The halves dilemma
Having looked at the fullbacks last time, I thought it was only right that we turned our attention to the most talked about positions in Rugby League at the moment – the halfback and five-eighth.
To make some sense of the data produced by the 38 players that have played three games or more at either halfback or five-eighth this year, I have created an overall contribution metric which basically adds the percentile rank for each of the contribution categories selected to give an overall score. I have weighted tries and try assists as five times as important as other categories such as tackles and runs and have weighted line breaks and line break assists as twice as important as other categories. I wanted to ensure that attacking contributions were rewarded disproportionately to defensive contributions as the job of a half or five-eighths is primarily to initiate attacks and score points.
Half Backs
So lets look at the halves. Stand-out performer this year so far is no real surprise with Daly Cherry-Evans putting up some great numbers in both attack and defence. We will have a look at his radar a bit later on but its safe to say he is solid everywhere across the park. He has made the most tackles of all halves or five-eighths (217), made the second most runs (74), has the third most try assists (6) and second most line break assists (6). He leads the group in 40/20 kicks (3) and all of this in a team that has scored the fewest points in the league (138). Manly have only scored 25 tries this year and Daly has either scored or assisted in 32% of them.
Good news for NSW fans is Mitchell Pearce coming in at second. He has good try assist numbers (8) second only to Thurston yet is a more involved and better player defensively, making more tackles and missing fewer.
Thurston doesn’t really need to be analysed in any great depth. He leads the group in try assists (9) and line break assists (8) and is in the top 10 in just about every other category.
The real concern from a NSW perspective is Trent Hodkinson. Inexperienced players such as Kane Elgy and Luke Brooks are contributing more than the incumbent NSW halfback. His defence is solid – he has a good missed/tackle ratio yet his runs per game, metres per run and attacking stats are almost non-existent. He is yet to score a try in 2015 (ironic considering he scored one of NSW two tries in 2014) and he has no line breaks.
On the bright side for NSW, Cooper Cronk isnt faring much better. He has made nine more runs than Hodkinson, has two more tries and two more try assists and kicked a 40/20. Other than that, their contributions have been quite similar.
Five Eighths
The five eighth table contains a couple more shocks – the top three are all having great seasons but I doubt if anyone would have picked them to be there at the start of the year.
Chad Townsend leads the pack with great defence, an awesome running game (averaging 71 metres a game, second to Milford) and great attacking stats – 7 try assists, 5 line breaks , 4 line break assists and 2 tries. Considering his personal situation and his desire to come back to Sydney it’s a wonder more clubs aren’t throwing coin at him. And he hasn’t even been mentioned in Origin discussions which is totally at odds which his contribution.
Second is as much of a shock – Michael Morgan from the Cowboys. He has great attacking stats – 4 tries, 3 try assists, 6 line breaks and 3 line break assists. This was in only 7 games as a five eighth so very impressive numbers on a per game average basis. He didn’t even start the year in this position so for him to be second on a contribution basis is huge.
Third is a player that has been getting a lot of coverage recently and deservedly so. Blake Austin has good defensive numbers and makes the most metres per run of any half or five eighth. He has scored the most tries, made the most line breaks yet receives the ball less per game than any other half or five eighth! Strangely, his receives per game have been dropping since Round 1 yet his metres gained have been increasing. Ricky Stuart just needs to give him the ball!!
The 2014 NSW five eighth has only played three games but his contribution hasn’t been great. Josh Reynolds has been missing tackles, hasn’t scored a try nor made a line break and isn’t making many metres when he does run. He is averaging a try assist per game and more than 1 line break assist per game which is what has saved his numbers. It would be good to see his numbers after a few more games but suspension and injury has robbed us of that chance.
Some other notable mentions include b who has great attacking stats with 8 line break assists and 7 try assists. His defense is the biggest problem as he has missed the most tackles of any half or five eighth (40).
Radars
I have used all halfback and five eighths data to compile the radars this week so will be effectively be ranking them against each other. Best or most interesting are below:
Daly Cherry-Evans has awesome all-round numbers – only area he could improve on are scoring more tries and reducing ineffective tackles. But overall he is a beast.
Cooper Cronk has a pretty disappointing radar so far this year – both defensively and in attack. Maybe this is the year that Cherry-Evans takes the 7 off Cronk for Queensland?
Much is made of Adam Reynolds kicking game and its impact on Souths ability to win games. His radar backs this up – he leads the league in number of kicks per game (13.6). Not much else in terms of try assists or line break assists and certainly not your running half.
The fact that Blake Austin isn’t being spoken about more seriously for Origin is strange when you look at his radar. Decent defence combined with great tries and line breaks off the fewest receives off any half is pretty solid output.
Trent Hodkinson hasn’t had the greatest start to the year – his defense is solid but not much else to report.
Jack Bird is doing a decent job at the sharks and his radar shows that he is like Austin – few receives and assists but good defense, tries and metres. Great output in his first season.
The radar tells the story for Josh Reynolds and his contribution this season. Good runs and metres and a few line break assists but not much else.
The benchmark for all halves, Jonathan Thurston seems to be content to put Morgan, Coote, Ethan Lowe and Gavin Cooper through holes this year and his radar shows him doing a pretty good job of it. Bit of a question mark over his defense – he has missed 29 tackles so far which was a surprise.
James Maloney has good assist numbers and decent running stats but his defense is the issue. Most missed tackles per game although he does make a lot of tackles – because he is targeted by most teams.
Michael Morgan has been a machine this year. Similar to Austin and Jack Bird, Morgan scores tries and makes line breaks while being a solid defender. If you overlay his radar onto Thurston’s you pretty much have top contribution across all attacking metrics – the perfect halves combination.
Chad Townsend has flown under the radar yet he has one of the most complete radars of all of he halves. Good assist numbers, good defense and good metres per run – a great combination makes a good all-round player.
Any comments or feedback, please let me know at 80setsofsix@gmail.com
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