Scoring power

[Pies4shaw]

In 2008, Malcolm Blight described Collingwood (immediately before a 100 point demolition of the Wiggles) as having the best four small forwards in the Game (then Didak, Davis, Medhurst and Thomas). That day, the 4 kicked 14 of 27 Collingwood goals.

In more recent times, I have been wondering what happened to the big spread of goalkickers Collingwood usually had in 2010 and 2011.

Going back over some stats, I noticed the following:

1. In the first 8 rounds of 2010, between one-half and two-thirds of the goals in each game came from players who have left or have been largely unavailable in 2012 or 2013 (Medhurst, Lockyer, Fraser Davis, Didak, O'Bree etc).

2. Looking at the 2010 finals (by which time, Medders, Tarks, Fraser and OB were not in the team), in the 3 wins (ie, ignoring the draw, when Collingwood only managed 9 goals), about a third of the goals in each game were contributed by players who have left or have been largely unavailable in 2013.

3. Looking at the 2011 finals, the position was that at least half of all Collingwood's finals goals came from such players (Krak was the biggest of those contributors, of course).

4. Looking at the side which took the park against Freo last week, only 2 players (Cloke, average a whisker under 1.7) and the Krak (Collingwood average of about 1.5) kick more than 1 goal per game. Lynch has a good career average but hasn't yet delivered anything like it at Collingwood.

5. None of the new small forwards in last week's match (Kennedy, Mooney, Dwyer, Elliott) has a goal per game average significantly over three-quarters of a goal per game.

6. By contrast, the Hawthorn team which flogged us earlier this year had Franklin (3.24 average), Breust (1.96), Roughead (1.85) and Gunston (1.69 - but even better at Hawthorn) with goal averages as good as or better than our best on the park last week. There are then other players (Hale, Hawthorn average of 1) and Rioli (1.33) and Smith (0.95) who do, roughly speaking, a goal per game or better.

Of course, such comparisons are of limited utility - one might, for example, point out that Hawthorn has a higher-scoring style of game (although that may also be a chicken and egg question). But, they do, perhaps, offer at least a part of the explanation for why Collingwood has found it very difficult to kick a winning score against the best opposition this year. If Hawthorn has its best 7 goal-kickers from round 2 on the park, it can reasonably expect 12 goals from them on average each game before worrying about what the other 15 players can contribute. By contrast, if Collingwood puts its best 7 goal-kickers from the Freo game on the park, it can expect about 6 or 7 goals from them.

Food for thought.

[Stupied]

Was discussing this with my old man the other day. Part of the reason the pies were so dangerous in 2010/11 was because of our huge spread of goal kickers. Our inside 50 delivery was to the best option, unlike the "get it to Cloke at all costs" type delivery we seem to have now.

[Raw Hammer]

Who in our team can run, carry and kick a goal from 50m?

Harry rarely. Goldsack rarely. Pendlebury sometimes. Swan occasionally. We don't have many goalkickers. We need to draft classy goalkickers who can kick 45m+ on the run. Not much spark or flair in our team. It is one of THE most boring teams in teh comp. at the moment. Where are the Didaks, Neon Leons, Medhursts, etc.? Who in our team puts bums on seats these days?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

[The-Den]

[Pies4shaw]

But even Clinton Young only averages a whisker over a goal a game (60 goals from 116 career matches). He's only once kicked three goals in a game.

[Arch@M32]

[Joel]

[Tannin]

It's simple: we need to stop recruiting point kickers and start recruiting goal kickers. Way too many point kickers in our side.

[Pies4shaw]

Yes, folks, it was a typo. I obviously meant that Young averages "a whisker over half a goal" per game. The entire point of starting this thread was to identify some stats which indicate that we don't have many guys who even average a goal per game.

[Tannin]

The answer is simple and his name is Tyson Goldsack.

[Pies4shaw]

[Pies4shaw]

On the positive side, there were 8 goalkickers last night against Geelong and 4 of them had multiples - given that Cloke wasn't one of them, that was an excellent return for effort.

[Pies4shaw]

Prompted by something John Wren said about our goal-kicking mid-fielders in the Beams thread, I thought I'd bump this thread from 2013 by adding the response I gave in that other (somewhat meandering) Beams thread. It's intended to provide a discussion point without the need to (a) blame the coach; or (b) blame the coach.

[AN_Inkling]

I find it hard (nigh impossible) to separate scoring power from team performance. When the team is going well there are a lot of easy goals and the goal scoring average of all players will increase. So I think it's less about bringing in goal kickers and more about lifting team performance. Chicken? Egg? I don't know.

Having said that, I do think the loss of Wellingham and Thomas particularly has hurt us. They are attacking midfielders who can generate goals that other players can't. Beams is a bit different for mine he kicks goals but I feel it's more about where he's allowed to play, there's nothing in particular about his game that is dangerous, unlike say a Sidebottom who's a much better goal scorer but spends more time running up and down the ground.

The loss of Lumumba robs us of another attacking midfielder. This is offset by bringing in Varcoe who lacks some of H's high X factor but is more controlled and will almost certainly hit the scoreboard more often. I think his signing was essential, we just could not continue to lose these types without replacement.

I think our team could do with more pace and particularly more creativity. But in the modern game it's the running power that gets you more goals than anything, and they're the kind of goals that anyone can kick. Our lack of running power is our most critical weakness and needs to be improved. Varcoe, Crisp and also Greenwood are useful additions to this end as is the loss of Beams.

[RudeBoy]

It's clear a team does not need a dominant full forward to kick a bag of goals to win a Premiership.

At half time in this year's Granny, with the game already won by the rampaging Hawks, how many goals had Roughead kicked? I'll tell you how many.....zilch, zero, no goals! A team needs a spread of goal kickers, and small/medium forwards as well as goal kicking midfielders are what's needed. Next year I expect to see Swanny, Sidebottom, Broomhead, Elliott, Kennedy, Faslolo and Freeman to all become regular goal kickers spending time up forward.