Let’s skip the intro – if you’re new to the site, I’d recommend reading this post on Tackle %, which explains how it works and why I think it’s an important statistic for identifying high motor middle and interchange forwards.
Here’s how the Tackle % chart looked for Round 18 without a minute restriction
Spencer Leinu’s one minute on field throws out the chart this week, so we’re going to exclude it for analysis purposes. The real first place this week goes to Jacob Liddle from the Tigers, who had a Tackle % of 57.47% in his 8 minutes on field. Still a small amount of time on field but enough to make 10 tackles at least.
Second place went to Samuel Lisone of the Titans took third place with a tackle % a hair under 40% at 39.99% while third place was Chris Randall from the Knights at 36.99%.
Next, we’ll look at those players who spent at least half a game on the field this round
Raiders darling Tom Starling takes first for players with 40 minutes or more, at 35.71%. This means he completed a tackle on 7 out of every 20 plays the Raiders defended against the Dragons. The Raiders have looked like a different team with Starling starting and his work rate is one reason why.
It was a very close race this week, with second place this going to Tino Fa’asuamaleaui from the Storm with a Tackle % of 32.58% in his 53 minutes, only 0.02% behind Starling. Tino is usually a staple in the Run % charts and it’s a great sign for the Titans to see him using his energy on the defensive side of the game as well.
The Raiders picked up another spot in the top three from Hudson Young, who had a fantastic game against the Dragons whilst sporting a tackle rate of 32.00%.
There were two players in the leaderboard this week who played the full 80 – Damien Cook (31.03%) and Blayke Brailey (30.97%).
Finally, here is the 2020 season leader board for Tackle %
It’s still Nathan Peats, Mitch Rein and Elijah Taylor as the top three this round, with all three seeing a minor decline in their Tackle %. Jarrod Wallace continues his drift away from the top three whilst Tom Starling lurks outside the top 5, up to seventh from eighth last week with a season tackle % of 31.89%.
The Panthers Moses Leota has been getting a lot of strong press lately and it’s easy to see why. He’s been a huge factor off the bench for Penrith and he’s sitting ninth this season in Tackle % at 30.32%, making a tackle in three out of every ten plays the Panthers defend.
