The Numbers – Round 18

McRath is back to your computer screens with the R17 Numbers of the 2012 AFL DT Season. This week gave us some huge numbers to get our heads around, despite being a reasonably standard round in terms of overall scoring. With the more casual DTers starting to lose interest for the year as their trades run thin, the numbers appear to be getting lower and lower in terms of views on DTT site. However for you tragics out there – we’ll be here all year.

Now, let’s dive into the wormhole that is The Numbers and see what comes out.

3 – Score of the GWS Giants up until half time in their demolition at the hands of Fremantle on Sunday. Freo’s defence was too hard to penetrate for the first 2 quarters until they finally let up in the second half – with 5.4 scored in the next two. It’s been said a fair bit recently – the young ones have finally cracked and they’re leaking points like a Travis Cloke is losing value.

10 – In what has been a huge year of blooding youngsters at the Giants, R17 saw an even ten changes to last week’s side. With the rotation rollercoaster now in full swing, it must be quite difficult for some youngsters to gel with their teammates – especially when almost half the team is different from one week to the next. With a big game against Collingwood on the cards, we can expect some big ins to the GWS brigade for R18 – maybe not 10 though.

12 – Difference in DT points scored between Hawthorn (1620) and Collingwood (1608) on Saturday afternoon. Astoundingly, Hawthorn ended up winning the contest by 47 points yet only managed to garner 12 more overall points than the Pies. Interesting, Collingwood gathered more touches (387-384), Marks (91-88) and Tackles (65-56) than the Hawks. However the scoring power of the Gold and Brown was too much – with their score of 21.12.138 drowning out the fantastic DT feats of several Pies’ midfielders.

15 – Games played in 2012 to date by injury-prone Melbourne Demon, Jack Grimes. With a shaky start to the year (including 3 consecutive 60’s), I was one to quickly ride him off. However after spending more time in the midfield in 2012 (more due to necessity perhaps than anything else), Grimes has paid back his owners in spades – with an avg of over 89 and a season-high 135 coming on the weekend. At just over $400k, he may just be the point of difference your team needs to get your over the line.

34 – Matthew Pavlich has been a very busy man lately. In fact, over the past 7 weeks he’s scored at least 3 goals in each outing to total an outstanding 34 sausage rolls. He’s also averaging a cool 109 DT points during this period – what a champ!

56 – Total team changes for all clubs since last round. With 10 alone coming from GWS, Carlton (6), Adelaide, Bulldogs (5) and Richmond (4) were also forced into making sweeping changes. One of the few positives for DT coaches is that with all these changes, rookies like McInnes (CAR), Murdoch and Smedts (GEE) are seeing more time on the ground. With all of the carnage caused by injury, these guys are welcome sights to see named in their clubs’ 22 come Thursday night.

100 – Coming into Round 17, Jeffy Garlett was in the headlines for the wrong reasons – fighting to stay in the team due to poor recent form. Lucky not to be dropped; and most likely due to Carlton’s recent lack of available players to call upon, Garlett retained his place for the important game against the Dogs. 20 touches, 2.1 goals and 7  marks later and he has his first 100 for the year. A timely performance for the fleet-footed goalsneak, Coach Ratten will be hoping Jeffy can build from this performance and end the year in great touch. Carlton’s finals chances may just hinge on it.

200 – The magic 200 barrier has not been breached since Geelong scored 233 points on Melbourne in R19 last year. But I’m predicting an explosion of goals at Skoda on Saturday. With Cloke in bad form, this is the perfect chance to get him back in touch before September rolls around – unless of course Bucks is planning a resting party?

222 – Behinds scored in the AFL this week. Now, this may not seem relevant – however considering there were only 10 more goals scored for the round (232), R17 was a bad round for goal kicking. Gold Coast (5.18), St Kilda (10.16) and Fremantle (18.24) were some of the worst culprits. Lucky for Freo it didn’t matter, but for the Suns – a few more straight kicks and they would’ve had the 4 points. Compare this round to R16 and it’s plain to see – collectively, last round saw 241 goals scored and only 176 behinds! Safe to say goal-kicking will be on the training schedule for this week.

454 – Total number of DT points scored between Magpie superstars Swan, Pendlebury and Beams during their shellacking at the hands of Hawthorn. The three dynamos combined well at the weekend unlike any other trio from the same team have done in 2012. If there’s been a better DT-scoring trio from the same team – I’d love to know about them so I can pencil them into my team for 2013.

