You're too much of a stats man. They never tell the whole story.
Our tackle numbers don't reflect the quality of our tackles. So many just don't stick.
Tackle numbers don't mean we didn't go in too tall. You're also just in love with tall players. Wanted us to draft Lukosius ahead of Walsh despite all the talented talls we already have... thank Christ we didn't...and yes I know that talls generally take longer but imagine our midfield without Walsh...
The talls are generally prone to struggling more at ground level. That is a fact which is what Lappin's point was - "ball spends more time on the ground than ever before"... think he makes a better point than your tackle numbers stat...
BTW, Levi, McGovern and Pittonet had very little say in your beloved tackle numbers and generally provided fa around the ground...and that's not just last night..
To top that off, TDK had his worst match since he's run out in the Navy Blue. How do explain having 4 talls that gave us nothing last night not being a problem? And don't make the conditions excuse... surely selection panel had a look at the weather report...
This is right up there with that Dow was our most defensive runner against GWS stat you pulled out...
Bingo.
I'd be interested to see what percentage of those tackles actually held the ball in or held up the play. Very few of our tackles really impact the ball carrier.