Sometimes the most simple of statistics is the most telling. Like 100 points for and against.

Certainly, amid the myriad of numbers that confronts Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan weekly about his team and the opposition, he will place a lot of credence on the magic triple-figure number.

Sitting second on the ladder after a 3-0 start to the season, the Lions are the only team to have scored 100 points in each game. And they are yet to concede 100 points in any game.

Last year, the Lions’ aggregate 100-point score for and against was 5-10.

And in Fagan’s first year at the Lions in 2017 it was 0-9.

It’s never going to be a definitive statistic, but it’s a powerful pointer towards progress.

And after a big job analysing all the numbers to come out of Saturday night’s brilliant win over Port Adelaide at the Gabba the Stats File team is convinced it’s more than valid.

Brisbane have three of the 12 scores of 100 points or more in the first three Rounds of the season. The GWS Giants is the only other team to have reached triple figures twice, while Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and West Coast have done so once.

Essendon, Melbourne, North Melbourne and Richmond have conceded 100 points twice, and GWS, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and West Coast once.

Fagan and the Lions coaching staff will have a multitude of reasons why the 100-point bottom line has turned out so favourably this season, but Fox Footy analyst David King identified one factor he rates top of the list.

Speaking on SEN today, King ranked the Lions the best centre bounce team in the competition. And he pointed to Lachie Neale as the key figure after he had six of his team’s 10 centre bounce clearances against Port.

Certainly, Neale, with an equal career-best 43 possessions to match his Round 2 effort against North Melbourne, Neale was the critical figure as for the second week in a row the Lions came from 10 points down 15 minutes into the fourth quarter to win.

Analysing the new 6-6-6 rule at centre bounces, King noted that the two wing pairings in most sides are holding their position at the bounce, making it basically a four-on-four contest.

“It’s that way for five or six seconds before the traffic comes and the ball is decided, and then you’ve got maybe three or four seconds while it remains four on four.

“The good sides are handballing the ball outside the traffic from centre bounces and getting good, deep forward 50 entries which convert to scores. The Lions are doing that very well, and right now they are the best centre bounce team in the competition,” King said.

The Lions’ win over the previously unbeaten Port sees them second on the AFL ladder – their highest ranking since they started 4-0 in 2010.

Neale had a career-best 16 clearances to equal the club record, set by Tom Rockliff in 2017, and an equal career-best 25 contested possessions to fall one short of Mitch Robinson’s club record of 26 set last year.

Only three players in club history have had 15 clearances or more in a game – Rockliff (15, 16), Neale (16) and Simon Black (15).

And only seven players have topped 20 contested possessions – Robinson (26, 20). Black (25. 21, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20), Neale (25), Rockliff (23, 22, 21, 21, 21), Dayne Zorko (22), Michael Voss (21), Dayne Beams (20, 20) and Luke Power (20).

Neale, now second favorite for the Brownlow Medal, leads the AFL in possessions with 115, is second in clearances with 29 behind Carlton’s Patrick Cripps (33), and third in contested possessions with 55 behind Cripps (67) and North’s Ben Cunnington (62).

In other statistical highlights of the win that broke a five-game losing sequence against Port:-

• Josh Walker had a career-best 16 marks to finish one short of Jonathan Brown’s club record of 17 set in 2005 and matched in 2006. The Walker number is equal second with two Brown hauls of 16 and one from Travis Johnstone in 2010, and one behind five players who have had 15 marks – Brown (five times), Steve Reynoldson (1988), Chris Johnson (2005), Daniel Bradshaw (2006) and Darcy Gardiner (2018). In his last seven games Walker has had 13-10-10-7-5-4-16 marks after his previous best in 70 games was nine.
• Dayne Zorko had an equal round-high three goal assists and after three rounds he leads the League with seven, one up on GWS’s Brent Daniels. Zorko is also equal second in the League for inside 50’s with 23, level with Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield behind only West Coast’s Luke Shuey (24).
• Oscar McInerney had another three contested marks after four against North and now, despite without registered a contested mark in Round 1, sits equal eighth in the League and level with West Coast grand final hero Jeremy McGovern. Ahead of them are Carlton’s Harry McKay (15), Hawthorn’s Ben McEvoy (12), Bulldogs’ Aaron Naughton (9), Fremantle’s Matt Taberner (8), Essendon’s Shaun McKernan (8), Gold Coast’s Sam Collins (8) and Collingwood’s Brody Mihocek (8).
• Harris Andrews reached 1000 possessions in his 79^th
• And Fagan, after going into the season with a combined 0-7 coaching record against West Coast, North Melbourne and Port Adelaide, has beaten all three clubs for the first time.