A trio of Tigers have dominated the centre square work but have failed to convert their supremacy into four points after Grovedale suffered a thrilling loss to St Joseph’s. Check out all of the stats from the round here.
Midfielder William Ford led the competition for clearances in round 9 with 17, but his teammates were not far behind.
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Superstar ruck Ryan Abbott collected 12 clearances while Grovedale skipper Nathan Deans had 11, with the trio ahead of every other GFL player that took the field in round 9.
Grovedale doubled St Joseph’s work in the clearances, winning the count 60-30, the biggest discrepancy in the statistic for the round and the second biggest for the season, only behind Grovedale’s 56-4 win against North Shore, when the two teams could not be separated at full time.
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The Tigers have not lost a clearance count this season, with the closest being two drawn games against Geelong West and Lara.
Abbott’s big day did not stop with the clearances, with the former Cats ruck recording 51 hit outs to lead all big men for the round.
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Newtown & Chilwell’s Cam Wilkinson was next best with 41 hit outs against Colac.
Giants midfielder David Handley collected 33 disposals, along with a league-high 14 tackles in the win over Lara, and could be in contention for three votes.
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Fellow Mathieson Medal fancy Lachlan Patten had another great game despite the loss to Leopold, recording 30 touches and a goal.
Patten led the league in the contested game, with 23 of his 30 touches being contested.
His counterpart in the contest, Logan Wagener, was just behind him with 22 contested possessions from his 33 touches, as was Giant Tanner Lovell, who had 22 contested possessions from 37 touches.
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Lions captain Marcus Thompson’s 37 disposal, 10 mark, nine clearance, eight tackle, two goal effort was rated as the second-best performance of the season and the best of the round, earn 232 ranking points.
St Mary’s star forward Paddy Dowling booted eight goals against North Shore, which is the biggest bag of goals so far this season.
Young Joeys star Hunter Lewis also enjoyed a strong day out against Grovedale, booting six goals from nine scoring shots.