I crunched some numbers for a bit of perspective to those claiming we have turned the corner. It must be acknowledged that a lot of these numbers have been skewed a bit by the outlier of the performance in the Cowboys game, but interesting all the same.
- We have had our fair share of possession enjoying 49.14% of the ball completing our sets at 77% across all 14 games. This is pretty good and isnt too far removed from our opponents returns.
- In attack, we have made 10 more line breaks, 128 more tackle breaks and 91 more off loads than our opponents over the 14 games. As a team, we have also ran for 117m/game more than our opponents and have scored 41 tries which is almost 3/game.
- In relation to our general kicking, we have made 101m less per game than our opponents but have returned kicks at a rate of 12m more per game. Our kick defusal though is putrid, at 59% across all 14 games.
- In defence, having averaged 326 tackles per game, we have recorded 9 less missed tackles as well as 9 less ineffective tackles per game than our opponents across all 14 games. This returns an effective tackle rating of 89% per game. We have let in 55 tries @ 4/game.
- Our discipline has been good with the team receiving 33 more penalties/infringements than our opponents, representing 2.4 more/game. That said, we have produced 8 more errors across the 14 games than our opponents.
In summary our:
- Possession rates are good
- Completion rates are reasonably good
- Our attack is working for the most part
- Our defence is working until we get in our 20m zone
- Our discipline is good.
Our only true weakness is pretty much everything involved with kicking - either in execution of or in defence of.
If you took these stats in isolation, you would be forgiven for thinking we have won at least 50% of our games this year, if not more. Returning only 3 wins out of 14 games is totally unsatisfactory given the good stats the team is producing and the individual performances of several members within it. We have to stop the narrative that we are rebuilding and growing. This squad are creating enough opportunities and actually playing well enough to win games of football.
It will be interesting to compare our final 10 games to these opening 14 games at the seasons completion. I suspect we will see substantial drops in all categories due to a combination of player unavailablity, injuries, drops in moral and the positive stats from the Cowboys game being eaten away through an influx of increasingly heavy losses.
Whether we get the spoon or not, this season has been more dissappointing than last year because we are doing enough to win, bar scoring tries. We are playing well enough, but just arent finishing off.
