By the Numbers | Round 5

Peel Thunder slumped to their fifth straight loss to commence a shortened 2020 season, falling to Subiaco by 37 points at David Grays Arena on Saturday. Despite the loss, there continued to be promising signs for Peel, these are the numbers behind the promise.

2

LAST QUARTER WIN – After losing their previous four final quarters in 2020, Peel put together its best quarter of the game late against Subiaco, winning the final quarter 3.4 to 3.2. It was a welcome turnaround for Peel, as a week earlier it had been a fourth quarter fadeout which had cost the side a chance of victory against Claremont.  Interestingly, next week’s opponent Swan Districts are yet to win a final quarter in 2020.

5

FREE KICKS FOR – Prior to Saturday’s game, ruckman Brad McGowan had not received a free kick for since Round One. Yet McGowan was at the favour of the umpires in Saturday’s contest as he received a career high five free kicks. Interestingly, McGowan received a number of those free kicks from the reigning Sandover medallist in Lachlan Delahunty who conceded four free kicks on the day.

7

GOALS – Club great Hayden Ballantyne took the lead as the club’s leading goal kicker in 2020 so far, with two goals to take his tally to seven on the year. It was the second week in a row that Ballantyne had kicked multiple goals in a game. You have to go back to his Sandover Medal winning season of 2008 for the last time that Ballantyne has kicked multiple goals in consecutive weeks for the Thunder.

8 

CONTESTED MARKS – Peel had their opponents measure in the air, as they doubled up Subiaco eight contested marks to four during Saturday’s game. The livewire Blair Bell had two contested marks amongst an equal team high seven marks.

15

TACKLES – Captain Ben Howlett once again led from the front and was at the coalface all day laying 15 tackles. An appropriate figure as it was also the 15th time in Ben's career that he has hit double digit tackle numbers. Meanwhile the hard working Braden Lawler posted a career high in tackles in game 101 for Peel, with 13. For Lawler it topped a previous career high of 11 tackles and was the fifth time in his career he had recorded double figure tackle numbers. All told the experienced duo combined for 28 tackles, as Peel ended with a season high 76 tackles on the day.

18

DISPOSAL – In his fifth league game, James Ewing finished with a career high 18 disposals on the day. It was the third time in those five games that Ewing has collected a double digit disposal tally. As well as a career high in disposals, Ewing also had a career high seven marks.

18.51

INSIDE 50 EFFICIENCY – Despite being under siege for large parts of the game, the Peel defence did an outstanding job of preventing goals to their Subiaco opponents. Despite Subiaco having 54 inside 50 entries, some 29 more than Peel, they could muster only 10 goals for an inside 50 goal efficiency percentage of 18.51%.

25

INSIDE 50S – Highlighting the struggles that Peel have continued to have forward of centre, the Thunder could muster only 25 inside 50’s for the day, a season low across the entire competition.

42

REBOUND 50’S – By weight of the extra ball in the Peel back half, Peel dominated the rebound 50 count 42 to 20. As he has done all season, Josh Bootsma was the catalyst for the Peel defence as he accumulated a game high eight rebound 50’s. To go with this attacking work, Bootsma also had a team high seven spoils during the contest as well.

63

DISPOSAL EFFICENCY – Despite the loss, Peel were cleaner with the ball compared to their opponents as they finished with a 63% disposal efficiency. This was some 7% higher than their Subiaco opponents.

129

UNCONTESTED POSSESSION – One statistical category that Peel had the measure of Subiaco on Saturday was in uncontested possession. Peel ended up plus 10 in this category collecting 129 uncontested possessions to Subiaco’s 119. The hard working Jackson Merrett led the way with 15 and youngster James Ewing had 12 uncontested possessions.

151

KICKS – Despite going into the game as one of the highest weighted kicking teams in the WAFL, Peel were pushed out of their comfort zone against Subiaco, finishing with a season low 151 kicks for the game. At the other end of the spectrum, Peel neared a season high with 95 handballs on the day, their second highest handball count of the year.

Statistics Sourced from WAFL Footy Facts and Champion Data.