Legendary American Football coach Bear Bryant once said, “offence sells tickets, but defence wins games.” That saying rings true in the NRL as well.
As I previously wrote, in the last 10 years only one team has won the premiership without being ranked first or second in the league in defence.
But can a player’s attacking prowess outweigh poor defence? Let’s take a look at a key position that personifies attacking football – the halves.
The main responsibilities of a five-eighth and halfback is to direct the team’s attack and put points on the board – either by doing it themselves or setting up their teammates.
Check out the combined stats of two halves pairings from teams who play completely different brands of football – the Parramatta Eels and the Melbourne Storm.
The Eels often play free-flowing football that is just as likely to produce a 90-metre try as it is an intercept going the other way, while the Storm are the masters of grinding their opponents out of the game.
Eels halves combined stats: 102 metres per game, 19 try assists, 11 line breaks, 20 line break assists, 42 tackle breaks, 17 offloads, 4 tries, 5.5 missed tackles per game, 24.2 tackles per game.
Storm halves combined stats: 77 metres per game, 11 try assists, 7 line breaks, 11 line break assists, 29 tackle breaks, 7 offloads, 6 tries, 2.7 missed tackles per game, 34.7 tackles per game.
Surprisingly, Corey Norman and Chris Sandow outrank their Melbourne Storm counterparts in almost every attacking stat. But defensively, Cooper Cronk and Blake Green are far more solid than the Eels’ pair – they miss fewer tackles, despite making more of them.
Sandow alone misses more tackles (3.4) than Cronk (1.3) and Green (1.4) do together.
So can a player’s attacking flair make up for poor defensive? Parramatta and the Storm are at opposite ends of the table and while there are dozens of reasons why, this is one of them.
But there are always exceptions to the rule. Can you think of a player whose ability to find the try line outweighs the risk they pose in defence? My pick would be Aku Uate.
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