ESSENDON had a pretty flawless 2022 VFLW campaign, there is just no other way to describe it, which culminated in winning the flag on Sunday.
But winning the flag in general is not easy, much less off the back of an undefeated season like the Bombers did.
But how exactly did they do it? Why were they so dominant? Well, we have delved into the stats to check out some of the reasons why the Bombers were so dominant in 2022.
They got vast, vast more of the ball then their opponents
Well one key aspect to winning a game of football is getting plenty of the ball, and the Bombers certainly did that in 2022.
The Bombers averages 269 disposals a game in 2022. That compares to an average of 195 disposals for their opponents across all games in 2022.
If the opponents are broken down into the eventual top six and bottom six, the contrast is at times even starker.
The top six teams did slightly better on average against the Bombers (199 touches), but the sides that finished in the bottom six only mustered up on average 191 touches a game.
They are more of a kicking team then a handball team
On average the Bombers had about 65 more kicks a game then handballs, which does make sense considering the way they like to play their football. Handball chains are not very common from the Bombers, they more like to kick it long to a target further up the ground.
Their dominance resulted in far more inside 50s then their opponents
Essendon’s dominance in the number of times they got the ball had the obvious effect of them getting the ball inside 50 more then their opposition.
But the difference in the amount of inside 50s Essendon got compared to their opponents is remarkable.
Essendon averaged 37 inside 50s a game in 2022, compared to an average of 22 for their opponents.
The gap between the Bombers and the other top six teams (28) and the bottom six (15) is also stark.
As much as they dominated everywhere else, they certainly did not in the ruck
Despite their seemingly dominant season in every other sense, the Bombers got pretty decently beaten in the ruck department.
The Essendon ruck department averaged 29 hitouts a game in 2022, compared to 32 for their opponents.
Despite losing the ruck battle, they did do better in the clearance count, averaging 27 clearances a game compared to their opponents’ 25.
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