Lions.com.au takes an in-depth look at the statistics from Saturday’s tight loss against the West Coast Eagles.

Disposals
The Lions dominated the disposal count against the Eagles 374-308, but it still wasn’t enough to get them over the line.

It came as no surprise to see Tom Rockliff (34 disposals), Pearce Hanley (31) and Brent Moloney (26) at the top of the Lions’ disposal list - the trio are the team’s leading possession-winners for the season, in that exact same order.

What did come as a surprise was seeing rookie defender Justin Clarke ranked in the Lions’ top five for the round with 22 touches.

It was clearly a career-best for the Booleroo teenager, who had averaged just 8.5 disposals across his first two senior AFL games.  

Marks
Clarke also finished with a career-high 12 marks – double the amount he had taken in his first two senior matches.

In fact, there were plenty or marks taken in the Lions’ backline, with Pearce Hanley (11 marks), Mitch Golby (10), Daniel Merrett (9) and Joel Patfull (8) all racking up big numbers.

Clearances
Brent Moloney had a team-high seven clearances against the Eagles, with James Polkinghorne and Ryan Lester next best with six apiece.

Simon Black also managed to clear the ball four times in less than half a game. 

Moloney has now amassed a team-high 43 clearances so far this season – eight more than second-placed Jack Redden.   

Ruck Battle
Faced with the difficult task of going up against Eagles pair Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui – the best ruck combination in the AFL – Lions ruckman Matthew Leuenberger more than held his own. In fact, he was arguably game’s best big man.

Leuenberger had a game-high 33 hitouts, and also had more possessions (16) and marks (5) than his opposing ruckmen.

He capped off another great individual game with a brilliant ground-level goal in the third quarter.

Welcome Black
Simon Black might be 34 years-old and be coming off knee surgery in the pre-season, but the veteran superstar was as busy as ever after coming on midway through the third quarter.

In just 28% of game time, Black collected 12 possessions (seven contested), had four clearances, kicked a goal, and racked up 49 AFL Fantasy points.

The starting substitute certainly had the desired impact after being activated.

Dream Team
The Lions’ top five AFL Dream Team scorers were as follows:

129 – Pearce Hanley
114 – Tom Rockliff
110 – Brent Moloney
109 – Mitch Golby
94 – Matthew Leuenberger