Before the charts this week, I wanted to clear up the “Total Plays” column based on some Twitter feedback. The “Total Plays” column is the total plays for a particular game, and not the minute adjusted number of plays a player was on the field for. The adjustment for minutes played is made in the Involvement Rate % calculation.
I’ve left the “Total Plays” unadjusted get an idea of how many opportunities to run the ball or complete a tackle. Generally, NRL games have around 300 play the balls. If you’re seeing a team with more than that number of plays, then they’re either dominating possession or playing in a low scoring game where the ball is in play more often.
If you’re new to the site and want to learn more about Involvement Rate, you can check out this post in the articles section which goes into it in more detail.
Here’s the NRL Round 10 all minutes chart for Involvement Rate
As with most weeks, it is the lower minute interchange players clogging the top of this chart, with South Sydney’s Patrick Mago again leading the way with an involvement rate of 28.6%, meaning he either made a tackle or completed a run in nearly 3 out of every 10 plays whilst on the field. Mago was number one last week with nearly 29% and is clearly making an impact in his short minutes on the field for Wayne Bennett.
Moving to the 40+ minute chart, and Lindsay Collins has relished the increased minutes for the Roosters this year and is filling the void left by Victory Radley and Sam Verrils. He was involved in 38 plays on the weekend in 41 minutes, for an Involvement Rate of 24.07%. With Angus Crichton out a number of weeks with a knee injury it is likely that there will be even more work for Collins to pick up.
Jai Arrow placed second this round with an Involvement Rate of 23.4%, getting back to his old work rate after a few rounds of limited involvement.
Finally, for the season so far, Jaimin Jolliffe leads the way with an Involvement Rate of 23.07%, slightly ahead of teammate Jarrod Wallace at 22.92%. Wallace has been dropping down the Tackle % and Involvement Rate chart with a change in his role and reduced minutes. Nat Butcher rounds out the top 3 with an Involvement Rate of 22.73%. Similar to Run % this is most likely going to end up as a two-horse race between Joliffe and Butcher.
Don’t sleep on Christian Welch either, who is surging lately and has moved up to sixth for the season with an Involvement Rate of 21.57%.
