Violent Stool wrote:
What worries me is that Lyon talks up KPIs and stats as a measure for our performance. He also refers to these KPIs as reasons for a win.
If he honestly thinks this, we're in strife.
Erm... no.... Though a misunderstanding of KPIs could I suppose lead one to the strange position that the Saints are relying on too few...
KPI's are very clearly used to create a larger samply of correlative statistics with which to measure performance so that one can truly get an indication of whether that performance is as good or bad as the scoreboard would indicate, given that you're playing footy for a lot longer than the time it takes to kick a goal...
i.e. inside 50s correlates really highly with score kicked. Contested ball correlates really highly with both high offensive inside 50, low defensive inside 50s, and rebound 50s. Tackles correlate pretty well to contested ball. both offensive and defensive strategies are set around these.
Low disposal efficiency correlates really highly with the whole thing falling apart. Defensive strategies try and account for this.
Michael Voss couldn't control Jonathan Brown's accuracy - 5.0 in a big win last weekend, 4.5 in a 6 point loss the week before.
He could impact on the likelyhood of Brown being in a position to win the game by setting up his team to fight for clearances and kick it at the key forwards. Once they stopped butchering the ball, the game followed the KPIs very closely.
Bringing it back to the Saints, if you take in the breakdown each week, rather than a series of individuals making the Saints look good, this years Saints tend to have a team making a series of individuals look good. These individuals contribute, but the casting of the stars almost becomes a role in itself, and while difficult to replace, is not as dependant as some would represent.