Pure Footy: Stats men David King, Daniel Hoyne lift lid on AFL trends after round 8
Richmond could be the new Essendon – and not in a good way. See the one stat that will be keeping Damien Hardwick up at night in a new episode of Pure Footy.May 11, 2022
News Corp Australia Sports NewsroomRichmond has its mojo back with wins against West Coast and Collingwood, piling on 42 goals in the past fortnight.
The Tigers rank second in the AFL for points scored this season behind only Brisbane despite sitting eighth on the ladder with a 4-4 win-loss record.
They have a big percentage edge on the teams below them, but there is one big reason fans shouldn’t be dreaming about a return to premiership contention just yet.
Speaking on Pure Footy, the digital AFL analysis show exclusive to heraldsun.com.au, Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne said the Tigers of 2022 had a similar profile to the Bombers of 2021.
Last year Essendon surged into the top eight on the back of slick ball movement and a potent attack but faltered in the first week of finals, kicking just four goals against the Western Bulldogs.
Similar to Essendon last year, Hoyne said Richmond is vulnerable to being scored heavily against based on a series of defensive measures Champion Data uses to analyse how teams perform without the footy.
“They’ve been great to watch, especially the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“But there’s still the element of their game, and that’s without the footy, that needs significant work.
“Have a look at what Essendon was doing last year, they were getting a lot of credit for what they were doing offensively – their ‘with the footy’ ranking was second in the competition but without the footy they were 16th, which is not sustainable. It got them to a top-eight spot, but no further.
“You flip over to Richmond this year and it’s the exact same profile – third with the footy but 16th without the footy.”
Hoyne noted Richmond gave up 21 scores from turnovers against Collingwood, well above the AFL average of 13 per game.
“I think those who are getting really excited and caught up in what Richmond are doing at the moment just need to cool the jets a little bit.
“In terms of what they are doing without the ball, that is not going to take them to a preliminary final weekend. They are the easiest team in the competition this year to score against once you’ve got the ball inside 50.
“I’m sure Damien Hardwick would be looking at it as well and saying, ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do without the footy’.”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/purefooty/pure-footy-stats-men-david-king-daniel-hoyne-lift-lid-on-afl-trends-after-round-8/news-story/fbbfc59fb2cc48e6133f77a67c2b6532
