KFC SuperCoach Plus article: 11 stats to define Round 8, via former champion Wilfred Zee

David Fifita is one of the most sold players this week, but take this stat into consideration before pulling the trigger. Wilfred Zee reveals the 11 stats to define Round 8.

We’re more than a third of the way through the season now so we’re starting to get a clearer picture of how the NRL is shaping up for this season… are we?

Maybe not, since there’s been a fair bit of inconsistency throughout the opening seven rounds already!

We’ll keep trying to figure things out regardless, so let’s check out 11 stats to define Round 8!

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1 - 73

Plenty of KFC SuperCoaches would have been frustrated at David Fifita’s output last week after being pushed into the centres by ‘supercoach’ Justin Holbrook in an attempt to emulate the success of Talakai. Suffice to say, it didn’t work, and there are plenty of SuperCoaches thinking about trading the big fella out.

Well, 73 is what Fifita would have scored the previous week, playing 80 minutes on the edge, if you took away his attacking stats. That’s an elite number for an edge backrower, and it shows just how potent Fifita can be. Hold tight to Fifita and don’t let go (except maybe over Origin).

SC Plus: David Fifita appears to have rediscovered his running mojo.

2 - 75

It’s the clash of two opposing forces this week with the strength and power of Kotoni Staggs coming up against the irresistible form of Siosifa Talakai. Between the two of them they have busted a combined 75 tackles this season (31 for Staggs, 44 for Talakai)! That’s an incredible number, and it’ll be an intriguing battle to see who comes out on top. Form says Talakai, but Staggs seems to love nothing more than being the underdog so far this season …

3 - 50

Cleary, Cleary, Cleary… the name on every KFC SuperCoach’s lips. You were either cheering like mad, or cursing his name this week just gone. Importantly, after a tentative start (only 14 and 23 in his base and base attack stats in his first two games back from injury), Cleary clearly grew in confidence and in his third game back he shot up to a monster 50 points in base and base attack. He backed it up with 49 points last week, and those are the numbers we love to see Cleary hitting each week (even before you add his forced dropouts, goalkicks and other ‘standard’ points-scoring methods). Cleary’s floor is as safe as it gets, and he is going to torment those SuperCoaches who don’t have him in their teams… just get him in ASAP!

4 - 37.5

This is what Cody Walker has averaged in KFC SuperCoach points from attacking stats in the last two games, coming from a try, two try assists, two try contributions, one line break and two line break assists. This is a marked improvement from his average of just 15.6 points from attacking stats in the opening five games of the season, coming from two tries, two try contributions, two line breaks and two line break assists. How much of this is Walker starting to improve, or the Rabbitohs starting to click, or the result of a tough draw to start? Regardless, the Rabbitohs continue their run of relatively easy games and with a breakeven of 30 this week, $463,600 might be the cheapest price you can pick up Walker for all season (a massive $271,300 less than his starting price).

5 - 182

You could probably place a large portion of the blame on the Melbourne Storm, but the New Zealand Warriors currently have the worst defence in the NRL, conceding a league-high 182 points across the first seven games. It’s less than ideal that 70 of those points came last week, but nevertheless, they did come last week. The Raiders are hardly the attacking juggernaut that the Melbourne Storm are though, so it would be foolish to think that the Warriors will be easy pickings in defence. This may see a much closer, lower-scoring affair between these two teams, especially when you consider that the Raiders are 13th in the NRL for points scored.

6 - 1.86

The Bulldogs are struggling big-time, and what’s concerning is that they’ve already had the privilege of facing the Broncos and the Cowboys (both bottom four defences from last season) in three of their seven games so far this season. They have scored just 13 tries all year, or basically 1.86 tries per game! This doesn’t bode well for their attacking players, and it doesn’t get any easier against the Roosters who, while still struggling mightily in attack, are equal fourth in the NRL for points conceded. This game could end up being a bit of a bludger, unless the Roosters are able to shake some of their general malaise and ‘clunkiness’ in attack this week. This James Tedesco owner would dearly love to see the Roosters rack up a nice score this week…

7 - 23

This is the number of offloads thrown by Tevita Pangai, who leads to NRL comfortably in the offloads category. He is a master of the offload, and even when it seems like he is wrapped up, he finds a way to get the arm free. 19 of his 23 offloads were also deemed ‘effective’ by KFC SuperCoach standards, seeing him rewarded with four points each for those 19 offloads. Something flying under the radar though is his fellow Bulldogs forward, Max King, is fourth in the NRL for offloads, with 15 himself. 13 of his offloads were deemed effective, and this in turn explains how King has managed to maintain such an impressive PPM (points per minute) despite limited game time. Let’s hope he gets to play more minutes moving forward!

8 - 0

I’m sure it’s not the only time, but in the context of V’Landys speaking up about set restarts not being awarded just a few weeks ago, it’s interesting that there were zero set restarts in the Knights v Eels game (nine penalties though). Obviously this didn’t stop the Eels from scoring plenty of SuperCoach points, but it may explain why some of the base stats were a little lower than expected for some players. As we continue to see an increase in points scored from week to week, the blowouts also seem to be creeping back into the reckoning. This in turn means we may need to re-adjust (again) our thinking in terms of which players we should target in the coming weeks!

9 - 14

This is somewhat surprising, but the Cowboys are conceding just 14 points per game. Ranked second in the NRL, and one of only two teams to have conceded less than 100 points so far this season (first is the Panthers of course), the Cowboys have done a massive 180 from where they were last year defensively (they were comfortably the worst defence in the NRL). Digging a little deeper though, they have had the benefit of facing the Bulldogs and also the Raiders twice, so three of their seven games have been against the worst and fourth worst offences in the NRL. However, in five of their seven games so far, they have kept their opposition to two tries or less, which is no mean feat and has to be considered in ‘strength of schedule’ considerations moving forward.

10 - 101

Ryan Papenhuyzen is clearly one of the superstars of the NRL at the moment, and he stands alone at the top of the points scoring table. In fact, his personal haul of 101 points (from tries, goals and a field goal) is 28 points ahead of Mitch Moses in second place. That’s impressive already, but what if I told you that Papenhuyzen’s personal points tally would put him above the team totals (i.e. all the players combined) of the Bulldogs, the Tigers, the Knights and the Raiders! Another big week could see him over take the Broncos (10 ahead), the Dragons (16 ahead), the Warriors (18 ahead) and maybe even the Titans (19 ahead)!

11 - 46/48

The Tigers are almost on fire, off back-to-back upsets and playing some of their best footy for years. Most impressive was their handling, with the Tigers completing 46 of their 48 sets (95% completion rate) this game just past. This was a massive reason for their win, as their relentless, error-free football made life incredibly difficult for the Rabbitohs. If the Tigers can maintain this type of consistent, high percentage play then they become a formidable opponent for most of the NRL. This would force a lot of SuperCoaches to re-evaluate their ‘strength of schedule’ thoughts!

Bring on Round 8!

Originally published as KFC SuperCoach Plus article: 11 stats to define Round 8, via former champion Wilfred Zee