The inside 50 and scoring ladders after six rounds

How important is the inside 50 count?

Six of the teams who had superior inside 50 numbers won in Round 6. So it must be fairly important.

But it’s not everything. The Giants had 26 to Hawthorn’s 38 in Round 5 and still won comfortably. Carlton kicked the only score of more than 100 last weekend and did it by losing the inside 50 count by 12 to the Bulldogs.

So it’s obvious to see that getting the ball inside forward 50 will not hand you a victory. It will, however, go a long way to giving that team the ascendancy provided they can score.

Some inside 50s that are recorded are shallow, and come straight back out before coming back in again. Repeat entries over a short period can flatter this particular stats column and show to stats watchers that a team is on top, when in reality, the opposing defence is easily holding them at bay.

On the odd occasion, a team will not enter their attacking third for quite some time before conjuring one chance and kicking a goal. But it is a numbers game overall and the more opportunities you get to score, the better hope you have of winning.

Nothing in footy is an exact science so we’ve attempted to shed some light on inside 50s and scoring efficiency. Below are three ladders - inside 50s & points for, scoring efficiency and the individual inside 50s (just for good measure) - to show which teams get it forward most frequently and which sides make the most of their attacking chances.

Inside 50s & points for ladder

(Note: Melbourne and Essendon have both played one less match).

Interestingly enough, the top eight of the inside 50s ladder is made up of six of the actual top eight sides.

The two outliers are St Kilda (who you'll see have been quite efficient) and Essendon who with one game to make up would probably feature higher in the rankings.

Of the five highest scoring teams (Geelong, Port Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton and St Kilda) only the Saints sit outside the top eight on the inside 50s ladder.

Scoring efficiency ladder

There’s much more to be learnt from our next ladder.

GWS is the most effective team in the competition from an attacking sense. They are the only side to have a scoring efficiency of 50% or more. If Leon Cameron can get the Giants entering forward 50 more frequently, you’d image they would win more games.

Brisbane are also efficient when in attack. They have the most scores (136) from the second most amount of inside 50s which makes sense.

St Kilda is also fairly non-fuss when it comes to scoring from inside 50 entries while the Cats, Blues and Power are all hitting the scoreboard frequently from ample opportunity.

Down the other end and it’s been well documented that Melbourne struggles with scoring. A paltry 34% of scores from inside 50s is only behind bottom-placed Adelaide.

Richmond is the other interesting side down the bottom of the scoring efficiency ladder. If the reigning premiers can fix up their ball movement and make the most of their opportunities then they’ll be a legitimate contender again given they enter attack quite often.

Individual inside 50s ladder

And just for interest’s sake, which players pump it inside attacking 50 the most?

Power midfielder Travis Boak leads the way with Swans youngster Ollie Florent and Brisbane on-baller Jarryd Lyons also featuring heavily.

Carlton has four players - Patrick Cripps, Sam Walsh, Ed Curnow and Marc Murphy - who all have 20 or more inside 50s while Port, Brisbane and Geelong have three each.

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