NRL18
There are more questions than answers when it comes to deciding who will become the NRL’s 18th team… Read More NRL18
The Year in Rugby League Football, 2022, Part 3: The World Game
Rugby league came back to life in 2022. After two years of pandemics and cancellations and postponements in 2020 and 2021, we finally got a real year of football. World Cup We made it. It looked for a while like we wouldn’t get a World Cup. There seemed like a good chance that the gods… Read More The Year in Rugby League Football, 2022, Part 3: The World Game
The Year in Rugby League Football, 2022, Part 2: The Northern Game
Rugby league came back to life in 2022. After two years of pandemics and cancellations and postponements in 2020 and 2021, we finally got a real year of football. Super League / Challenge Cup English football tends to be a little repetitive with the same characters and actors shaping the season year-on-year. In 2022, as… Read More The Year in Rugby League Football, 2022, Part 2: The Northern Game
The Year in Rugby League Football, 2022, Part 1: The Southern Game
Rugby league came back to life in 2022. After two years of pandemics and cancellations and postponements in 2020 and 2021, we finally got a real year of football. NRL / NRLW Unlike the massive overhauls of the entire sport implemented before the resumption in 2020 and the off-season before 2021, Peter V’Landys and his… Read More The Year in Rugby League Football, 2022, Part 1: The Southern Game
A Dive into the 2021* Women’s Rugby League World Cup
With the men’s competition well underway, it’s time to take a look at the women’s tournament. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything like the data for the women’s game that I do for the men’s, so we are forced to rely on qualitative assessments. Fortunately, the hierarchy is better established than the men’s and I think… Read More A Dive into the 2021* Women’s Rugby League World Cup
A Deep Dive into the 2021* Men’s Rugby League World Cup
I jumped the gun not long after the World Cup draw in early 2020 and ran some Monte Carlo simulations of how the tournament might unfold (it was exactly as you’d expect at the time). Then a pandemic happened and a rain of shit followed. The parochial cowards that make up the NRL clubs forced… Read More A Deep Dive into the 2021* Men’s Rugby League World Cup
A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Penrith Panthers
Your men’s Penrith Panthers finished the 2022 NRL season in first place, winning the minor premiership before going on to win the grand final over Parramatta, 28-12. The Panthers’ attack was the second best in the NRL, scoring 21 points less than the Storm, and only sixth best in franchise history. At 26.5 points scored… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Penrith Panthers
A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Newcastle Knights
Your women’s Newcastle Knights finished the NRLW season in second place with a 4-1 record and +44 points difference. That brings the women’s Knights total number of wins to four, in their best season yet. Newcastle crushed the Dragons, 30-6, in the semis, followed by a comprehensive 32-12 victory over the Eels in the grand… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Newcastle Knights
A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Parramatta Eels
Your men’s Parramatta Eels finished the 2022 NRL season in fourth place, with a 16-8 record and +119 points difference. The Eels’ points difference was the seventh best in the league, good for a Pythagorean expectation of 14.4 wins. Given the noticeable overperformance, it’d be worth keeping an eye out for an underperformance of same… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2022 Parramatta Eels
A Shallow Dive into the 2022 South Sydney Rabbitohs
Your men’s South Sydney Rabbitohs finished the 2022 NRL season in a relatively lowly seventh place with a 14-10 record, a slight underperformance of the Pythagorean expected wins of 14.7. The Bunnies had the sixth best attack, cracking 600 points, and conceded 474, the second worst of all finals teams. Souths went the hard way… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2022 South Sydney Rabbitohs
Pythago NRL 