In Melbourne's last five matches the scoring has been as follows:

For
v GWS 7.5
v Carlton 12.9
v Gold Coast 11.12
v Sydney 5.8
v Adelaide 11.4
Total 46.38

Against
GWS 10.19
Carlton 7.16
Gold Coast 11.20
Sydney 9.15
Adelaide 9.13
Total 46.83

The thing that really shows out is the opposition's scoring against us ... same number of goals but 45 more behinds ... nearly twice as many behinds as goals generally.

What would be your explanation for this?

1. We've just been fortunate that the opposition have kicked badly
2. Our greater pressure in the back half leads to the opposition 'choking' on set shots
3. Getting numbers back makes the opposition try a lot of shots under pressure or wider out near the boundary.
4. We're making the most of our inside 50 opportunities.
5. The defensive side to our game has improved completely around the ground.
6. All of the above.

Good question. It's probably a bit of most of those you've listed, though not so much #4 against Gold Coast and Sydney. Lots of points 3 and 5 though. It's funny to hear people in the crowd still yelling 'man up' to our players while the opposition chips the ball around the back line because we've limited their options upfield. It's nice to see opponents unable to pile on goals against us in a hurry.

The real indicator is that this year I am not screaming out "Why is [insert opposition players name] on his own in the goal square?"

Good question - I just posted on this in the Post Match Discussion thread.

It's very easy to say it's #1, just luck, but when it's now happened for five consecutive weeks, I think credit needs to go to our pressure. We're finally applying defensive pressure not just inside defensive 50, but in the middle of the ground. Watching all of GWS, Carlton, Gold Coast, Sydney and Adelaide stutter coming out of defence, go backwards/sideways, and turn it over, is a huge change from the last 7 years in which, even at our best, sides have been able to cut through the middle with no pressure to speak of.

Will be disappointing if we dont have more scoring shots than the Doggies this week

We are better than them

I would go with points 2, 3 and 5. We have had a swiss cheese defence since Neil Balme's day. Even when we were good we could concede plenty. I do have a concern that at the moment we may not be able to stop good sides from scoring freely and us not being able to go with them. Hence blowouts are still on the cards.

Edited May 4, 201411 yr by america de cali

We are currently ranked 9th best defence in the comp which has Roos fingerprints all over it. Considering the dark depths we have come from this is super impressive. We are averaging roughly 10 goals less being scored against us per match! We've got a long way to but gee we are heading in the right direction!

We have conceded 427 in 6 games aside from the West Coast game - only 71 points a game.

It's the pressure. It's reached a point where there's a pattern and it's clear than so long as our defensive pressure is up, we're in it late. Those 45 less behinds in the context of a game, across 5 games, is 9 points, so yeah, it's 9 more scoring shots, but on average it's only 1.3 goals.

If we can stem the scoring even further, even if the opposition still outscores them, if they can bring that down to 2-3 more shots, then suddenly this team is beating anyone.

I'd put it down to Roos' defensive structure, it's safe to say there has been a lot of emphasis put into that area.

Protect the corridor and give them as few easy set-shots as possible.

If we can get a jump on teams we can hold onto a lead now. Having such a great structure means no panic when the game is on the line because we plan to hold possession of the ball and set up from there. The old run and gun style was great to watch but if the pressure was on we wouldn't know what to do. I love you Paul.

I'd say it's all of the above, there's no doubt the players aren't giving up on contests as much as they used to but we've had some luck with some poor basic kicking for goal with set shots. It's amazing how much pressure from teammates missing can put on others, it really takes someone who can handle to pressure to break the cycle.

The way we're going we're going to have the most behinds scored against us at the end of the year.

In Melbourne's last five matches the scoring has been as follows:

For

v GWS 7.5

v Carlton 12.9

v Gold Coast 11.12

v Sydney 5.8

v Adelaide 11.4

Total 46.38

Against

GWS 10.19

Carlton 7.16

Gold Coast 11.20

Sydney 9.15

Adelaide 9.13

Total 46.83

The thing that really shows out is the opposition's scoring against us ... same number of goals but 45 more behinds ... nearly twice as many behinds as goals generally.

What would be your explanation for this?

1. We've just been fortunate that the opposition have kicked badly

2. Our greater pressure in the back half leads to the opposition 'choking' on set shots

3. Getting numbers back makes the opposition try a lot of shots under pressure or wider out near the boundary.

4. We're making the most of our inside 50 opportunities.

5. The defensive side to our game has improved completely around the ground.

6. All of the above.

Chewie on their boots?

Even more amazing when one considers Chip has been playing forward since Round 2!!

Even more amazing when one considers Chip has been playing forward since Round 2!!

We are planning for life after Frawley, and at the moment (based on the figures in the OP), we will be ok.

In response to the OP, I think the opposition's inaccuracy has a lot to do with where they are required to take their shots from. I know with the Gold Coast match - we forced them so wide that they were taking low % shots at goal, which will result in a behind more often than not.

I'd wonder about who is taking the shots and where are they taking them from? My guess is that key forwards are generally doing very little against us and that teams are getting their mids doing the goal kicking. SO we are talking about players doing a lot of running then needing to calm down and kick for goal.

I'm sure someone is doing stats on this...

The stats I like show that in the last 5 games are:

• we've won 40%
• we have a percentage of 87.5%
• we've scored the same number of goals as our opponents.

I have no idea why the opposition has scored so many more behinds than it has goals, but I think it is statistically significant and therefore not just "bad luck" for the opposition.