I'm with you, Nozzy. The extra stats. that Dave Parkinson provided in the programme (e.g. 'try assists'; the ten minute time slots when we scored, and conceded tries; penalty counts) always fascinated me.

However, sometimes stats. can be misleading. In our SL season, Marc Leafa was deemed to be one of the top five 'offloaders' in the competition. What wasn't factored in, was that about 50% of his offloads went to ground, or to our opponents!

That's the key point, Alan. The same is true for metres and tackles and all the others too.

One thing to always bear in mind with the SL stats is that they're published in support of a fantasy league game and not our general understanding.

Context is absolutely king here.

Particularly in good teams, and even more so when there are poor teams in the same league, backs very often make more metres than forwards do. Sometimes more than the whole pack combined. But is it ever true that metres made by backs are more important than those made by forwards? That'd be hard to argue.

Metres on the fourth tackle during the third consecutive set under your own sticks when you're one score behind might be the most valuable in the game. And there may only be 8 or so of them, not even over the advantage line. But if they're the turning of the tide and help you swing the balance of field position across the next few sets in the other direction it could well be the play of the game.

Those of us who are experienced fans can see this when it happens. It would be nice to be able to find moments like this and share them with a wider audience.

The SL numbers are pretty much meaningless too. If you steal them all (ahem) then you can see general trends. In game though, field position, what happened before, what happened after are just as important as the raw fact itself.

Sport, as I've said a few times lately, is narrative. It's story telling, but with an unreliable narrator. I just want to help share different perspectives to help the real story reveal itself.

For the record, my fantasy teams are *always* terrible.

Some people really aren't happy on here unless they are moaning, one of the reasons I and other people I know hardly ever come on here - won't be long before it's hijacked into a who owes who a pint thread.

Thanks for doing this, despite the other comments it is interesting to see. It would be interesting if we could see which line refers to which season

You probably have the time but obviously not the interest and more probably not the ability, it begs the question why didn't you ignore the thread.

I’d think the top two will be the last two seasons, the third one down the year we came 2nd or was it 3rd to Fev, the next to bottom will be the year but for Gateshead we would have been relegated, the bottom one will be our SL year, others need a bit more of a look at, but you could probably guestimate the year by using our finishing league position relative to the end of the chart.

I feel an animation coming on.

Shall I do it?

Yeah, knock yourself out.

Is there anywhere which shows try and goal scorers for championships?

Not well, no. It used to be www.rugbyleaguechampionships.co.uk/, and there were separate pages for summary stats like that. This year they brought it all under one roof here (www.rugby-league.com/kingstone_p ... es/results). And it's rubbish, a real step backwards. Coincidentally a bit harder to steal from too, which might have been the point. Bizarrely the [url=http://www.nationalconferenceleague.co.uk/player_statsamateur leagues[/url and [url=http://www.womensrugbyleague.co.uk/player_statswomen's competitions[/url have much better support for that kind of information. And not that they shouldn't have it, but weird that they do and the pro and semi-pro leagues don't. I keep meaning to do something with player stats. I'll see what I can knock up. It will just be tries, goals and drop goals though.

Not well, no. It used to be www.rugbyleaguechampionships.co.uk/, and there were separate pages for summary stats like that. This year they brought it all under one roof here (www.rugby-league.com/kingstone_p ... es/results). And it's rubbish, a real step backwards. Coincidentally a bit harder to steal from too, which might have been the point. Bizarrely the [url=http://www.nationalconferenceleague.co.uk/player_statsamateur leagues[/url and [url=http://www.womensrugbyleague.co.uk/player_statswomen's competitions[/url have much better support for that kind of information. And not that they shouldn't have it, but weird that they do and the pro and semi-pro leagues don't. I keep meaning to do something with player stats. I'll see what I can knock up. It will just be tries, goals and drop goals though.

Can get tries/goals/pts for Championship on here www.loverugbyleague.com/stats/ Only 2 Leigh players in the top 15 try scorers, both forwards (Hoppy with 8 and Maitua with 7). We had the top 1,2 and 3 last year! Can also see stats for yellow cards Gaz Hock up to 4 already for the season! Acton and Reynolds 2 each also, although I think one of Ben's may have come when he was at Dewsbury?

