Stats Insider - Season’s Best

Get inside the stats for the Vodafone Warriors, as we look at who topped various statistical categories in 2012.

With the 2012 NRL season coming to a close, www.warriors.co.nz has sifted through the stats for the year and come up with the following results.

| STAT: Top Tackler |
Second-rower Elijah Taylor racked up 908 tackes in 2012, topping the Vodafone Warriors count for the season. It is almost 300 more than 2011, as he took on more responsibility in the back-row due to a long term injury to workhorse Micheal Luck. He finished the year with an average of 39.5 tackles per game, falling below 30 on only 3 occasions throughout the year. His season high was 50 against the Eels in Round 2.
Nathan Friend came in second with 713 tackles at 41.9 per game, while Simon Mannering averaged 33.3 in 19 games (632 in total).
Ben Henry was the best of the backs with 541 tackles at an average of 22.5 over 24 games, while James Maloney averaged 17.2 in his 24 appearances.

| STAT: Hitup/Metre Merchant |
Back-rower Feleti Mateo topped the total run count with 311 in 24 games, followed by Ben Matulino with 303, Bill Tupou with 270, Manu Vatuvei with 239 and Russell Packer with 223.
Matulino had the most average runs with 13.8 per game, with Mateo second with 13 and Vatuvei third with 12.
Matulino again dominated the metres gained department, with 2,784 metres, followed by Mateo with 2,418 metres, Tupou with 2290 metres, Vatuvei with 2278 metres and Russell Packer 2042 metres.
The Kiwi front rower topped the averages as well, with 126.5 metres per game in his 22 appearances, well in front of Vatuvei with 113.9 metres per game and Konrad Hurrell with 111.2 metres per game.
Matulino’s Round 14 effort against the Panthers was the highest for the year with 225 metres from 22 hit-ups.

| STAT: Mr. Creativity |
Young halfback Shaun Johnson and back-rower Feleti Mateo battled it out in the creativity stakes this season, with Johnson contributing 17 try assists and 7 line break assists, while Mateo had 17 line break assists and 11 try assists.
Five-eighth James Maloney was the other main contributor, with 16 try assists during 2012 along with 10 line break assists.
Kevin Locke (5 try assists and 3 line break assists) and Nathan Friend (3 try assists and 4 line break assists) were the only two other significant contributors.

| STAT: Tryscoring Machine |
It wouldn’t have been thought at the start of the year that anyone could have caught Manu Vatuvei or Bill Tupou in the try-scoring stakes this season, but rookie Konrad Hurrell managed to do just that in only 17 NRL appearances.
Vatuvei, Hurrell and halfback Shaun Johnson were all tied at the top on 12 tries for the year, with Manu’s coming in 20 games, while Johnson played 22.
Ben Henry (8 tries from 24 games) came in fourth place, with Kevin Locke and Tupou tied for fifth place on 7 tries each.
Lewis Brown was the next highest scoring forward behind Henry with 4 tries (although one of those came playing in the centres).

Do you have any stats about the Vodafone Warriors that stood out for you in 2012? Let us know in the comments below.