This article was originally published on This Week In Football.
In news that will surely make David King’s heart sing, Fremantle are by one metric the most stop-start team of any from 2021 onwards.
In the season to date, only 26.4% of frees or marks to Fremantle sees them do something other than taking the kick from behind the mark.
The next lowest is also Fremantle – in their 2021 incarnation – at 27.5%.
This year has an outlier at the other end also – This year’s Giants are the highest from 2021 onwards at a rate of 38.7%.
Now, the lowest from 26.4% to the highest at 38.7% gives a relatively narrow band, so let’s see if we can unpack it a bit more. A decent chunk of frees and marks in the forward half will be in viable scoring range. Most of the time a team is going to go back and take the shot – or at least think about doing so and then potentially find a pass in a better position.
If we only take marks/frees in the defensive half the differences become far more apparent.
Fremantle in 2025 are still the lowest we’ve got on record at 28.2%, but the highest we’ve got is up at 52.3%, and they’re another 2025 team.
In fact, the four highest on record are all from 2025 – Gold Coast (52.3%), Port Adelaide (46.0%), Essendon (45.2%) and GWS (44.3%).
If we limit it even further just to defensive half intercept marks and frees Freo are yet again the lowest in our records (17.6%), and four 2025 teams are on top, although not all four are the same – Port Adelaide (43.5%), Sydney (43.0%), GWS (41.9%), and Collingwood (41.7%)
Now, this may change over the course of the season. Small sample sizes will often lead to outlier results, but it’s certainly something worth keeping an eye on.
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