Round 16: If You’re Statty And You Know It….

Statistics in Rugby League have come a long way since success rates – for goal-kickers but also for hookers (in scrums) – were read out by Rex Mossop (or Barry Ross) in the 1970s and 80s. Sadly for supporters, things still have a long way to go. Many statistics are not available for free consumption by the official NRL stats providers, freely available statistics often differ between providers and statistics displayed on television broadcasts usually show the dominance of one team (or the evenness of the teams) but give no insight as to how the game is being won.

Here at the Tuesday Roast… well… we haven’t done anything about this, sorry. Anyway, here’s a look back at Round 16 in the NRL with a few interesting statistics from each game.

Wests Tigers v. Canterbury

Wests Tigers: Wests Tigers’ win-loss record without Benji Marshall since 2005 fell to 12-21 with the loss to the Bulldogs (compared to 73-60 when he does play). At Campbelltown, without Benji Marshall since 2005, the Tigers are 1-4 (compared to 13-4 when he plays).

Canterbury: Canterbury returned to the winners’ list in line with their ‘spine’ all playing again. When their ‘spine’ (Barba, Keating, Hodkinson and Ennis) plays this season, the Bulldogs have a 7-4 win-loss record. Without any one or more ‘spine’ member, they have a 0-3 record.

South Sydney v. Brisbane

South Sydney: By completing two wins in a row with success over Brisbane in horrendous rain in Perth on Friday night, South Sydney improved their record in their last 15 premiership matches to 6-9. Remarkably however, these 15 matches have followed a three-loss, two-win (repeated twice) pattern.

Brisbane: This was Darren Lockyer’s final regular season club game in Perth and the end of a stellar career in the west. It started auspiciously enough in Round 9, 1996, when Lockyer came off the bench as the Broncos defeated the Western Reds 22-14. Wendell Sailor starred with two tries. Another highlight came in 1997, when the Broncos defeated Perth 26-16. Lockyer led the way with 14 points. Finally, there was Friday night, where Lockyer was solid but not good enough.

Gold Coast v. Cronulla

Gold Coast: With their loss to Cronulla, this gave the Gold Coast a 2-6 start to the season at home, by far their worst start to a season at home (2007: 5-3, 2008: 7-1, 2009: 8-0, 2010: 5-3).

Cronulla: Cronulla recorded back to back wins twice in a season for the first time since 2008 with their win over the Gold Coast. However, the main stat from this game is the 100% possibility that Paul Gallen is still a grub. Don’t be fooled by a few weeks of excellent play, the man is a grub (witness his grubby stepping on hands against Newcastle a few weeks back). Next time one of his teams isn’t getting everything their own way, look for the combustible Gallen to revert back to old ways.

Canberra v. Parramatta

Canberra: Canberra kicked their first field goal since Round 8, 2010 and their first field goal at home since Round 4, 2009 in this game. There have been 28 field goals so far in 2011, or 0.243 field goals per game: the 7th highest number per game since field goals became 1 point in 1971.

Parramatta: Parramatta is now one of four teams yet to kick a field goal in 2011. Their field goal-less streak is now 29 games (since Luke Burt knocked one over against Manly). Parramatta’s last five field goal kickers are Burt, Jarryd Hayne, Brett Finch and those two noted super boots, Nathan Cayless and Ian Hindmarsh.

New Zealand v. Melbourne

New Zealand: New Zealand was attempting to beat Melbourne twice in one regular season for the third time in their history on Sunday, the other two times being 1998 and 2002. Newcastle and Parramatta have also beaten Melbourne twice in one regular season on two occasions, but Canterbury is the only club to have beaten Melbourne twice in one regular season on three occasions.

Melbourne: In keeping the Warriors to less than 10 points, Melbourne kept their opponents to less than 10 points for the fifth straight game. This hasn’t been done in the modern era of rugby league (not that could be found anyway).

Penrith v. North Queensland

Penrith: Penrith’s win under new coach Steve Georgallis took the record of teams in the first game after a new coach has been appointed mid-season to 5-4 since 2002. Incredibly, there has been one coaching change during the season in the past six seasons and that team’s first result has varied exactly between wins and losses in that time.

North Queensland: For reasons climate and social, the Cowbores almost never play a home game on a Sunday, meaning they rarely play on Sundays at all. Since 2007, they’ve played just 10 Sunday games, winning 4.

Newcastle v. Sydney Roosters

Newcastle: Incredibly, Newcastle’s win over the Roosters on Sunday was their first win at home against the Roosters during the regular season in 8 attempts (and almost 11 years).

Sydney Roosters: By scoring just 10 points, the Roosters stretched their streak of scoring 13 points or less to 10 games. One has a feeling they won’t get beyond 13 points until they reach 12 Steps™…

St. George Illawarra v. Manly

St. George Illawarra: The Dragons weren’t quite back to their best in this game, but they did repel Manly for almost 6 full sets of 6 tackles late in the first half. However, this isn’t quite as amazing as it sounds; Manly’s attack was rather pedestrian at this point and asked very few questions of the Dragons’ defence.

Manly: After scoring a rare win at Wollongong in 2003, Manly’s recent trips to WIN Stadium have been very rough. In 2005, after a surprisingly strong start, the overhyped and overdue Dragons pumped them. In 2009, the vagaries of the draw in Origin time meant Manly fielded a near reserve grade team, while the Dragons were almost at full strength. St George Illawarra won easily. Then last night, Manly was overdue for a loss. They tried hard, but their effort was too much for their rhythm; this saw Manly get frustrated and become prone to cheap shots.

See you next week for a special Origin edition of the Roast.