Back in July, Hawthorn coach Alistair Clarkson said that he didn’t ‘give a toss’ whether his side won the contested ball contest in their round 17 top-of-the-table clash with the Swans at the SCG.

While the Hawks did go on to win that one by five points, they would lose the hard-ball count by 37.

But what Clarkson’s teams do better than most is shift the ball around the park on the back of an elite kicking game, and regularly finish well ahead of opposition sides in uncontested touches and marks.

In short, once they get it, they rarely give it back.

Thus, the contrasting game styles of Clarkson’s Hawks and Luke Beveridge’s Bulldogs make for an intriguing sub-plot to Friday night’s Semi Final blockbuster at the MCG.

The Bulldogs won the battle of the stats sheet the last time the two sides met, with Beveridge’s men besting the Hawks in all the key areas, except the scoreboard – the Hawks saluting by three points following a late James Sicily goal.

But it was in the contested possession count where the Dogs won most comfortably. 

So does it matter in 2016? 

The Bulldogs averaged 148.7 contested possessions per contest in 2016, 17 ahead of the last-place Hawthorn, and last Friday night against Geelong, Clarkson’s men conceded 52 more than the Cats.

Appearing on Channel Seven’s Talking Footy on Monday night, Luke Beveridge said that he sees it as an important part of the way these Bulldogs play football.

“I still think it’s important,” he said. 

“Over the year we’ve implemented different plans based on who’s available for our 22 as well, at times we’ve taken a number up at the stoppage and then we’ve moved away from it, depending on who’s playing.

“I think at the peak of our high-possession game and maybe our contested side, we probably had a number around the ball and teams had to decide whether or not they’re going to do that.

“In recent times that hasn’t been as consistent as it’s been earlier in the year, so we still value it, and we’re looking to, I suppose, branch out in a few other areas.”

Beveridge was encouraged with what he saw from his charges against the Eagles in the Elimination Final, the Dogs submitting their most complete game of the year, but he is confident that there’s still room for improvement.

“We haven’t been a great ball carrying side, we haven’t given ourselves time to use the footy as well as we’d like, we haven’t moved for each other like we would have liked but that’s still a great work in progress.

“It was a pleasant Thursday night because we felt like some of that had started to come into play for us.”