Can get tries/goals/pts for Championship on here www.loverugbyleague.com/stats/ Only 2 Leigh players in the top 15 try scorers, both forwards (Hoppy with 8 and Maitua with 7). We had the top 1,2 and 3 last year! Can also see stats for yellow cards Gaz Hock up to 4 already for the season! Acton and Reynolds 2 each also, although I think one of Ben's may have come when he was at Dewsbury?

Reffy you don't know me so please don't judge me how do you know what my ability is ...

I think we know enough mate.



Also, to the kind person who reckons top two will be the same this year, that's lovely but I'm not feeling too confident about that from a Bradford perspective. I do hope you're right though!

I think your spot on with the top 2 Glow, and possibly 3rd although the 2006 season under Benson and his full time squad will be high up.

However my old (admittedly long time retired) analytical skills suggest the comparison is only based on the previous 10 full seasons and therefore the SL season would not be detailed on the chart?

With that season excluded, yes the lowest percentage of points won entry would refer to the season Rowley took over from Neil Kelly, and only Gatesheads demise earned us a reprieve from relegation.

The red line only serves to prove what a great job Neil Jukes is doing so far in difficult circumstances.

Good data.

Given the immediate pre-season, the game at Batley and how it must have felt that, at least a little bit, like things were falling apart that is indeed an impressive slope for you guys.

The 2005 stint in SL is there, it's the lower one sticking out at the bottom towards the right. FWIW, very, very far from the worst run in SL.

That honour belongs to the hill people of Halifax in 2003. Won their first game against London, lost all the rest. You can see them basically [url=http://i.imgur.com/oNrTfRv.pngflatline in the HFX plot[/url. Similar story for London in 2014, where [url=http://i.imgur.com/rzpWB54.pngthey too only won a single game[/url. Oddly, that was against Leeds at Headingley and happened mid-season. As bad a performance within one season as that by Halifax in their crisis year but punctuated with a win.

Anyway, not had chance to split this up for you yet. In the meantime, here's a table showing percentage of all available points won in all games played. Should make it somewhat easier to cross reference against the plot.





This will be much easier to do when it's dynamic and you can pick which teams and years for yourselves. It almost works, but probably won't be available to play with until next season (cos there's a whole bunch of other goodies coming at the same time).

Where's 2006? You promised a 2006!

Buggered if I know

This thread has lead to me looking back at previous league tables and the 2009 table was mental!



2 teams to be relegated.

Doncaster finished bottom (11th) on 8pts.

Toulouse finished 10th on 30pts, bit of a gap there! Next to bottom but were exempt from relegation because they were... erm... French I guess?

Leigh, Batley and Gateshead all finished on 32pts (we had the worst points difference). Obviously Gateshead's late surge in form was due to them buying a load of Aussies it turned out they didn't actually have any money to pay hence them going down and us being let off the hook.

We were 'relegated' with a record of 9 wins and 11 losses. 45 % win rate isn't great but in no other season would it be anything like relegation form.

Batley actually won less games than us but 2 draws (both against Gateshead) meant they finished level on pts.

Sheffield actually only won 2 more games than us. (We won 9 lost 11, they won 11 lost 9) and yet we finished in a relegation spot whilst they finished 3rd in the league and just 2pts off top spot! They did win a 'bonus point' in every game they lost though.

Can't say I am missing the bonus point system. What a load of bo**ocks that was!



Crazy season though. So tight. 45% win rate got you relegated. 55% win rate got you 3rd place. 65% win rate won you the league!

For comparison last season 65% wouldn't even have qualified you for the top 4 and the middle 8's!

Doesn't bare thinking about what would have happened to us if we had gone down that season!



Although if Gateshead hadn't signed a load of players mid season that they couldn't afford then we never would have been relegated anyway!

Catching on, this stats. thing, eh Nozzy!

We're up to two out of every ten people who give a toss.

No mention of the brown paper envelopes up in Barra, or does that come under a different stat?

To difficult to quantify, Norman. For some strange reason, clubs were reluctant to provide stats. on that topic!

Brings back some memories there mate, in hindsight that league tables was probably the closest league table in years...

Great stuff mate