When Cameron Smith officially announced his retirement a day out from the 2021 NRL season, there were questions on how the Melbourne Storm would continue to keep dominating the NRL without their greatest player.
Fast forward to Round 19 and those worries are dead and buried as of now. Having lost two games so far and boasting a massive points differential, the Storm are on track to receiving the 2021 NRL minor premiership and the club will be backing their players to go back to back in the finals.
As the Storm gear up to take on the North Queensland Cowboys, I’ve come up with a statistical analysis of the Storm’s past two seasons and comparison of the numbers.
With a massive gap between Round 2 and 3 due to COVID-19 last season, the stats will only show between Round 3 and Round 20 for last year’s season.
Numbers from the finals series will not be included as the intensity, alongside other factors, in a finals series varies a lot to the regular season.
Storm 2020 regular NRL season stats (Round 3-Round 20)
Tries scored – 87
Average number of tries scored per game – 4.83 (approximately)
Tries conceded – 45
Average number of tries conceded per game – 2.5
Points scored – 504
Average points scored per game – 28
Points conceded – 262
Average points conceded per game – 14.56 (approximately)
Average winning margin – 20.5
Average losing margin – 11.25
Games won by less than 10 points – 3
Games won by 10-20 points – 5
Games won by more than 20 points – 6
Storm 2021 regular NRL season stats (Round 1-Round 18)
Tries scored – 114
Average number of tries scored per game – 6.71 (approximately)
Tries conceded – 37
Average number of tries conceded per game – 2.18 (approximately)
Points scored – 632
Average points scored per game – 37.18 (approximately)
Points conceded – 198
Average points conceded per game – 11.65 (approximately)
Average winning margin – 28.67 (approximately)
Average losing margin – 3
Games won by less than 10 points – 2
Games won by 10-20 points – 1
Games won by 21-30 points – 6
Games won by 30-40 points – 2
Games won by more than 40 points – 4
So far, the numbers show the Storm have bettered their 2020 NRL regular season numbers both in attack and defence.
Despite a number of injuries and the gap of Cameron Smith’s experience missing, the ruthlessness in the Storm’s attack regardless of the 17 on the park shows the mentality of the Storm playing group this season.
In the past two seasons, the Storm have played only five games at AAMI Park with a crowd and have relocated to the Sunshine Coast three times due to lockdowns in Victoria.
Despite all of the challenges they’ve had to face, they have thrived as a club during a global pandemic which is a huge indication of how the club wants to be run in the short and long term.
Despite the way the Storm have dominated the 2021 NRL season, two massive tests in facing the Panthers and Sea Eagles in consecutive rounds will be an eye opener in how the Storm will be prepared for the big games come finals time.
But as of now, you’d be a madman not to back the Storm to go back to back.
Ken
Guest
Agreed how often have we heard ,we hate the storm cus they wrestle an slow down the game ....so they speed it up now it’s ...oh the storm were always gonna do well when it’s faster cus they are fitter , umm excuse me ? professional Nrl players with expert trainers an they aren’t fit enough ? , I guess giving credit to the storm is hard for some people .
Brendon
Roar Rookie
I think Round 2 should be wiped from the record. It was less of a footy game and more of a swimming contest, given it was played during the Sydney rain bomb, 1 in 100 year flood event.
VICTORIAN
Roar Rookie
I think the true testament to Storm is they according to all League fans they introduced 'The Wrestle' all other Clubs followed suit just probably not as good. So the 6 again rule is introduced to stop 'The Wrestle' what is of interest the club it should have bought to it's knees, has thrived. Others have continued to wrestle and hold on to the old ways, it would be a great statistic to see which clubs have given more 6 again. Given certain Refs are a little trigger happy it's not going to be solid but what is?
Arnab Bhattacharya
Roar Guru
Fair point. But the reason I’m backing Storm to go back to back is because of Bellamy. He won’t let complacency enter the Storm bubble regardless of how many wins they have under their belt. Most importantly, both halves have won a Premiership together last year and continue to up their game. If you think about it, the Storm have only been knocked out/lost in a GF post 2017 by Roosters and Cooper Cronk was a big reason for that.
Arnab Bhattacharya
Roar Guru
I think they missed Smith more in round 2. Against Penrith had Olam passed it to JAC in the final seconds Storm wins it. I do think come next week and round 21, Storm will struggle to play the same style that they have against other sides but still come up trumps.
Paul
Roar Guru
"But as of now, you’d be a madman not to back the Storm to go back to back." Brave words. Plenty of "madmen" have put plenty of hard earned cash on other teams to take out the Premiership, Arnab. There's too many games left in the season and too many examples of dominant teams failing on Grand Final day to make this sort of statement, IMO.
Joe
Roar Rookie
They may not have missed Cam Smith while they’re thrashing all the teams below them but in the 2 close losses in particular the Penrith one in round 3 I thought the calmness and experience of Smith was sorely missed. Bellamy pretty much said so as well in the presser. Lets see whether they’ve learned when they meet the Panthers again next week in what should be a tighter and tougher contest. The points stats say that 2021 team is better but considering the added rule changes introducing more fatigue the superfit and well drilled Storm team was always going to go even better. As Christian Welch said this record breaking season is an anomaly due to the rule changes similar to when fast suits were introduced in swimming that led to a few seasons of records being broken (40) before they were banned.
Arnab Bhattacharya
Roar Guru
Yeah the six again rule was also another reason why I didn’t include round 1 and 2 for last season. Thanks for the idea, I’ll possibly do a 2016-2018 comparison since the Storm made the GF in all of em
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
I wonder how it compares to 2017, which I consider their best ever line up. But of course you didn't have the six again rule then, which has made for a higher scoring game.