You’ve read me wank on about the second Brisbane team, anti-siphoning legislation, Super League reform, the state of the international game, other sports, my usual critical schtick and award voting systems but now it’s time to talk about actual football. The numbers have been run, in largely the same fashion as last year, and the… Read More A Deep Dive in to the 2021 NRL season
Wait, haven’t we done this before? Absolutely, in a post that hasn’t aged super-well, I replaced the Dally Ms with the old player rating system to assess the best player in each season. That system has been improved upon with TPR and WARG, so the conclusions drawn there can be safely discarded. Today, I specifically… Read More The Dally Ms are a wank, let’s use…something else
We’re unusually late in the year to be talking Origin but to understate it completely, 2020 has been an unusual year. I’ve tried analysing Origin using my slate of analytical tools in previous years (2018 and 2019) with mixed success. Taking those lessons on board, I’ve reworked some of the tools and we’ll look at… Read More Diving into State of Origin 2020
Finally, to the champions. From pre-season: Melbourne finished the season with a 20-4 record, a record only bettered* by the Storm’s 21-3 2007 season. Unlike 2017, where it seemed inevitable that the Storm would win the premiership after winning 20 games, they never seemed to get much credit for what was still a very impressive… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Melbourne Storm
The line between hard nose, scientific anlytics and gut-based mysticism is a fine one indeed. From the season preview: The numbers suggest a tough year ahead for the Panthers, with not much to look forward to. The projected team is only two Taylors per game better than the Bulldogs. TPR lists only four guys worth… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Penrith Panthers
Before we begin, I’d like to extend an apology to Curtis Scott. In my season preview, I wrote the following: Leilua, Rapana and Sezer have all left in the off-season, to be replaced by Curtis Scott, who celebrated by punching some cops. It turns out that wasn’t true and I had forgotten that ACAB. Sorry,… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Canberra Raiders
Finally, an interesting team to pull apart: I have a quiet confidence in Souths’ premiership aspirations but questions remain unanswered. Souths’ spine is projected to be a full five Taylors per game better than Melbourne’s, which is next best, so it is little surprise that the Rabbitohs are the mostly heavily biased to their playmakers.… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 South Sydney Rabbitohs
Earlier in the year: I’m quite comfortable assuming that the Roosters won’t go three in a row. They’re still good though, probably even still good enough for a minor premiership. A projected 15+ wins and the second best squad on paper is not going to have trouble reaching a preliminary final. The Storm are the… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Sydney Roosters
From my season preview: I think this is it for the Eels. They are due for their once-a-decade (give or take) tilt at the premiership. The Taylors are not too crash hot on the Eels. There are holes in key TPR ratings: Reed Mahoney at hooker, Dylan Brown nominally at five-eighth and, to a lesser… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Parramatta Eels
The seventh placed Knights had a respectable 11-8-1 record but were unable to capitalise, exiting week one of the finals. From pre-season: …The good news is that the Knights might legitimately make the finals this year. The Knights massively outperformed in 2018, which then led to many talking heads predicting serious success in 2019. Success… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Newcastle Knights
Pythago NRL 