Raymond Faitala-Mariner receives the ball from Michael Lichaa on his own ten-metre line. It is only the second minute of the Bulldogs’ match against the Rabbitohs, and Canterbury are on their second tackle in their initial set of six.
Faitala-Mariner runs straight ahead, before seeing South Sydney’s Damien Cook in the way. The big Dog springs to his right, before changing back to his original path, and lowering his left shoulder into Cook’s tackle, to ensure that the contact doesn’t instantly halt his progress.
He succeeds. Cook can hold on, but can’t bring him down.
They continue in this way for a few metres, before Angus Crichton also starts to hang onto Faitala-Mariner’s upper body. Even then, it is only when John Sutton starts grabs a leg that Faitala-Mariner is stopped, a metre or two past the halfway line.
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Faitala-Mariner takes some time to recover from his work, with his hands on his hips, having earned his rest. It is the first time in the match that someone has travelled a significant amount of distance in the tackle.
Tackles make up a key part of any NRL game, and even as someone who is only just starting to take more of an interest in rugby league, it is an easy enough matter to find statistics that are related to them.
Apart from counting tackles themselves, there are missed tackles, offloads, tackle breaks, ineffective tackles, and post-contact metres.
What is harder is finding out exactly how clubs approach tackles, how it affects their training, how they analyse the data from post-contact plays – like the aforementioned one from Faitala-Mariner.
What drills does Faitala-Mariner do at training to earn those extra yards? Let’s say that the Rabbitohs could have had any player in the world to prevent those metres, and that player had the aid of no other person. Who would it have been, if not Damien Cook? Whoever it is, how does that player prepare to provide his team with such an advantage?
The Bulldogs have the first match of the upcoming round, which provides another opportunity to look at Faitala-Mariner attempting to get post-contact metres.
Albo
Guest
I'm sure the coaches and players will differentiate even if the statisticians don't !
Paul Potter
Roar Guru
It surprises me that there's no effort to differentiate between tackles on the basis of difficulty.
Rellum
Roar Guru
As far as I can tell there is no effort to differentiate tackles based on difficulty. A tackle is recorded as a tackle, no matter the size difference, no matter how much ground you have to make up, no matter if you flop in third man or hammer them backwards on your own. Post tackle metres is a nice statistic but has little meaning on it's own as others have said.
Paul Potter
Roar Guru
Hi Scott, Thanks for the reply. It gives me a different perspective on why rugby league players and the Channel Nine commentators hate the crackdown (which I have no problems with) - they have gotten used to fluidity and the benefits for their team. Who would be the first five players you would pick based purely on quick PCM and PTB?
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Hi Paul, PCM is a stat I have for every player in my program, but it is in the far right column and to be honest i hardly look at it simply because of the huge variances from different positions and types of players. If everyone was the same size and ranthe same direct way it would be meaningful, but of course thats not the case and it can be misleading. I would rather have a player with a smaller PCM and a fast play the ball (PTB), than the other way around. The problem with PCM is they can include a player like Woods walking 15m backwards and while this is happening the defence line has plenty of time to get set. There is more chance of point being created with a player landing on his front and exercising a quick PTB. Genuine quick PCM from a player with big impact is valuable as opposed to slow PCM.
Paul Potter
Roar Guru
Which leads to the question: do coaches know what the average post contact yardage is for a player of Fatiala-Mariner's size compared to someone of Cook's? I should mention at this point I've never seen a rugby league training, but do they use those big mats for that sort of training?
Albo
Guest
Paul, I think the questions you pose would have some pretty varied responses. I am sure that pure physical prowess of some players like Asofa Solomona , Billy Kikau , Jason Taumololo & Coen Hess, will ensure these type of players have a much greater potential for post contact yardage than the smaller type of player. Some players are stronger and better balanced making them harder to put on the ground ( Faitala-Mariner seems to be such a player). With these types of powerful bodies , a coach would be analysing the opposition's defensive structures and get these runners to run at the smaller or weaker defenders in the first instant. Hence Faitala-Mariner picking out the smaller Cook to run at. Often these titans are aimed at the smaller opposition halves who generally defend on the edges of the rucks. So the propensity for post tackle yardage is increased due to pure physics. Training drills would be based on strategies for bringing on these physical match ups to either attack and make the post impact yards or to defend against your opposition seeking to do the same.