Twatter – Your Numbers

 

 

 

 

Cheers Mick – Any of those (me included) who were sucked in by the hope of the likes of Goddard and Fisher reclaiming their DT thrones in 2012 have been sadly let down. The hopes that new coach Scott Watters would bring more ‘positive’, ‘attacking’ footy has brought about the downfall of several past premiums. Much like a certain Freo defender (ahem… Broughton **cough) has been ruined by Ross Lyon.

 

 

 

 

It can be very annoying when watching a bad game of footy – enough to turn even the most loyal supporters away from the screen. However when a game is turned into a running joke due to incessant whistle-blowing, it’s enough to turn those same supporters to the drink. More than ever in 2012, good games have been ruined by ‘over-umpiring’. Great stat Griff!

Send me your ‘Numbers’ for the week @McRathDT

Bone of Contention                                                                                                                    

Travis Cloke has been awful at times this year, frustrating his faithful DT coaches and real coaches alike. With a 4-Round avg of just 52 points (including a 42, 41 and a 37), he’s performing at more than 23 points less than during season 2011 and has now dropped $176,700 this year. If anyone’s willing to take a punt – he’d be a handy inclusion this week if he’s named at FF to play GWS.

Close behind: Robinson, Adcock, Goddard.

Seventh Heaven

The number 7 has particular importance this week as not 1 but 2 star forwards kicked their way to a bag of goals in a winning side. For the first time since Fevola did in R12/13 of 2010, this round saw a player kicked 7 goals in consecutive matches – Drew Petrie you are a machine. Now closing in on the Coleman medal leaders’ jersey, the Petrie Dish is a sneaky chance to take out the gong. With Buddy still injured and JVoldt not exactly racking them up – it wouldn’t be the worst wager you’d make in 2012. Also, joining big Drew is goal-scoring dynamo Matty Pavlich. As mentioned previously, the Pav is on some streak – scoring 3 or more goals the last 7 weeks (there’s that number again).

Whore of the Week

A career-high 49 disposals, 2 goals and a whopping 165 points is nothing short of outstanding. To do so in a side that lost by 47 points? Amazing. Yet another 150+ score, yet another entry into the WotW books for Dane Swan. Seriously, is there anything this guy can’t do?

The Round Up

Highlights – Rocky’s late flurry of goals against the Suns gave me a much needed and solid 110 as captain. Spewing I left the C off Swannie but I’ll take the 110 given it could’ve easily been an 80. Swan, Pendlebury and Beams – enough said. Overall solid week for most premo’s as we also saw Pav (120) and Petrie (128) kick truly for big scores in their wins over GWS and Richmond respectively.

Lowlights – Robinson’s late withdrawal left many coaches without cover and would’ve been cursing. I was lucky enough (if you can call it that) to have a playing emergency in Cory Dell’Olio so was able to snag a handy, but unspectacular 43 points as compensation. Many weren’t so lucky. Boyd put in a disappointing 82 against Carlton, more annoying to any coaches who had him as captain. With a different of 83 points between Swan and the Bulldogs captain, this choice could’ve cost you more than a few games (as my decision to choose Rocky over Swan did).

Team McRath – With a solid score of 2185 in R17, I’m happy with my progress late in the season as I now sit only a few spots outside the top 6,000. I’m praying to the DT Gods for mercy during the finals as I look to make the Top-4 in four of my leagues. If I can get my guns all firing at once, I may just be able to sneak into the top few thousand come R23 and salvage something from the wreckage that has thus far been my 2012 season.

Now, I know I’ve left it til the end, but I’d like to throw huge thanks out to @Douthteez for filling in with The Numbers last week. He did a great job – definitely owe that man a beer or two.

As we look forward to the last two H2H matches for the year, it’s more important than ever that we check out our opponents to try and get a leg up. If you’re currently on the cusp of the 8, you may want to trade aggressively (and strategically) to gain a valuable point of difference for the run home. If you’re safely inside the finals zone, conserve your trades and pray for mercy from the DT gods come those final weeks. Good luck for R18 and cheers for reading.

If you’re STILL not following me on Twitter, shame on you. It’s not too late though – hit me up now @McRathDT