Before our round 16 match we highlighted some of the key performance indicators that reflected Melbourne’s struggles this season.

Have they improved since then?

Getting the ball

Before round 16, Melbourne had a league-worst 4495 disposals, 222 less than 17th placed Port Adelaide. Not much has changed there, with the Demons still last and 204 behind the Power.

Disposal efficiency

Melbourne has improved its usage however, with its disposal efficiency picking up from 69.6 per cent before round 16, to 71.3 currently. That’s not far behind Freo now, which goes at 71.8 per cent efficiency for disposal.

Kicking goals

We also highlighted the Demons’ lack of avenues to goal without Mitch Clark. Prior to the Etihad Stadium encounter, their leading active goal kickers were Jeremy Howe and Nathan Jones with 12. Howe will be Melbourne’s leading goal kicker going into Saturday night’s game with 19, although the Demons have had some help on the scoreboard via Colin Sylvia and Sam Blease, who have kicked eight and 12 goals respectively since round 16.

Scoring from stoppages

Melbourne were also very poor at scoring and conceding scores from stoppages going into the last meeting. They’re still struggling to score, but the Demons have tightened up a bit defensively, having moved from 16th in round 16 to currently sit in 14th position.