The numbers don’t lie: The key stats that back up the Crows claim to being the AFLW’s premiership favourite

The Crows will go into the final round of the AFLW season as premiership favourite. Check out the key Champion Data stats that back up the claim.

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For Crows fans, Erin Phillips is the superstar of the AFLW. And the statistics back that up that claim.

After six rounds of season three, Phillips is in the Top 5 in 12 of Champion Data’s 20 individual statistical areas — more than any other footballer at any of the 10 clubs.

Those areas include ranking points, disposals, kicks, contested possessions, contested marks and groundball gets.

But despite the stats, this season for the Crows is not just the Erin Phillips show, which would be pleasing to coach Matthew Clarke.

Crows small defender Dayna Cox gets a handball out under pressure from Greater Western Sydney during Sunday’s win over the Giants at Unley Oval. Picture SARAH REED.

Thanks to a focus on developing skills, playing footballers across the field and a strong fitness focus in pre-season Adelaide has now firmed as premiership favourite coming into the final minor round of the season. There are many reasons for that favouritism.

Among the achievements of the Crows side this season are:

* The team is No. 1 in the competition for kicks, handballs, disposals, contested possessions, clearances and goals.

* At least one Crow is in the Top 3 players in the league in 16 of Champion Data’s 20 key individual stats including kicks, tackles and inside-50s.

* If you expand that further to the Top 5 players in Champion Data stats, then a Crow features in 18 of the 20 areas, missing out only in spoils and pressure points.

* A player has been nominated for AFLW’s MVP of the Week every round this season.

* The Crows are one of only two clubs to have kicked more goals than points — 48 goals/40 points (Brisbane has 25 goals/24 points).

* The Crows have the highest score average: 55 points.

AFLW Champion Data ranking points after six rounds of AFLW.

But the side has also become the competition’s final-quarter specialists, kicking 19 of its 48 goals in the last term.

Small defender Dayna Cox said this was in part due to the fitness of the squad. The 25-year-old said the team’s high-performance coaches were to thank for that.

“They’ve put a lot of work in over the pre-season, but from our perspective, we’d probably like to play like that across four quarters,” she said.

“We’ve definitely put in some ks over pre-season … it’s been full of high-intensity work. I think they’ve got the right balance going into the season.”

Prolific ball-winning midfielder Ebony Marinoff — who ranks in eight of Champion Data’s 20 areas — agreed.

“We’ve got really fit as a collective across the board,” she said.

“Last year, we probably weren’t as fit as we wanted … one of our main key points and focuses was to get fit under our strength and conditioning and then work on our fundamentals and we executed that really well and obviously it showed across the past few rounds.”

That tough pre-season has also improved Marinoff’s performance this year.

“I’ve been able to run out games a lot better in the midfield and I don’t need as much bench time, so it’s been really exciting for me to play that midfield minutes a lot more than I did last year,” she said.

“And also just running, my high speeds have never been as high as it has been before, so it’s just been really positive, but there’s lots to go.”

Originally published as The numbers don’t lie: The key stats that back up the Crows claim to being the AFLW’s premiership favourite