As pointy end of the season draws closer we've taken a look at which teams lead key stat areas, why they do, and how our Lions compare.
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Points For: Adelaide (113)
Adelaide's experienced list, potent forward line and precise style of play puts them at the top of this stat and in strong premiership contention. Despite sitting 18th on the ladder, the Lions actually sit 15th (average 83) on Points For rankings this season thanks to consistently putting up points, even against more experienced teams at the peak of their development cycle. This has been a big improvement on the 2016 season when the Lions would sometimes suffer an onslaught of opposition goals in red time and fade at the end of games.
Points Against: Port Adelaide (78 per game)
The Power are a hard team to play anywhere and the addition of their vocal crowd and a narrow and congested Adelaide Oval make them an even tougher team to play at home, limiting their opposition to the least amount of points in the league. Whilst there’s still improvement to come in this area, the Lions have conceded over 100pts less than at the same stage last year.
Centre Clearances: Gold Coast (16 per game)
Queensland dominate this stat line with the Suns at first and the Lions at 3rd (14 per game). Fellow expansion club and hot premiership contenders GWS fill second at 15 per game. Individual midfielders like Dylan Shiel (GWS, 1st in league for centre clearances) and Gary Ablett (Suns, 3rd in league) do the fair share of work for their clubs, while at the Lions fill centre clearances are more spread out with Martin (10th), Rockliff (19th), Zorko (26th), Beams (30th) and Mitch Robinson (36th) all in the league’s top 40.
Overall Clearances: GWS (42 per game)
The Lions aren't far behind GWS sitting 4th overall in average clearances with 38 per game. Both teams have a strong middle-of-ground list, with the Lions stat pig combo of Rockliff (2nd in league), Zorko (14th), Martin (20th) and Beams (30th) all known for their impact in this area. Hitouts: Freemantle (46 per game) Aaron Sandilands (1st in league in hitouts) and Sean Darcy (7th) are a powerful ruckman combo for the Dockers, whilst the Lions Stef Martin (8th) does his part for the Lions, who sit 10th in the league as a club in this category at 41 per game.
Goal Accuracy: Adelaide (54%)
The Crows leading goal accuracy goes a long way to their highest 'Points For' average in the league as well, and makes them a difficult team to play. The Lions sit 5th in this category at 50% - a promising sign given our very young forward line. Inside 50s: Port Adelaide (62 per game) The Lions good goal accuracy is let down by our difficulty getting inside 50s. While Port lead with 62, the Lions sit at 17th with 46 per game. This stark difference was very much on display during our first match against the Power this year - a game our young players have learnt a lot from since.
Average disposals Leader: Collingwood (406)
With one of the strongest midfields in the competition, it is no surprise that Collingwood lead the AFL in disposals. Along with leading disposals in the competiton, they rank number 2 for short kicks and number 1 for uncontested marks. Their preference to build up their play is highlighted by 4 of their midfielders featuring in the top 25 for average disposals: Adam Treloar (10th), Taylor Adams (14th), Scott Pendlebury (20th) and Steele Sidebottom (23rd).
Disposal Efficiency Leader: GWS (76%)
The spread of talent at GWS is reflected in their disposal efficiency numbers. They are the 3rd best kicking team in the competition and the best handballing team. The Giants key defenders Aidan Corr (87%) and Phil Davis (86%) lead the way, both featuring in the top 20 players in the competition and are well supported with classy midfielders Lachie Whitfield (81%), Callan Ward (79%) and Josh Kelly (77%) all featuring high amongst midfielders. The Lions sit 15th in this category at 72% which is improving as our young group adjusts to the pressure of AFL football.
Contested Possessions Leader: Adelaide (157 per game)
The contested possession stat is made up of a 6 key areas and what separates Adelaide is their consistency across each area. They sit 3rd for contested marks, 2nd for loose ball gets, 5th for hard ball gets, 4th for free kicks won, 4th in gathers from hitouts (the result of a hitout to advantage) and 10th for contested knock ons.
Free For: Brisbane (21 per game)
The saying is that aggressive teams see the umpire’s whistle blown in their favour, so to sit at the top of this list despite our ladder position is testament to the style of play the team is developing. The Lions are followed by reigning premiers the Western Bulldogs at 20 'frees for' per game. Dayne Zorko leads the way having won 31 free kicks this season followed by Stef Martin (27), Tom Rockliff (19) and Jarrod Berry (17).
