Yeah was making a similar point earlier. It's hard to argue that fitness is responsible for a bad first quarter, especially when the second is better.
Also, our running stats (distance covered and short burst running) matched Collingwood's in this round. They won, we lost. Similarly, we covered more distance and had more short burst running than Brisbane in last year's elimination final. Interestingly, Adelaide smashed us in running stats in round 2, but we won by 5 goals. Our stats in the Bulldogs game were the same or slightly better, and we lost by 5 points. Make of that what you will.
Now, it is easy to make stats say anything you want, that's a given. But our running stats (which are a reasonable indication of fitness levels - at least it is something quantifiable and is probably a better indication than gut feel) aren't appreciably different to other sides. They are freely available on the AFL app and make interesting reading.
If you look at the stats, you could make an argument that they support the idea that the age profile of our side and personnel available is reflected in our starts and finishes i.e. finding it hard to match the speed of 'average younger' sides early, grinding back in to games through the middle and back end but perhaps spending too many tickets to get back and thus finding it hard to get across the line. But overall we are covering similar ground and similar burst running, just not distributing it over the game in a balanced way. So our fitness per se is comparable to the better sides in the competition but maybe not being deployed ideally due to other factors.
