AS a Sea Beagle fan, I watched a lot of the Grand Final in 2014 between the Dogs and the Rabbits again on you tube a while back to see how Api Kroisau went at hooker for the Rabbits. He had been getting a fearful serving from many of the Eagles fans as some sort of dud reserve grader and watching him in this game just reinforced my own view that we had ourselves a beauty.
I had a look at the stats from this game to check something else out but I almost choked on my sausage roll when I saw the stats for the Dogs halves combination.
Reynolds ...... 2 runs for 2 metres (80 minutes)
Hodkinson ....... 1 run for 1 metre ( 80 mins ) metre looks strange without the "s" on the end !
I'm not having a cheap shot but I'm genuinely curious as to whether this is true and if so how is it possible?
Were they injured or just following instructions I wonder?
On an unrelated issue, I find it hard to really rate coaches accurately but in saying that I couldn't imagine Bellamy taking the Raiders almost to the GF one year and then guide them towards the other end of the table the next . Ricky Stuart may have had some bad luck this year but they look really poorly coached and I think that is the big issue.
Here are some amazing stats from Manly's latest loss to Tigers at Leichhardt yesterday.
According to commentators, that's Manly's 6th loss from the last 7 visits to Leichhardt. Amazing!
Manly led 20-6 at half time and amazingly was outscored 24 points to 6 in the second half to come crashing down 30-26 in the end.
Manly lost the game in what was probably Tigers' last possession for the game, but couldn't make one more lousy tackle.
With Manly leading 26-24 and time almost up, all the no-name Manly winger had to do was make a hit up and make sure he kept possession, but he could't cut it. Amazing! Manly better go buy some other winger like Valentine Holmes or that Uate guy from Newcastle. Oh wait ....
And the most amazing stat of all. A win would have moved Manly into the top 4 but the loss to second last place Tigers drops Manly down to 7th position and could well have stuffed their prospects of a top 4 finish.
Without a top 4 finish, Manly has as much chance of winning the 2017 premiership as Bulldogs. Zero.
Don't you love the way the game of Rugby League keeps providing all these amazing stats? It's really quite .... amazing.