The statistics that have defined your team’s performance so far in the 2018 NRL season
THE secret behind the Storm’s success, the chink in the Knights’ armour and why Bird is the word in Brisbane — these are the statistics that define your club’s 2018 NRL season so far.
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THE secret behind the Storm’s success, the chink in the Knights’ armour and why Bird is the word in Brisbane — these are the statistics that define your club’s 2018 NRL season so far.
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ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA (1st)
The Dragons lead just about every key statistical category this year, including points scored, points conceded, metres made, metres conceded, tackle busts, tackles missed and linebreaks conceded. Just as crucially, they’ve done it all using a league-low 19 players
PENRITH (2nd)
The Panthers are still the NRL’s second-half kings, where they have an aggregate score of 116-40. They’ve also only conceded a combined 14 points in the last 20 minutes of games.
WARRIORS (3rd)
The Warriors’ right-edge of Shaun Johnson, Peta Hiku and David Fusitua’ is the most destructive in the league, laying on almost two tries per game through the channel.
MELBOURNE (4th)
Melbourne’s middle remain the most reliable in the competition. The Storm have conceded the least tries through the centre of the field this year, while none of their forwards have missed more than two tackles per match. Only the Dragons and Storm have such a record.
WESTS TIGERS (5th)
The Tigers are conceding almost half the amount of tries they did last year to have the best defensive line in the competition, while they’re making almost three less errors per game to have the NRL’s best completion rate at 80 per cent.
NEWCASTLE (6th)
For all their success, Newcastle are still short in the middle. They concede the most metres per game (1468) and run the least (1212). They also give just 3.6 offloads per game and concede 10.1. Still up on almost every key category on last year.
SOUTH SYDNEY (7th)
Have one of the most dangerous attacks in the NRL, with the most linebreaks and second-most tries and tackle busts. Last year they ranked 10th, 10th and 15th in those categories respectively.
SYDNEY ROOSTERS (8th)
The Roosters’ all-star attack still remains clunky, as they average the most errors (13.6) and incomplete sets within their own half (3.9) per game.
CRONULLA (9th)
No player has spent more than four games at fullback this season, and likewise at five-eighth. The changes in their spine are a large part of the reason they’ve scored the second-least tries and made the third most errors of all teams this year.
BRISBANE (10th)
Jack Bird’s move to the halves has regenerated Brisbane’s attack, where they have averaged almost 24 points in the past three games. Before that, fullback Darius Boyd, five-eighth Anthony Milford and No. 7 Kodi Nikorima hadn’t set up a try between them.
CANBERRA (11th)
Canberra love a piggyback penalty, with 14 of their 29 tries coming from the set after a penalty. They’re also great when given possession close to the line, scoring the most tries from within 25 metres off the line and conceding the least seven-tackle sets.
GOLD COAST (12th)
Have three players in the list of 12 players averaging the most missed tackles, contributing to the worst defence in the league. Leilani Latu, Ryan James and Kane Elgey each average more than three misses per game, as the Titans have conceded the most tries, points and linebreaks.
MANLY (13th)
Struggling territorily, with the lowest kick metres in the NRL and have been forced to make the most tackles in their own 20-metre zone of any team. They’ve also lost all four away matches by a combined 75 points.
CANTERBURY (14th)
Have no problem carting the ball down field with the fourth most running metres, but can’t do anything with it while there with the worst red-zone ratio in the league. Attacking record worse at this point this year than last.
NORTH QUEENSLAND (15th)
Despite their all-star halves, the Cowboys average the most tackles in the opposition 20m zone (37.3) and have the most attacking kicks (10.4), but have the second-worst red-zone ratio (one try every 18.6 play-the-balls) in the competition.
PARRAMATTA (16th)
The Eels have scored 68 points in the past two weeks, but still rank last for points scored this year. That’s largely due to the fact they laid on just 46 across the first six rounds.
*Stats courtesy Fox Sports Stats
Originally published as The statistics that have defined your team’s performance so far in the 2018 NRL season
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