#KiwiNRL Stat-Check (June 23)
Taupau, ka-pow, my offloads are wow!
The #KiwiNRL force is strong, yet I wanted to see which cuzzies were doing better than others in terms of them stats. All these stats are from NRL.com and you can check 'em out for yourselves at any time so just like everything else on the Niche Cache; we ain't getting no secret information and don't need inside words to offer dopeness.
I settled on a group of stats that covers most aspects of footy, while adding in my own twist as well. This obviously zones in on the #KiwiNRL factor, so I couldn't care less how the dingo geezers are sitting in the rankings and the cut off is the top-20 for each stat.
Offloads
Martin Taupau (Manly Sea Eagles): 2nd with 41.
Michael Chee-Kam (Wests Tigers): 14th with 23.
Manu Ma'u (Parramatta Eels): 17th with 22.
We all know how brutal Martin Taupau is running the footy and he's not your typical prop in that he's extremely mobile, allowing him to skip past defenders as well as running over the top of them. Chuck in this offloading ability and it's no wonder that Taupau is contributing to a strong Manly team this season, keep in mind that Taupau will be a certainty for the Kiwis World Cup team and offloads will help the Kiwis shift Australia's defence around. Offloads aren't crucial to a team's success, however they scramble defences and as Aotearoa have looked terrible in shifting the footy with set-moves against Australia, offloads will be a funky twist to their game-plan.
Tackle Busts
Jordan Rapana (Canberra Raiders): 1st with 113.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Aotearoa Warriors): 7th with 62.
Jason Taumalolo (North Queensland Cowboys): 11th with 54.
Martin Taupau (Manly Sea Eagles): 19th with 49.
You'd expect Jordan Rapana and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to be near the top of this list, what grabs your attention though is the presence of Jason Taumalolo and then Taupau. Taumalolo and Taupau are extremely similar as they are powerful ball-carriers, but with both of these lads nicely ranked in tackle busts, it highlights their x-factor as they have exceptional footwork and agility to go with that power. Not only are they quick enough to make 5-10m without being touched, they can then power through to step between defenders and then it's up to a gang of defenders to try bring them down to the turf.
Line Breaks
Jordan Rapana (Canberra Raiders): 1st with 17.
Sosaia Feki (Cronulla Sharks): 11th* with 9.
Corey Harawira-Naera (Penrith Panthers): 15th* with 9.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (Penrith Panthers) 17th* with 8.
Kalyn Ponga (North Queensland Cowboys): 18th* with 8.
There's a large group of players with 8 and 9 line breaks so those rankings are more 'tied for 15th' but this only amplifies how dangerous Jordan Rapana is running the footy. That Rapana leads the NRL in tackle busts and line breaks tells you all you need to know about the threat that he offers, not only out wide but also through the middle. Corey Harawira-Naera might get a few of his line breaks by running a nice line, being put through a hole in the defence but as Rapana leads both tackle busts and line breaks, I suspect the majority of his line breaks start with him breaking a few tackles first.
Tackles
Elijah Taylor (Wests Tigers): 3rd with 597.
Simon Mannering (Aotearoa Warriors): 12th with 498.
Tackles don't really mean that much and this stat is understandably dominated by hookers and middle forwards who play big minutes up the guts. Elijah Taylor's meat and two vege is tackling, then ball-playing and with the Tigers not being the best defensive team, Taylor's gonna spend a lot of time tackling. Taylor is effectively a product of Simon Mannering with the #KiwiNRL legend doing this for a number of years and don't sleep on how important it is for both Taylor and Mannering to play their part in their respective team's attack. They both have slick passing games and provide a link between the ruck and a half, pushing the halves out a bit wider; you can't just make heaps of tackles.
Missed Tackles
Elijah Taylor (Wests Tigers): 10th with 46.
Shaun Johnson (Aotearoa Warriors): 15th with 42.
If you're making as many tackles as Taylor, there's a fair chance you're going to miss a few and this isn't really cause for concern as Taylor isn't top-five missed tackles or anything. There's also no reason to be dramatic about Shaun Johnson being ranked here and most people will see Johnson on this list and chew your ear off about how crap Johnson is on defence.
Johnson's not amazing but we have seen him add some aggression to his tackling which puts him in a better position more often than not and when that guy is chewing your ear off, remind him that James Maloney, Mitchell Moses, Ash Taylor, Kane Elgey, Aidan Sezer, Luke Keary and Josh McCrone have all missed more tackles than Johnson; there are halves who miss many more tackles than Johnson.
Run Metres
Jason Taumalolo (North Queensland Cowboys): 2nd with 2,481m | 11.17m/carry.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Aotearoa Warriors): 4th with 2,313m | 9.63m/carry.
Jordan Rapana (Canberra Raiders): 6th with 2,210m | 9.9m/carry.
Ken Maumalo (Aotearoa Warriors) 11th with 2,052m | 9.03m/carry.
Regular readers will know how I judge run metres and to merely assess this off of how many metres a joker has run for (forget the 100m measuring stick) or how many runs they make in a game, I prefer to find out how many metres they average with each carry. Then you can put that average around some context that paints a far better picture; some joker may average 15m/carry but they only make two carries each game for example.
So when you consider that Jason Taumalolo is 2nd for run metres and has earned that by averaging a whopping 11.17m/carry; he's the measuring stick. Compare Taumalolo to Paul Gallen who leads the run metres (2,566m), yet Gallen has done so by taking far more carries than Taumalolo (271 vs 222). Taumalolo averages 11.17m/carry while Gallen averages 9.46m/carry which is less than both Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Jordan Rapana.
This isn't to say anything negative about Gallen as his beauty lies in him putting up 26 offloads (9th) as well as over 400 tackles. This does however give us three of the best ball-runners in the NRL and not only that, but Taumalolo plays through the middle, Tuivasa-Sheck plays fullback and Rapana plays on the wing. Only six players have run more than 2,200m and three of them are #KiwiNRL guns who cover three different positions.
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