This article was originally posted as part of NRL Round 15 notes and trends, August 25, 2020. This week should have been a fantastic matchup of halves, with Shaun Johnson of the Sharks facing up against the Panthers and Nathan Cleary. Cleary has been one of the standouts this season, whilst Johnson is having a great season, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the way he’s often covered by the mainstream media. I’d pointed it out previously with a radar chart comparison in early August: Johnson ended up missing the game due to some minor injuries and the birth...
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NRL 2020 – how the rugby league changed statistically this season
The NRL 2020 regular season has drawn to a close and much like the Brisbane Broncos it is time to get to the bottom of it. Statistically that is. There were some significant rule changes this season that have impacted the way teams are playing. The biggest ones were the move to one referee and the introduction of six again calls for ruck infringements, which I’ve gone over extensively before. The other less talked about one was the change to provide attacking players the same protection under high kicks that defensive players have received. This change has certainly played a...
Continue reading...NRL Round 20 advanced stats – Involvement Rate
Involvement Rate is an advanced statistic for rugby league that I created to identify players who have a high workload but don’t play a lot of minutes. If you’re new to the site and want to understand how it works, I would recommend reading this post on Involvement Rate. With that out of the way, here’s the all minutes leaders for Round 20 It’s the single digit crew again after these three took over the Run % chart. The Raiders Jarret Subloo sits first (49.23%) ahead of Jake Friend (33.97%) and Daniel Alvaro (28.66%). The highest double figure minutes player...
Continue reading...NRL Round 20 advanced stats – Run %
For those new to the site, I’d recommend reading this post on Run % which details how it is calculated and how to use it. Here’s the leading players in the NRL after Round 20 without a minute restriction Canberra rookie Jarrett Subloo sneaks into first with two runs in one minute for a Run % of 93.02% and a lesson in small sample sizes. Eye TestTM Hall of Famer Daniel Alvaro placed second with 23.81% in his active eight minutes on field as the Eels ran down the Tigers. Jake Friend completed the single digit minute trifecta with a...
Continue reading...NRL Round 20 advanced stats – Tackle %
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 20 without a minute restriction Single digits winners are back with Jack Friend making 3 tackles in 3 minutes for a tackle rate of 51.61% before failing a HIA. True first place went to NRL Physio’s favourite Tiger Alex Twal with a Tackle % of 41.08% in their game against the...
Continue reading...Set restarts remain consistently inconsistent – NRL Round 19 2020 notes and trends
Regular followers and readers will know I’m a bit of a stickler for consistency with set restarts. I’d pointed out recently that there had been a number of games over the past two months that had zero ruck infringements in the second half. The theory that referees were setting the standards early holds some merit, although I still refuse to believe fatigued players were that well behaved after misbehaving early on. The good news is that Round 18 was the first time since Round 13 that we didn’t have a second half where zero set restarts were called, and the...
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