Have We Improved?

[AN_Inkling]

This is the big question, right? It looks as if we'll settle onto around about the same rung of the ladder as last year. But the stats are pretty clear, we've been quite a bit better this season than last, especially in the key area of putting points on the board:


Collingwood's stat ranking 2014-2015

And we have made this improvement while getting younger and being the third youngest team in the comp. Of course the top teams are the oldest (Hawthorn, having aged significantly, have taken over Freo's claim to oldest team) and Carlton have real concerns despite finally bringing in some youth in 2015. Port, surprisingly, can no longer be considered young.

It's not all doom and gloom for the doom and gloomers though. The Bulldogs have a similar age profile to us and are far higher on the ladder. Last year it was Port who were in this position. I'll leave the analysis of this to others, but it's a nice juicy bone for those who want to dwell on the negative.

So, now that we've established that we have improved. The next question is have we improved enough?


Games played by each age grouping in 2015 (weighting given to each group to determine youngest)


Total number of players used in each age grouping in 2015


Last year's stats for reference. As you can see, we were significantly older and played 8 less players under the age of 24 than in 2015:


Games played by each age grouping in 2014 (weighting given to each group to determine youngest)


Total number of players used in each age grouping in 2014

[mackasmatt]

I fear that our next phase of being 'a threat' is going to be right when GC and GWS are peaking. It's going to be tough to match their even spread of elite talent.

[matrix10]

As much as I hate statistics- you have clearly pointed out what any rational football supporter would realise.

We have improved greatly from last year- and are well placed heading into the next few seasons.


We have improved offensively and defensively.

5 games lost lost by under 2 goals- all against top teams.

That said- the haters will hate- some people are only happy in life when they are miserable.

[What'sinaname]

I think you need to break the season up across the first 11 vs last 11 games so show how badly we have faded.

[AN_Inkling]

^^I don't know, I reckon our fade last year was more dramatic.

[Darkstranger]

You tend to get a feel about things as well, certainly feels like we have good young depth that will only get better, coupled with one or two big names this season, reckon finals for sure next year.

[kickit2me]

If only we'd split those close losses (Richmond, Freo, Hawthorn, Port and Sydney) 2-3 or 3-2 instead of 0-5, we'd be finals bound.

Debuts to Scharenberg, Moore, Maynard, De Goey, Freeman and more games into Oxley, Ramsey, Langdon, Williams, Grundy, Witts, Frost, Adams, Crisp and Broomhead hold us in good stead.

[Piesnchess]

Of Course we HAVE improved, vastly on last season, not in wins, but by the fact, that not once have we been belted by more than eight goals, in our losses, not once, whereas last season we copped some gawd awful thrashings. We ran the piss and poop, swantits, dockers, weagles, all pretty close, no hidings there, yes, we have improved a lot, and learning by each passing game, getting games into our youngsters.

[Pies2016]

Good O P, Ink.

The other interesting stat I heard was something like, five of our narrow losses against quality opposition resulted in a total score line of 44 goals and 77 behinds.
Clearly suggests we are good enough between the arcs but our kicking at goal just continues to let us down, partic in the second half of this season.

Inclusions of Varcoe, Moore and Marsh have made us quicker and the additions of Greenwood, Crisp and Degoey have made us stronger in the contest. To me its just about adding a couple more better users and finishers of the footy ( either mids or KPPs ) and the next level of improvement will kick in very dramatically for all to see.

[neil]

Facts? Rational arguments? Logic? This is Nicks and we lost a match!!!!

As our young players get more games they will make less mistakes and will improve their decision making

Just need to improve the goal kicking
I hope some of the naysayers can actually come up with ideas to do this apart from sacking Bucks and Hine

[jackcass]

Good summary Inky. Shows what most of us have argued most of the season.

Might also add that the Doggies had a slightly easier draw than us and the anomalies of the draw meant they caught a few teams at good times (ie: Tigers).

[Boot]

After the disappointment of last night and reading a lot of the comments from the "haters" on this site I started to think about what our team can look like next year and based on the rumors that Adam Treloar and James Aish are headed to Collingwood over the trade period this coming October I think the following team looks OK with plenty of depth in the VFL team to cover the inevitable injuries.

Backs: M.Williams, N. Brown, T.Langdon
H.Backs: J.Marsh, J.Frost, B.Sinclair
Centers: S. Sidebottom, T.Adams , J.Crisp
H.Forwards J.Elliot, B.Reid , D.Swan
Forwards: D.Moore, T. Cloke , A.Fasolo
Followers: B. Grundy, S. Pendlebury, A.Treloar
Interchange: J.DeGoey, T.Varcoe, M.Scharenberg, J. Aish


Backs: A.Oxley, T.Goldsack, J.Ramsay
H.Backs: B.Maynard, , A.Toovey, B.McCaffer
Centers: M.Goodyear, T.Broomhead,N.Freeman
H.Forwards: J.Blair, J. White, P. Karnezis
Forwards: M.Cox, C.Gault, B.Abbott
Followers: J.Witts , L.Greenwood, B. Kennedy,
Interchange:, S.Dwyer, M.Manteit

Gone; C.Young, T.Armstrong, P.Seedsman, J.Thomas, L.Keefe

Of course to get Treloar and Aish into the team we may have to trade some of the players listed but if the club is adding top talent to the list you have to expect to let some talent go. I am hoping that we can get Treloar and Aish for draft picks and Paul Seedsman...might be ambitious thinking that. In Hine we trust!

It occurs to me that we don't have a lot of depth in Key Position Defenders if we accept that Ben Reid is now going to be a forward and that Lachie Keefe is gone.

Looking forward to 2016 and the chance to shape the final 8 for 2015 whilst seeing what the kids have to offer.

[RudeBoy]

I'm in no doubt that we've improved considerably this season and I'm confident Bucks has on the right path to a period of sustained success. However, given our similar age profile, I'd like to know why the
Bulldogs have performed so much better than us this year? Has their recruiting been better than ours, or have they got a better coach? Or maybe, they'll be like Port; something of a flash in the pan, only to slide down the ladder next year?

[Pies4shaw]

Their game plan works at Docklands. Let's see if they can win a final before we worry. They are actually a 9 goal per game better team there (no, that is not hyperbole).

[swoop42]

You can add Adelaide to the dogs as another relatively young group who have exceeded our performances this season.

Who knows what they might have achieved without the Walsh tragedy.

Richmond and West Coast one season ahead in terms of age profile I guess but Simpson is only in his second season.

The most telling of stats that you have provided would be in relation to our disposal and mark ranking.

These would indicate we have put far more emphasis on moving the ball via handball this season.

I've put together my own stat.

We've fared better than I imagined but not surprising who is top 2.

Average disposals per goal ratio:

Hawthorn 24.16
West Coast 25.04
Nth Melb 25.84
Adelaide 26.43
Port Adelaide 27.59
Collingwood 27.63
W. Bulldogs 27.65
Geelong 27.95
Gold Coast 29.54
Fremantle 30.21
GWS 30.29
Richmond 30.64
St Kilda 31.61
Sydney 31.90
Melbourne 32.51
Carlton 33.96
Brisbane 36.39
Essendon 36.89