It's a question that has been gaining some traction lately, mainly because we've got a few big boppers of the highest quality. That goes hand in hand with the changing nature of playing prop in the NRL, it's moved on from tubby lads charging it up straight into another tubby prop as these days props are expected to do a job that has many little intricacies.

They still have to run over the top of their poor opponents, that won't change from an NRL prop's job description. Whether it's shoveling the ball on to a half or another forward from first receiver or using some nifty late footwork to poke your head through and get a quick play the ball, props these days are asked to do a wider range of subtle tasks. They're also asked to execute them perfectly, there's no point getting in at first receiver and throwing a pass around the boot laces, nah, it's the NRL where everything has to be of the highest quality.

Right off the top we can cut the fat and narrow this search for the NRL's best prop over the first few weeks down to a few names who are widely respected as being in the upper tier. James Graham, Aaron Woods, Jesse Bromwich, Ben Matulino, George Burgess and Matt Scott have all made the cut as they've done the best job so far this season. The fact that two of these lads are kiwis, just me in a giggidy state.

All these props are slightly different as well, all the prop bases are covered. You've got George Burgess who is the freak with size and great speed for a big lad, then you've got James Graham who isn't a freak but has a huge motor and gets through a fair amount of work. Bromwich and Matulino are probably the most similar, they have a bit of late footwork and are able to work themselves into positions where they can squeeze a few offloads out. Even Scott and Woods who appear similar have a bit of a size difference with Aaron Woods 10cm taller than Scott, all these guys are unique.

I settled on a bunch of statistics that I thought would paint a good picture to make a judgement, with one of those stats being the average amount of touches a prop has per game. This isn't a perfect stat as sometimes a prop might get a touch that doesn't really amount to nothing but the leader of this stat proves my point and should come as no surprise. James Graham has the most touches per game with 7.75 as he's always doing a bit of ball playing, shoveling the ball with class on to the next man. This is the way the Bulldogs play but interestingly, Scott also had a high touch count with 6.75 and he seems to find himself at first receiver a fair bit as well.

The other stats I took averages of so far this season were metres gained, offloads, tackles, minutes played and carries. I reckon this gives a pretty good base to make a decision off and the first thing that jumped out at me were the poor numbers served up by Burgess. Burgess made has the least metres (123.25), the least touches (0.75) and the least minutes (51.25) off the props and he was only marginally better than Scott and Graham in offloads, marginally better than Scott in carries per game and only Matulino played less minutes with 25.75 compared to 27.75 for Burgess.

That kind of rules Burgess out, already. Sad, but you can't be the best prop in the NRL when you're playing the least minutes which obviously has an impact on his carries, but Scott has less carries and nearly 10 more metres per game. 

I've group Scott and Graham together and I'll continue to roll with that because their numbers put them in this tier. They put up what I'd call rep numbers as they get through plenty of work and are always sniffing around the ball for a carry or a tackle, but their impact is the only thing that holds them back. Graham averages 60.25 minutes per game while Scott goes for 55.75 minutes which is very solid and only Bromwich makes more tackles with Graham making 32 while Scott averages 35. 

The both rank well behind Matulino, Bromwich and Woods in the metres gained category which has them behind these three overall. Throw into the mix that neither Graham or Scott has flicked out a single offload all season and it's hard to give them the nod, especially with the numbers than the top three are putting on the board.

Ben Matulino is a clear third, which is great for Warriors fans. He averages the most offloads per game for all these props with 2.75, but his 158.25 metres per game, 25.75 tackles per game and 56.75 minutes per game are all below Woods and Bromwich. Matulino is however showing that he deserves to be respected by critics and fans alike, if Jacob Lillyman can really start to find some form then the Warriors will have one of the best propping combinations in the league.

The final showdown is between Jesse Bromwich and Aaron Woods, which is fair enough because when you watch these two you can see  something different. They stand out from all the other forwards on the field as they somehow make metres with each carry, always look likely to trouble a defender and push an offload out and they're on the field a lot of the time.

Woods didn't play last week, which might have messed the numbers a little, especially with Bromwich playing a few minutes in extra time. That didn't stop Woods getting through some crazy production with the ball in his paws, his 22.67 carries per game are well ahead of Graham's and the 16.25 carries made by Bromwich. That obviously, well not obviously, but it has some sort of impact on his metres gained with Woods running for 214.33 metres per game, compared to 167.75 metres from Bromwich.

Now I stuttered on obviously there because we need to take into account the impact of each hit up, how many metres are made with each carry. With less carries, Bromwich averages 10.32 metres per carry while Woods runs for 9.45 metres per game. While Bromwich runs further with each carry, it's not a huge difference but it's useful.

Useful when you consider that Bromwich (62.75)  plays more minutes per game than Woods (57.33), makes more tackles 34.75 vs 31.33 and has more touches per game with 4.5 vs 3.33. Woods does have the edge in the offloads with 2 per game to 1.5 from Bromwich, but after four games so far this season, I'm going with Bromwich as the best prop in the NRL.

With more metres per carry, more tackles and more minutes which go hand in hand, Bromwich has his nose ahead of Woods but this gap is tiny. It's not as if Bromwich is head and shoulders the best prop in the NRL, but I would say that Bromwich and Woods definitely stand out. 

I'll keep these numbers and it'll be very interesting to have another look halfway through the season and then at the end of the season. You'd have to imagine that Bromwich and Woods play a huge part in their team's success, which is great as the big boppers deserve some love. However with the Rabbitohs likely to continue to impress, I wonder what the numbers for Burgess will look like later on.