North Melbourne: The Stats. Why They Should Shake Up The 2014 AFL Season

ok. I know I haven't posted on here for a while, but I've had school which has been time consuming. I was looking quite heavily into our squad, and we as fans have a right to be quite excited. We have a very capable Spine of the team (Scott Thompson FB, Lachie Hansen CHB, Todd Goldstein RUC, Drew Petrie CHF, Aaron Black FF), all players who are/have the potential to be A grade players. Add that with players such as Daniel Wells, Andrew Swallow, Lindsay Thomas just to name a few, and the future looks bright. Now  lets compare our current squad to those who have seen recent success.

Geelong Cats

Key Players:

        Scott D. Thompson v Matthew Scarlett

Scott D. Thompson
Games: 112
Goals: 5
Age: 27

Matthew Scarlett at 116 Games:
Disposals: 12.1 per game
Goals: 10
Tackles: 1.3 per game
Marks: 4.7 per game
Spoils: 3.7 per game


Scott D. Thompson:
Disposals: 17.4 per game
Goals: 5
Tackles: 2.4 per game
Marks: 5.0 per game
Spoils: 3.9 per game


From such evidence, nay-sayers may think "yeah but Thompson is a mature age recruit! He's expected to be better at the same amount of games played. Well, then check out Scarlett's stats at the same age (end of 2006 AFL Season).


Scarlett at 27 years, 3 Months:
Games: 160
Goals: 15
Disposals: 13.1 per game
Tackles: 1.4 per game
Marks: 5.0 per game
Spoils: 3.9 per game

Thompson, much like Scarlett was, is still improving. All I know is North have a keeper at Full Back. Next we'll look into North's answer to Stevie J/Cyril Rioli.