Ben Barba leads the NRL in long range attacking raids

BACK in February, you would have taken evens Ben Barba wouldn't last the season in the top grade.

BACK in February, you would have taken evens Ben Barba wouldn't last the season in the top grade.

The whispers coming out of Canterbury at the time were that Canberra's Josh Dugan was right at the top of Des Hasler's hit-list - and there was also that constant speculation linking the off-contract Brett Stewart with his old mate from Manly.

And even though Barba had signed a contract extension until the end of 2015 six months earlier, all the talk was that the little livewire had too many errors in his game, was a defensive liability and was a lottery under the high ball.

His job was about as safe as a politician's promise.

Fast forward four months, and Barba hasn't just survived under his new boss, he's thrived. He's now arguably the Bulldogs' most important player heading into Saturday night's blockbuster with the Rabbitohs - and his mouth-watering showdown with the rejuvenated Greg Inglis.

On paper, this hardly seems a fair fight. Barba is an NRL lightweight at 90kg, while GI tips the scales at 106kg. Barba gives up 21cm in height.

But when you break down their individual statistics, there is little separating the impact these two attacking geniuses are having on their respective teams in 2012.

In 12 games, Barba has scored eight tries, made 11 line breaks, had six try assists and is running an average of 124 metres a game.

Inglis has been a revelation since switching to fullback in round three. In only 10 games, Inglis has scored seven tries, made 13 line breaks, seven try assists and runs an average of 141 metres a game. And all those stats have skyrocketed since his move to No 1.

But as big a influence Michael Maguire has had on Inglis's revival in 2012, what has been equally impressive is Barba's transformation under Hasler, though it's hardly received half the accolades.

Because even though Barba finished with 23 tries last year, he was regarded as a liability in defence - and he did have too many errors in his game.

But under Hasler's watch, the little number one is today becoming as well known for his try-saving tackles as his freakish ability to score them - while you could also argue his influence on the Bulldogs' attack is probably even greater than it was last year because of Hasler's structures.

Breaking down the crucial team statistics supplied by Sportsdata, what it shows is that Canterbury not only have more ball movement than their rivals this year but they now score more long range tries than any other team.

And there is no question this has a direct correlation to Barba's input from the back.

Of the 47 tries the Bulldogs have scored in 2012, a staggering 17 have come from the area of the field 20 metres out from their opponents' tryline to the halfway (the most in the NRL) - while nine have come from beyond halfway.

What this means is that Souths will need to be switched on against the Dogs on Saturday night, because even when they think they are defending in safe territory, statistics prove nowhere is safe when Barba has his hands on the ball.

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