This week’s NRLW post will be an efficiency update, similar to the monthly posts I’ve been marking for NRLM. For those new to the site or only following the NRLW content, we look at actual scoring compared with each teams expected points to gauge how effectively they’re using possession, and how capably they are defending against good field position. If you want an explainer on the site’s expected points model, a lengthy one is available here. Quickly, the short version is that every start of possession is worth a certain number of points based on the probability of scoring from...
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NRLW Round 5 in expected points and advanced stats
We’re now halfway through the NRLW regular season, and I thought I’d take a look at some charts to determine who have been the best players running the ball thus far. The first chart we’re going to look at is average runs per game plotted against average tackle busts per match, to get and idea of who the most damaging runners of the ball are. This one is usually dominated in NRLM by Brian To’o, although Greg Marzhew has been leading it this season. The results for the first five rounds of NRLW 2023 are below. A lot has been...
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The case for a smaller ball in the NRLW
On a recent episode of the Upfront Podcast (please like and subscribe), NRLW star and first ballot Eye Test Hall of Famer Millie Boyle was asked about the possibility of using a smaller ball and it prompted a very interesting discussion. Rather than recap her answer, the video of the question is below. It does raise a great point, if we want to improve the NRLW product, a smaller ball may help introduce some of the more spectacular tries we see in the NRLM. And what’s more exciting than seeing a big forward running down an edge with the ball...
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NRLW Round 1 in expected points and advanced stats
With the NRLW kicking off on the weekend, the Eye Test is going to double the site’s weekly output by producing another post on the site. After each NRLW round I’ll be posting the expected points charts (using the site’s ETXP metric) for each game and advanced statistics for the round. Against my better judgement as someone already incredibly time poor, for the remainder of the NRLM and NRLW seasons I’ll be aiming to put out two pieces of content per week for the remainder of each competition’s regular season. I’d posted some NRLW content previously, which got depressingly low...
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