Opinion
The statistical domination Melbourne have imprinted on the NRL after nine rounds is impressively astonishing.
Aside from Ryan Papenhuyzen’s early-season form and his to-be-interrupted points haul that sees him streaks ahead of his nearest rival, Valentine Holmes, the team as a collective are atop or near the top of most key indicators that a coach uses to gauge progress.
The men in purple have racked up 59 tries, sit second in total possession with 53 per cent, third in completions at 80 per cent and top the line break leaderboard with 64. Only the Sharks have broken more tackles. They sit top four in total running metres and kick return metres while also leading the NRL in try assists and sitting second in line-break assists.
Pleasing coach Craig Bellamy potentially even more than any of this data will be the fact the Storm have missed just 246 tackles, a figure only bettered by the Cowboys.
It is all something of a statistical mouthful, I know, yet one particular stat jumps off the page more notably than others, potentially unveiling exactly what the Storm are doing far better and more consistently than any other NRL team.
The average number of dummy-half runs taken by the other 15 teams this season is 82.2. The Storm have scooted from the base of the ruck on a whopping 132 occasions in 2022. That translates to the table-topping southerners using the dummy-half run a little more than 60 per cent more often than the average NRL team.
That number falls well outside normal statistical variation and potentially provides a stunning snapshot into at least one section of the Storm playbook that Bellamy is using to present a team that is performing as well as any we have seen this century.
(Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
For context, the Sharks have used the tactic least of all the clubs (64), while the Wests Tigers (105), Raiders (101) and Bulldogs (100) have obviously made it a key feature of their play. However, Melbourne appear to be using the dummy-half run as a cornerstone to their attack, with Harry Grant the most dominant in that area.
Grant has run directly from the ruck on 60 occasions, almost as many as the Cronulla side as a whole, yet the 24-year-old has had a few accomplices. Papenhuyzen has darted 17 times, Brandon Smith 15 and Justin Olam and Nick Meaney have chipped in with 10 and eight runs respectively.
Of course it is the effectiveness of the runs that counts and not just the frequency of them. Yet while fans see footage of Melbourne’s expansive backline play in highlight packages and continue to shake their heads at their scoring prowess and skill levels, a more crucial and fundamentally straightforward tactic is laying the platform for what comes next when the Storm shift the ball and make inroads out wide.
Is Bellamy pulling the wool over the NRL’s eyes with all the pointscoring, the wide margins of victory and a clinical approach to demolishing substandard defences like we have rarely seen before?
Does the super coach have us transfixed by the Vegas-style show business point scoring, all the while hoping we fail to notice the simplicity of his dummy-half running game plan designed to get his team on the front foot and thus able to be dangerous wider once that right has been earned?
Well, we have noticed it, Craig, and we are onto you.
The dummy-half run has been a critical part of the game since its inception, yet the greatest of modern coaches is using the tactic more extensively and purposefully than ever before, with others certain to be taking note of his method.
Likely there will be some emulation at some point, but the Storm machine appears likely to continue rolling largely unchallenged off the back of the simple art of dummy-half running and a host of weapons then granted space with which to work when the ball is shifted wide.
Up to this point in the season it looks to be a potentially premiership-winning strategy, although the Panthers may well have a say in that come Saturday night.
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