Quote ="West Leeds Rhino"Statistics - The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities.
The impact and performance of the player can not be analysed using raw numerical data alone. On this basis, Lee Smith is a better player than Kevin Sinfield becuase he's made fewer errors. and Rob Burrow is a better hooker than Shaun Lunt because he has made more meters.
Peacock works his socks off for the team and always puts the effort in, however his ability is diminishing, as expected with age. I think the reason we have made so much noise about it is because his performaces are below our expectations of him, but he is still a great player and probably still our best prop.'"
Of course
single "raw numerical date alone" should not be final judgement on a player. But stats taken over a period of time, and read in conjuction with other statistics, build up an important true picture of how a player is performing which is why all professional coaches consider them a very important aid.
Some fans on the other hand don't like stats because they sometimes call into question their own judgement which often is emotive or coloured by a poor view/bad eyesight, twits twittering or in rare sad cases even hero-worship
