Pure Footy: David King and Daniel Hoyne analyse key trends, stats after Round 16

The top five has put a gap on the rest of the competition and all are in the flag hunt — but each side has an issue with their game that could bring them undone. Watch Pure Footy.

Every one of the top five teams has an issue in their game that could bring their premiership dreams undone — although other clubs would love to have the Bulldogs’ biggest problem.

North Melbourne champion David King and Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne have taken a closer look at the five teams that have separated themselves from the rest of the competition with seven home-and-away rounds remaining in this week’s episode of Pure Footy.

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Aside from an alarming drop in scoring in recent weeks, Melbourne also has an issue when it doesn’t have the ball.

“In the first 10 weeks of the year Melbourne was the No.1 rated pressure team in the competition, they were flying,” Hoyne said.

“Since then their pressure has dropped to 14th.”

James Jordon’s pressure point are down from 63 to 29 per game, while James Harmes, Charlie Spargo, Christian Salem, Clayton Oliver and Kysaiah Pickett have also dropped their pressure significantly in that time.

“If you’re poor without the footy, you’re not winning the flag. It’s as simple as that,” King said.

The Brisbane Lions would like to improve their ball movement, there are question marks over Port Adelaide’s record against the top teams and Geelong’s defence could be the Cats’ Achilles heel.

“They’ve just got to get stronger at defending the key forwards, which is going to be interesting to watch this week against Harry McKay,” Hoyne said.

Kysaiah Pickett’s pressure has dropped in recent weeks. Picture: Michael Klein

Finding a chink in the Bulldogs’ armour is much more difficult.

“Their profile at the moment is complete,” Hoyne said.

“What areas are there where they need to improve? There’s nothing.

“Defensively in the first couple of weeks of the year, that was their concern, but they can put that to bed now. Over the past two months, their defensive profile is absolutely rock solid.”

Hoyne said one possible concern was that the Dogs were the only team that hasn’t had a flat patch over the first 16 rounds.

“This is going to sound ridiculous, but it is a long time to go until we get to preliminary final and Grand Final day for you to be absolutely perfect.”

In a bumper episode, King and Hoyne also reveal the stat in which Carlton leads the competition in the past month, what the loss of Jeremy Cameron means for Geelong and more.