Despite being one of the most significant changes to the game - and its so-called "speed" or continuity - nrl.com's stats ignores them. Foxstats records them, yet, they do it game by game and don't collate it.
Restarts awarded: Eels Equal 2nd
Source: Rugby League Eye Test - OPSM Hard Yakka
Restarts conceded: Ooops. Eels' 5th best.
So, we very good at getting restarts and also conceding restarts.
Maybe the refs go set-restart stir-crazy when we play (along with the Tiger)? Who knows.
Only the Dogs drive them more restart-stir-crazy (91 restarts awardrd and conceded collectively to Eels' 77).
Set restarts: Round up
So looking at the net overall figures for restarts (total awarded restarts minus total conceded restarts):
- The biggest winners: Souths and the Tigers (+11), Warriors (+10), Penrith (+7)
- Moderate winners: Broncos and Eels (+5), Sharks (+4), Newcastle and Raiders (+3).
- The biggest losers: Storm (-14), Dogs (-10), Saints (-9), Cowboys (-8), Manly (-7), Titans (-6), Roosters (-5).
Now let's factor in penalties as well.
Penalties awarded
Penalties conceded
More good news. We don't concede a lot of penalties and get enough penalties to keep us in the black, again.
Comparing restarts and penalties - in broadbrushes - restarts decrease in the second half, as penalties increase.
Perhaps, refs instictively do this as fatigue sets in? Or it's just a stats thing? Also, has the extra speed contributed to the rise in serious injuries?
Overall infringements - penalties plus restarts - have increased by 2 per game under the new rules
Additionally, overall infringements have increased almost 15% or about an extra 2 per game average - after the restart rule changes.
The Full Monty
Putting all that together: set restarts awarded and conceded coupled with penalities awarded and conceded - in a comparative table - gives us this monstrosity:
It's the Rabbits first. Daylight second.
They are so far ahead of the pack in net "infringement" assistance they get - I'm sure there must be a typo somewhere. Unsurprisingly, the Panthers are also beneficiaries of friendly infringement officiating.
The Eels also in the black - whilst the Storm and Roosters are in the red even further than we're in the black. Their aggressive in your face defence, drifting within the 10m, and perhaps excessive attempt to wrestle and slow the ruck is being punished.
The Dogs need to revisit their strategies. Comfortably, at the bottom. They're getting burnt.
Bottom line. Overall, to-date, we're disciplined and rewarded with our fair share of assistance from restarts and penalties, collectively.
That's paid dividends and helped our game. We have a high possession rate (3rd, 54%) and make montrous metres (2nd) with our power game.
We also haven't had any sin bins (Dogs lead the comp there with 3 surprise, surprise) - though Dylan and Nuikore's suspensions have driven the media stir-crazy.
The main area of discipline we fall down is errors (3rd, nrl.com stats).
Additionally, based on this evidence - it's unlikely the on-field officiating is heavily biased against us.
Replies
Great blog HOE . Only surprise to me is the heavy penalty load in favour of the Rabbits . Surprised somewhat that Knights have conceded the least penalties given their recent mediocre form . Must be their very vocal crowd at home games ?
Thanks Driza. Yeah, I agree, it's surprising - the Knights have been quite disappointing imo (injuries haven't helped).
You lost me at 'the' 😄
Nice write up HOE, great info
Lol. Bruno I was lost throughout the whole article.
I could never bring myself to count the restarts game by game, half by half. Thanks to a great chap known as Carlos The Dwarf (I believe) in NRL supecoach circles.
Interesting blog HOE - thanks for taking the time to put all the stats together.
I sugggest you copyright this blog before some journo plagiarises it.
Thanks Axel. Appreciate the kind words, buddy. Hope you and the family are all doing great.
Discipline (ie giving away silly penalties) is something BA has worked on over the past few years, so it's refreshing to see this paying dividends now. Errors are the thing to continue to work on, and we have seen tries scored against us following errors, particularly in our half of the field. Hopefully as we progress through the season errors will fall away natually anyway.
Great effort HOE, I am proud that I am a member of a site who have people like yourself capable of such undertakings.
Daz and your contributions for match day and in general are quite outstanding and frankly better than any professional media publication can put together.
Thanks Poppa, too kind. Just been going a bit nuts the last month - resting. Hope you and your family are all doing well, mate.
I just looked at NRL.com Stats regarding our play the ball speed. The play the ball speed of eels is always substantially slower than their oponents except when they versed the depelted sharks and raiders (eels faster by 0.02 sec). Yess!!! Even when we versed and smashed the shithouse Dogs and Broncos, they easily had a faster play the ball. I don't know whether this is eels being lazy when playing the ball or teams slowing the play the ball down on purpose. However, it is most likely the latter, hence why we get 6 agains.