Record Breaking Week of Footy
Aug 27, 2018, 9:16AM
It was an action-packed weekend of AFL, NRL and Premier League action, and to celebrate another great round of sport we've picked out the key points that made *this* weekend so great.
We'll take a look as Geelong thrashed another struggling team, the wasted potential of the NQ Cowboys, and the chaotic, red-card-happy weekend in the English Premier League plus much more.
This is Data Road Trip - investigating the key data points and numbers that formed what we saw in the week that was in sports.
Devon Smith: Tackling Machine
Recruit of the year, Devon Smith (29 disposals) broke the home-and-away season record for tackles, logging a mammoth total of 187 for the season. He continued his case for All-Australian selection against Port Adelaide, with 29 disposals, six marks, four clearances, 12 tackles, three inside 50s and 142 ranking points. The Bombers completely out-pressured the Power from Port, winning the tackle count 83-50 in a dominant display.
Red-Hot Cats
Fresh from a 133-point thrashing of Fremantle, Geelong claimed its second consecutive triple digit win, doing so for the first time since the Cats' last premiership year in 2011. It was the Suns' 16th defeat in 17 matches, taking its average losing margin on the road to 62 points in 2018. Patrick Dangerfield was at his undefendable best, racking up 34 disposals, nine marks, six clearances, three tackles, four goals and 158 ranking points.
Jack Macrae's Day Out
Jack Macrae dominated a lacklustre Richmond outfit on Saturday, taking advantage of their lackadaisical display by amassing a whopping 43 disposals, 14 marks, four clearances, seven tackles, six inside 50s, a goal and a mammoth 190 ranking points. It wasn't quite enough however, as the Tigers premiership class shone through as they held on for a 3-point win.
Cripps Record, Carlton's Blues
Adelaide finished of a tough year with a huge win - ensuring Carlton's worst season in 117 years in the process - with a 104-point rout on Saturday night. Their comprehensive 26.9 (165) to 8.13 (61) victory means the Blues will end the year with just two wins, their lowest tally across an entire season since 1901.
Meanwhile it wasn't all doom and gloom for Carlton, as young star Patrick Cripps finished with 37 disposals - 24 contested possessions, 18 clearances and seven tackles – breaking the all-time contested possession record (in a home-and-away season) in the process.
Patty Cripps dishes out the fend-off - to his teammate Dale Thomas!#AFLBluesCrows pic.twitter.com/5yYrtRBZDf
— AFL (@AFL) August 25, 2018
Melbourne's Monkey Off The Back
Melbourne continued to underline their growing Premiership credentials with a comprehensive win over GWS, winning 15.12 (102) to 8.9 (57) with a barnstorming third quarter proving the highlight. The Demons are quickly reversing the old narrative on their performance against top eight sides, winning their second straight against a Finals-bound opponent. Likely All-Australian, Max Gawn, dominated the hitouts (48-18), and Melbourne were on top in contested possessions (139-111) and the tackle count (60-46) as they ran over the top of the Giants.
Tigers Missing Tackles
The Tigers miss more tackles than any other side in the NRL (39.61 per game) but managed to miss an extra 20 in their 22-20 win over the Sea Eagles, on Thursday night. Kevin Naiqama and Josh Aloiai were the only two players not to fall off a tackle during the match.
While 59 missed tackles is a monster number, it's not their largest of the season. They missed 61 tackles in their 48-12 Round 15 loss to the Raiders.
It's not a number Ivan Cleary will be worried about, though. Wests scrambling defence lends itself to a few extra missed tackles, and so long as they remain one of the best defensive sides in the NRL - conceding just 17.8 points per game - they'll stick with it.
What Could Have Been
Jason Taumalolo (suspension) and Matt Scott (injury) returned to join a fit and firing Jordan McLean in the Cowboys forward pack on Friday night. As a result, the Cowboys displayed the sort of form everybody expected when putting together their preseason predictions.
North Queensland's 1,921 running metres against Parramatta were their most for the season so far with Taumalolo (232m), Scott (178m) and McLean (192m) all providing plenty of value.
Milford's Elite Kicking Game
Ben Hunt was assumed to be the best kicker at the Broncos before leaving for the Dragons at the end of last season. However, Anthony Milford has quietened that discussion, providing one of the best kicking games in the NRL for 2018. He kicked for a career-high 615 metres on Saturday night to pin the Roosters on their own line at the end of almost every set.
Milford leads the competition with 8,147 kicking metres this year having only managed 7,933 in his previous three seasons combined. Meanwhile, Hunt had an absolute shocker with the boot on Sunday afternoon as his Dragons side was thrashed 38-0 by the Bulldogs.
Mitchell v Isaako
The race to be the NRL's leading point scorer has a clear leader following Roosters v Broncos on Saturday night. Only one point separated the pair heading into the match with Latrell Mitchell on top with 200 points ahead of Jamayne Isaako on 199.
With the Broncos putting up 22 points to the Roosters' four, Isaako piled up 14 points (1 try, 5 goals) to Mitchell's four (2 goals) to go nine points clear ahead of the final round of the season. In his rookie year, Isaako becomes just the third Bronco to score over 200 points in a season, joining Michael De Vere and Darren Lockyer in Brisbane history books.
38 Points For The Win
Both the Sharks and Bulldogs registered 38 points in their wins over the Knights and Dragons on Sunday afternoon.
For the Sharks, they're now in the top four and a genuine premiership candidate. While they managed to crack the top four in Round 12, they could only stay there for a week that time. If they can extend this visit to two weeks, they'll give themselves an extra life with a finals double chance.
In the second Sunday game, the Bulldogs handed the Dragons their biggest ever loss at Kogarah as the once premiership favourites slumped to a 38-0 defeat.
Premier League, Round 3
- Eden Hazard’s goal was his 70th for Chelsea in the Premier League - overtaking Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in third (69) - only Frank Lampard (147) and Didier Drogba (104) have scored more for the Blues.
- Since his debut for Fulham in February, no player has scored more league goals in the top four tiers of English football than Aleksandar Mitrovic (15, level with Mo Salah).
- Mo Salah has scored 29 goals in 29 appearances for Liverpool at Anfield in all competitions.
- Since the start of 2017-18 season, Bournemouth have won a league-high 25 points from losing positions in the Premier League.
- There were four red cards in the Premier League on Saturday, the most shown on a single day in the competition since 19/09/15 (also 4).
