Useless NRL Stats

Heck yeah. Everyone loves a good chord chart and nobody knows how to read them. Awesome stats

YouTube video by No Chill Gil GIL GUESSES ALL 46 NBA CHAMPS SINCE 1980

youtube.com/watch?v=PPN9...

The NBA vis video

Thanks to a fan request, I’ve had a shot at recreating an NRL version of the NBA premiers data vis seen in the linked video. I’m keen to try visualising other season-wide stats in this manner - keen for any ideas everyone might have

Congrats on 5 years of an awesome page mate! You've set the bar impressively high for NRL stats analysis, and I think many of us (sickos) love reading not just the stats and metrics, but the thought and logic behind them.

Phins UP - the Hammer has set a new NSWRL/NRL record for the most tries (4) by a player in a milestone match (100th, 200th, 300th etc).

He becomes the 6th player to score a hat-trick in their milestone match, and the first since Michael Robertson in 2007 for Manly.

Q: How many times have two sets of three brothers faced off in a NSWRL/NRL match?

A: Only twice previously before the Fainu’s/Trbojevic’s faced off last night and in Rd25 2024.

Thanks @lachlanjeffery.bsky.social for the pickup of my error on IG - I got my Burgii confused

The Broncos have officially set the all-time record for the most rounds into a season before a player makes their club debut.

No club has ever gone an entire season without a club debutant, with the previous record of 16 rounds held by the 1978 Bulldogs.

Origin Spirit you say? Led by his royal QLD-ness Kurt Capewell, the Maroons have claimed the 6th ever State of Origin win by a team that scored less tries than the opposition.

Tough luck Blues. Don't eye gouge next time.

There are 6 men’s origin players and no women’s origin players that share a first or last name with a Perth suburb. Two are playing tonight (Munster + Martin)

A special mention to NSW’s Dale Finucane, the only origin player whose first and last names are suburbs in WA

The Dolphins are currently on the same number of wins and losses (7) but with a difference of +146. In NSWRL/NRL history, they have the ninth-greatest PD [and 4th highest unique team] at any stage of the season for a team with wins less than or equal to losses.

The Dolphins are currently on the same number of wins and losses (7) but with a points difference of +146.

In NSWRL/NRL history, they have the ninth-greatest PD at any stage of the season for a team with wins less than or equal to losses.

2025 NRL INITIAGAMI update

- 40 debutants with 38 unique initials (dark blue)
- Xavier Va'a (XV) the only new, never-before-seen set of initials
- other rare initials include Owen Pattie (2nd OP) and Benaiah Ioelu (7th BI)
- debutants Nick Tsougranis, Josh Patston and Kaiden Lahrs all included here

On an afternoon like no other, Josh Papalii achieved what no other starting front-rower has been able to do in 48yrs - score two or more tries, and kick at least one goal in the same match.

Last player to do so was John Gray (Bears v Souths) in 1977. Mental.

Jack Wighton could also be on 37, but he played for the Raiders when the Rabbitohs went to Vegas, and the Rabbitohs when the Raiders went

Josh Papalii's journey to become the most capped Raider in history is like no other. He has played at 37 unique venues, more than any other NSWRL/NRL player before him, and level with only Marty Taupau

The current record is 89 (Mitch Kenny v Titans), but this will be eclipsed whenever Ryan Matterson next plays the Sharks (98* and counting)

A number of caveats here – the player cannot have played for that opposition in the gap (e.g. Ben Hunt v Dragons doesn’t count), and the team must have been available to play over the gap (e.g. v Souths over 2000-01 / v Manly over 2000-02 don’t count)

Latrell Mitchell has not played the Raiders since the 2019 GF, a streak of 5 and a half years and 83 matches played by him. In the NRL-era, this is the 9th longest gap (in matches played) between a player lining up against a particular opposition team.

Amongst current players, keep an eye on Jamayne Isaako (70*) and Valentine Holmes (66*) whose current streaks are both tracking towards Gearin’s all time record after their respective point-scoring last night.

Note here that Johnathan Thurston scored points in all 79 matches he played from Rd1 2015 until his retirement, meaning that he left an opportunity to claim the all-time record if he played one more season.

The second of two Adam Reynolds stats today. Reynolds scored points of some form in every match from his debut until his 87th match in 2015. This streak of 86 consecutive matches with points scored is the second highest streak in NSWRL/NRL history.

For reference, other notable current players include Nathan Cleary (92.3%), Jamayne Isaako and Reuben Garrick (identical on 89.2%) and Zac Lomax (88.4%).

Having been a goal kicker his whole career, Adam Reynolds, has not kicked a goal in only 11 matches out of his 299 so far. With goals in 96.32% of his matches, he holds third place for highest percentage of matches with a goal kicked.

Ethan's Strange and Sanders become the seventh halves pairing in history to have the same first name, and surname initial.

If they get a full season together next year, they will shatter the record of 7 matches together played by Tom's McInerney and Monaghan for University

The Panthers areonly the 5th reigning premiers in history to sit in last place at any time after round 12.

They're the first team to do so since Melbourne in 2010 - at least Penrith earned this stat the hard way rather than cheating their way to it

A new NRL-era record will be set this weekend for the largest difference in surname length between two direct opponents on the team list: Nawaqanitawase (14) vs Iro (3) at centre for a difference of 11

Double-barrelled names have been excluded from this stat, feels like they're cheating that way

Dane Gagai's 300th tonight makes him the third player in history to play match #300 with a debutant on his own team (Fletcher Hunt) and a debutant on the opposition (Toni Mataele).

This is just getting out of hand now.

Quartic extrapolation from Fletcher Baker's debut in 2021 suggests that a full 30-man squad of Fletchers will be possible before 2033

Ryan Papenhuyzen single-handedly outscored the other 15 teams in Rd10. He is only the 5th player to outscore every team but his own in the one round (in rounds with 14+ teams playing).

Also, this has only happened in rounds divisible by 5, for whatever reason

Regression to the mean strikes again