Who actually were the A-League's best and worst?

DOES THE SALARY CAP MATTER?

Another interesting statistic compares the passes to shots ratio, with Western Sydney managing to fire off the second most shots with the second least passes in the build-up.

It's a sign that the A-League, despite its agricultural reputation among the wider public, is a league that vastly rewards a calm, measured build-up.

This is still thrown out a little by Sydney's success under Corica's slightly more direct style however and both Melbourne Victory and Sydney's success against Perth by remaining defensively solid and playing counter-attacking football.

But ultimately what these stats tell us is that while the salary cap certainly pushes towards equality, the A-league certainly has big guns: the best teams attempting to dominate and the weaker attempting to counter.

Passes

MELBOURNE CITY'S FRUSTRATION

Proving City fans' frustration is while their side had one of the lowest shot ratios in the competition, they still had one of the highest pass completion and accuracy ratings. A lot of side-to-side then backwards at AAMI Park then.

This table also highlights one of the subtle ways in which Steve Corcia diverged from Graham Arnold's style, with Corica's Sydney outfit forcing the play earlier and relying on a more direct, quicker style, much to their success.

Passing Accuracy