Melbourne are by far the most accurate team in the competition this season with their ability to turn chances into goals helping them to a 5-2 record through seven rounds.
Currently, the Demons are ranked first for goals kicked in the competition with 118, but stunningly they’re dead last in 18th for behinds kicked with 61.
While they’re obviously getting good looks inside 50, Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne has delved into the stats and has found four Melbourne players that have been freakish in front of goals this year in terms of expect accuracy returns.
“They've got four players at the moment that are going at freakish accuracy returns,” Hoyne told SEN Sportsday.
“(Jacob) Van Rooyen, he's expected accuracy is meant to be 57 per cent, he’s going at 83 per cent at the moment.
“Bayley Fritsch, he has an expected accuracy of 49 per cent, he’s going at 73 per cent.
“Kade Chandler is absolutely shooting the lights out at the moment, he’s meant to be going at 52 per cent, he is going at 81 per cent at the moment.
“Ben Brown from those three games that he's played, is meant to be going at 47 per cent and has a 70 per cent return.
“So, quite freakish.”
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Melbourne’s leading scorer in 2023 is Bayley Fritsch, with the medium forward kicking 16 goals so far.
While Fritsch has won the club’s goal kicking award across the last three seasons, Hoyne has noticed that the Demons seem to be sharing the load more in 2023 with four players already kicking 10 or more goals.
“I like what they're doing at the moment from just an experimenting perspective,” Hoyne said.
“We're seven weeks in, we've got a long way to go.
“We're probably thinking that they are going to finish top four.
“So they've got a long campaign ahead of them.
“But They are spreading the load in terms of who they are targeting inside 50.
“Bayley Fritsch's returns across the competition over the last three or four years, he's been a top five targeted player in terms of the amount of scores Melbourne get back when they target him inside 50.
“So, it'll be interesting to see as the year goes on whether or not that load actually gets spread out a little bit more.”
Melbourne will go in search of their third straight win when they head to the Gold Coast to face the Suns on Saturday afternoon.