Roast Richmond cop the most frees against this year...

[Groupie_]

From OER:

Okay some here may say "tell us something we don't already know" but we've copped the most frees against on average this year...

FF Avg. FA Avg.
1. Richmond 394 20.7 428 22.5
2. Geelong 425 21.3 435 21.8
3. Essendon 407 20.4 434 21.7
4. Hawthorn 375 19.7 413 21.7
5. St Kilda 366 19.3 406 21.4
6. Adelaide 380 20.0 397 20.9
7. Brisbane 359 18.9 391 20.6
8. North Melb. 424 22.3 391 20.6
9. Sydney 376 19.8 384 20.2
10. Melbourne 349 18.4 370 19.5
11. Port Adel. 424 22.3 360 18.9
12. W. Bulldogs 370 19.5 359 18.9
13. Fremantle 393 20.7 360 18.9
14. Gold Coast 355 18.7 357 18.8
15. West Coast 414 21.8 357 18.8
16. Collingwood 364 19.2 350 18.4
17. Carlton 389 19.5 351 17.6

http://finalsiren.com/TeamStatsSummary.asp?SeasonID=2011&Sort=AverageFreesAgainst%20Desc


lol @ 16th and 17th

 

[Barry_Badrinath]

I wonder if they could do a break down on what % are from ruck contests.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Shit, were nearly copping 5 more frees against us every game than Carlton and Collingwood, and we are almost 1 whole free a game ahead of 2nd placed free-kick-away-givers geelong

Why us?

 

[Groupie_]

I think we have to sit down with the afl and have a word about this..

 

[Tiger2709]

I think what is worse is not so much the frees paid against us, but the ones that aren't paid too us, it seems the dropping/holding the ball rule doesn't apply to our players unless they are the ones dropping/holding the ball.

 

[mcuzzy]

i don't see a problem with this to be honest, hawthorn are way up there and they never seem to have any issues

 

[TigerRoar]

I'd love to see the amount of frees we have given away in our defensive 50 this year. I'm betting we top that list too.

 

[PuntRoadEnd]

Id be interested in comparing and contrasting these figures against,say the last 5 years and see whether there is a bias towards lowly teams on the ladder

 

[Tiger_Stripes]

Considering we're consistently second to the ball in the ruck contests, and we still haven't learnt you can't just jump on the ball and pray and we have Jake King, seems pretty straightforward.

 

[Wallaby]

This is a serious issue. we've been on the wrong end of free kick counts for at least 4 years.

But....

We need to move away from the 'AFL hates us' paranoia, and consider what we are doing to put ouselves in this position.
Are our tackling skills up to scratch?
Does our zoning technique lead to more frees against?
Do our forwards always put themslves in position where they are more likely to earn frees?
Are we just always chasing?

I would expect our coaching panel to be well across this, and developing some plans to correct this.

There probably is a bias against lower teams on the ladder - they are probably more often second to the ball, which means they are more likely to infringe.

 

[Final Siren]

I don't understand how we can have a higher "Average Frees Against" than Geelong, while Geelong have 435 FA to our 428, and we've played the same number of games.

Anyway, more relevant is probably the Frees Difference. We're -34, according to this, which is 3rd worst, behind Hawthorn (-38) and St. Kilda (-40). Port Adelaide and West Coast are waaaaaaay out in front with +64 and +57, which is interesting.

 

[Final Siren]

I don't understand how we can have a higher "Average Frees Against" than Geelong, while Geelong have 435 FA to our 428, and we've played the same number of games.

Ahh, this data is from a few rounds ago.

 

[eays]

As always, beware of stats! (65% of all stats are misleading lol)

Firstly, you need to ask if the free's are justified or not - if they are there, no argument really, regardless of how many against

Secondly, how costly are the free's given against relative to other teams - i.e. how many result directly in opposition goals or prevent a likely richmond score?

Thirdly, what about the free's that arent given to us?

And finally, even if there is some merit to the stats, surely average differential per game is a more revealing anyway - i mean who cares if you give away 40 frees a game if on the flip side you get 60 frees for? And based on the stats above, we dont even have the biggest negative average differential.

