It was a far cry from games in 2013, when the Kangaroos spent more time in possession than any other team in the competition.
NMFC (H&A) | Time in possession average | AFL rank |
2013 | +4min:36sec | 1st |
2014 | -0min:05sec | 10th |
On the surface, it appears that a team struggling to break even with time in possession will struggle to win games. Yet North proved that theory wrong, winning six more games than last season on the way to a Preliminary Final.
To figure out how the Kangaroos managed to improve defensively without the ball in hand, a look back at areas of our past reviews helps to tell the story.
Firstly it was defending scores from turnovers. North improved from 13th to eighth in that statistic.
Following that it was how the side coped with opposition inside 50’s. Again North was ranked 13th in 2013. However it was the area which increased in quality the most. The jump was all the way to third and enabled the Roos to stand firm against attacking forays.
Finally, once the opposition did get inside the 50, North was able to force it into tough shots. In wins, opponents converted less than half their opportunities between 30 to 50 metres out.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the time in possession statistic has been the time spent with the Sherrin in ‘dispute’. This is graded as any time where one side doesn’t have clear possession, and for the last two seasons North’s average has been right down the end of the AFL.
Disputed possession | NMFC | AFL rank | AFL average |
2013 | 17.1% | 16th | 18.0% |
2014 | 17.7% | 14th | 18.3% |
This can be explained through looking at each season separately. In 2014, teams often attempted to starve North of the ball, playing a keepings-off style which led to a high number of uncontested marks.
In the previous year, it was the Kangaroos who owned the ball and forced teams to sit back and do most of the defending.
However most of this possession took part in each team’s defensive half, which means the time in forward half statistic is an intriguing one to look at.
Ideally if one team has more of the ball than the other, it would translate to a much higher time in forward half. Despite that. North’s measure in the statistic has more or less stayed the same over 2013 and 2014.
It ranked 12th in 2013 and 13th this year, making its forward efficiency numbers even more impressive and possibly even a necessity.
