"Hit-outs is one of the most useless statistics in football," he said on Tuesday. "If you win the hit-out but the opposition gets the ball, there's no point."
Minson said a more accurate reflection of effectiveness would be coupling hit-outs with clearances. As far as that aspect is concerned, he believes the Dogs' performance against the Magpies was below par.
He speculates that part of the reason he and the Dogs midfielders struggled to co-ordinate was the fact that it was his first AFL game of the season.
"I probably lacked a bit of mojo with my midfielders to get things right," he said.
The big man gained his chance in the Bulldogs' team after three superb games with VFL affiliate Williamstown. He believes his time in the VFL meant that he was in good nick for the AFL match; VFL players are not as big as their AFL counterparts, so there's less bruising.
Minson believes another factor that might have helped was that he was feeling fit and healthy. By the end of the season, he and his fellow ruckmen often suffer from an accumulation of niggles.
Other factors included the reasonable number of goals — the score was 15.15 (105) to 8.9 (57) — and the higher number of stoppages because the MCG surface was wet.
"There were a lot of opportunities to get my hands on the ball," Minson said.
Although Minson didn't say this, the fact that Darren Jolly was out of the Magpies' team would have helped. Jolly has four of the top 11 match tallies in the table below.
Jolly's replacement, Cameron Wood, got a highly respectable 29 hit-outs. The tally of hit-outs from the two ruckmen suggests a high number of stoppages.
Several other ruckmen earned big tallies of hit-outs at the weekend, with Shane Mumford picking up 43 in Sydney's loss to Carlton and Todd Goldstein getting 35 in North Melbourne's victory over Port Adelaide.
The Mumford statistic suggests the Sydney onballers were ineffective at taking the ball away from stoppages. Chris Judd's extraordinary number of centre clearances — 15 — supports that view.
Even if Minson gets another 56 hit-outs against Sydney in Canberra this Saturday - unlikely, given that coach Rodney Eade says No.1 ruckman Ben Hudson will return - he won't get carried away.
"Maybe if I get 80 per cent effectiveness from my hit-outs, then I might ask how many hit-outs I had," he said.
"Eighty per cent would show that me as a ruckman and the midfielders are working well together."
Champion Data statistics for most hit-outs 1999-2011
56: Will Minson, Western Bulldogs v Collingwood , round six, 2011
53: Aaron Sandilands, Fremantle v Western Bulldogs, round five, 2011
53: Darren Jolly, Sydney Swans v Collingwood, round 12, 2009
53: Aaron Sandilands, Fremantle v Carlton, round 13, 2010
49: Darren Jolly, Sydney Swans v Western Bulldogs, round eight, 2006
49: Dean Cox, West Coast v Sydney Swans, round six, 2005
47: Peter Street, Geelong v St Kilda, round 22, 2003
47: Jeff White, Melbourne v West Coast, round 22, 2000
47: Aaron Sandilands, Fremantle v Sydney Swans, round five, 2009
46: Shane Mumford, Sydney Swans v Essendon, round 11, 2010
46: Darren Jolly, Sydney Swans v Brisbane Lions, round three, 2009
Champion Data statistics for most hit-outs, round six, 2011
56: Will Minson, Western Bulldogs v Collingwood
43: Shane Mumford, Sydney Swans v Carlton
35: Todd Goldstein, North Melbourne v Port Adelaide
33: Sam Jacobs, Adelaide v St Kilda
29: Cameron Wood, Collingwood v Western Bulldogs
27: Mark Jamar, Melbourne v West Coast
24: Robert Warnock, Carlton v Sydney Swans
24: Angus Graham, Richmond v Brisbane Lions
20: Dean Cox, West Coast v Melbourne
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