All in all, not much to conclude.

As someone else said, we are better off focusing on development etc, rather than foster a paranoia against the AFL/umpires.

 

[northeasttiger]

Speaking from an umpires point of view the team who plays in front always gets the most free kicks. Maybe our coaching staff need to adress our positioning in contests. (i.e. maybe we are playing from behind too much.)

 

[tucker777]

It seems pretty straight forward and fair enough, like someone said we've been second to the footy a fair chunk of the year as well as having a team full of players who physically cannot compete on most occasions and as a result more likely to give away a free kick in the attempt of competing (Nothing negative there, just that they are because of age and development, smaller in size and weight).

Also ruckwise we've been terrible this year.

 

[folester41]

we have had some bad calls against us, and mostly against the good sides, but someone has to be 17th, why not us?

 

[Strawbs]

You do have to factor in the deliberate rushed behind rule which is only applied to us as far as I can tell. Take that out and we're not so different to the rest. And yes, we give away lots of ruck frees. Admittedly some of those are complete mysteries.

 

[Tiger2709]

Speaking from an umpires point of view the team who plays in front always gets the most free kicks. Maybe our coaching staff need to adress our positioning in contests. (i.e. maybe we are playing from behind too much.)

Generally this is the case, but there have been 2 or 3 occasions this year where we are first to the ball and still get the bad end of every wrong decision, again it's not so much the ones paid against us, apart from the deliberate rushed points which were wrong on all 3 occasions, its the ones we don't get, dropping the ball is rarely paid too players like Jake King, it seems they have a preconceived idea that our team is likely too be incorrectly tackling and let other teams drop or throw the ball against us on numerous occasions.

The real issue is that the umpires are no longer accountable for their mistakes and are above reproach, this is a game wide issue that is influencing way to many games, the umpires need to be professional and when they they try to be show ponies they need to lose their spot, the game was better umpired when we had one umpire that wasn't out there to make a name for himself like some of the white rabbits running around these days.

 

[camsmith]

Something needs to be said about West Coast.

Look through the team/opponent free total difference:

Year, Team Ranking, Difference

2001 11th -22
2002 6th +9
2003 2nd +35
2004 9th +7
2005 4th +47
2006 2nd +71
2007 1st +77
2008 1st +110
2009 7th +20
2010 1st +77
2011 1st +63

Total for decade +494.

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_team_rankings?year=2011&type=DT&sby=8

In the last decade they have lost the for/against in frees paid in a season once which was back in 2001. Since then they have had 6 top 2 finishes... Is that possible?

 

[camsmith]

Speaking from an umpires point of view the team who plays in front always gets the most free kicks. Maybe our coaching staff need to adress our positioning in contests. (i.e. maybe we are playing from behind too much.)

So Port Adelaide, North and Freo have all been first to the ball in their games whereas Hawthorn, Pies, Saints (all in the bottom 8 for frees for) haven't?

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_team_rankings?year=2011&type=TT&sby=8

Last time Newman played in front in a marking contest didn't end well..

 

[Dagless]

Something needs to be said about West Coast.

Look through the team/opponent free total difference:

Year, Team Ranking, Difference

2001 11th -22
2002 6th +9
2003 2nd +35
2004 9th +7
2005 4th +47
2006 2nd +71
2007 1st +77
2008 1st +110
2009 7th +20
2010 1st +77
2011 1st +63

Total for decade +494.

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_team_rankings?year=2011&type=DT&sby=8

In the last decade they have lost the for/against in frees paid in a season once which was back in 2001. Since then they have had 6 top 2 finishes... Is that possible?

Only stumbled over this thread because you posted in here Cam, but it's hardly a coincidence that the step up in free kicks correllates with Cox's drafting and rise as the premier ruckman in the competition. Ump look after the bloke for no discrenable reason other than his talent (Which is bs, as it is for any player getting freebies).

Still, can hardly blame WC themselves for this discrepancy.