The final week ladder offers proof the National Rugby League competition is a case of survival of the fittest. Indeed, few factors have more impact on the success of an NRL side than the health of its players over the 26 gruelling rounds of the regular season.
And no club has done a better job this year of keeping their stars on the park than ladder leaders Manly and Melbourne.
Taking away appearances when players were stood down for State of Origin commitments, the Storm have used just 24 players heading into the final round of the NRL season.
Next best are Manly and the fourth-placed Sydney Roosters with 25 players, while it’s little wonder that North Queensland with 35 and cellar-dwellers the Bulldogs with 38 bring up the rear.
Surprisingly in such a high impact sport, the Sea Eagles, Storm and Roosters have been able to call on a large group of familiar faces week after week.
Manly and the Roosters have 15 players who have played 18 games or more this season, the Storm the next best with 14.
Conversely also-rans the Bulldogs, Gold Coast and South Sydney have just nine players in the same boat, the Cowboys with a meagre eight.
Melbourne’s effort is particularly extraordinary given their heavy representative commitments, with at least nine of their players involved in each of the three Origin encounters.
While admitting there was more than a slice of luck involved in keeping players fit, Storm physio Mary Toomey claimed Melbourne’s conditioning team did their best to create their own luck.
“Without giving away what we do, the critical factor in it is we look at all the players very closely right at the start of pre-season and identify where we think their injury risks lie,” Toomey said.
“We then spend a lot of time before and during the season addressing those risks and trying to keep them under control.
“Injuries still happen, you certainly can’t prevent them happening, but I think you can reduce your injury risk by being proactive.
“We just work very hard. I don’t know if we work harder than those at other clubs, but I know that we spend a lot of hours making sure that we cover all our bases.”
While the figures go some way to explaining the success of sides like Melbourne and Manly, they make it hard to explain Parramatta’s season of woe.
The Eels used just 26 players all season, but after starting the year as one of the sides favoured to knock the Storm off their perch, they have struggled to make any impact.
On the other hand Canberra and Cronulla have done a tremendous job to put themselves up the pointy end of the ladder, particularly the Sharks, who have kept pace with Manly and the Storm despite using 31 different players.
Number of players with 18 or more games:
Team Ladder pos. Players with 18 or more games
Sea Eagles 1 15
Roosters 4 15
Storm 2 14
Broncos 5 12
Knights 8 12
Warriors 9 12
Eels 10 12
Panthers 11 11
Tigers 12 11
Sharks 3 10
Dragons 6 10
Raiders 7 10
Titans 13 9
Rabbitohs 14 9
Cowboys 15 9
Bulldogs 16 9
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