GVL Data | How does Echuca’s early season form compare to 2023?

By Alexander Dabb

Apr 11, 2024

Stacking up: Echuca has made a hot start to the 2024 campaign, but how do the stats so far compare to its 2023 season averages? Photo: Aidan Briggs

Echuca has made a hot start to the 2024 Goulburn Valley League season, with the back-to-back reigning premier winning both of its opening matches by a combined 177 points.

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Equipped with an admittedly small sample size, we’ll take a look at how the Murray Bombers are faring in terms of statistics after two rounds compared to the averages from their 2023 campaign as they head into the bye this weekend.

We will start off with the most obvious of categories, being the scoreboard, where Echuca has put up a monstrous average of 141 points to kick off 2024, well above the average score of 104.6 it managed last season.

While this will certainly drop once the Murray Bombers get a few more games under their belt, it is interesting that the side is averaging a whopping six goals per game more, despite being down on inside 50s (50.5 in 2024 compared to 52.8 last year).

The average disposal count from last year (337.6) stacks up relatively well so far against the first two games of 2024 (331), although Echuca has kicked the ball more this season (219 per game vs 209.3) while handballing 13 per cent less.

The reigning premier has also found more space to take uncontested marks (100.5 compared to 78.4) while pressure has seen a steep increase to an overall rating of 158 as opposed to last year’s average of 115.7.

Clearances have been slightly down but remain relatively on par with last season (37 to 39.3), although the bottle greens have been getting first use from the centre circle slightly more this season (13.5 to 12).

Contested possessions have also seen a decrease (129 to 138.5).

A five per cent increase in disposal efficiency (76 per cent to 71 per cent) has yielded less turnovers on average (55 to 61.1) as one would expect.

Of course, statistics can’t be given too much weight after just two rounds, but all signs seem to suggest Echuca looks a pretty similar side in terms of raw numbers.