34 to 29 for the opposition, while in our three losses we totalled 20 to 46. We have a total of 54, of which Treacy has14 (next best Jackson 6). By comparison, Geelong has so far taken 71.
It's certainly a significant area for improvement for Freo and Treacy's leading the way.
