At half time yesterday, the stats sheet suggested a Carlton bloodbath. They had 27 more contested possessions than St Kilda. They had 23 more marks. Four of their players had racked up more than 20 touches. They even had the best of the umpiring.
And yet they were only a few points up. Maybe stats are increasingly irrelevant. Maybe they would have got better bang-for-buck if they hadn’t spent the second quarter hoiking and dinking nine irons into the forward 50. Maybe system trumps statistics, and there’s nothing surer than St Kilda’s system right now.
