We have played 6 games so far. In those games, the team that has won the Inside 50s has gone onto win the game - once (us vs Sydney). We won the I50s against St Kilda and Hawthorn - and lost. We lost the I50s agains Carlton and Melbourne - and won. (We won the I50s vs Collingwood quite convincingly - 44-32 - and we didn't win).
So based on that - maybe we should be trying to lose the I50s
. Ok - that's silly - but I50s as a flat stat aren't worth much. What matters is the quality.My rough take is that if a team defends solidly (eg flooding), they will stop the opposition attacks quite easily, but have difficulty clearing the ball. BUT - when they do get it out and take possession on the HBF or wing, because of the lower number of players in the attacking half - their attacks are far more effective.
Maybe those attacks result in goals 50% of the time, while the team tryinfg to break down the flood are only effective 20% of the time. I don't know exactly, obviously, but there may be something in it.
There is a strategy in soccer based on similar ideas - 'Lay back and hit them on the break' (Jose Mourinho basically does that has been one of the world's top managers for years).
So the idea is to get more effective I50s - and the obvious way is to have a more empty forward line. (Hence centre clearances are so important - provided they are not just a blind hack out of a pack). But where do you put the spare players from your forward line - so you may as well put them in the backline and flood
. And then both sides are flooding, and we are basically playing soccer and waiting for either a once-a-game speccy pack mark, a 50-metre penalty, or (most likely) a mistake by a defender.
