Storm to finish 9th in the 2019 Ladder
Ok, a bit of a comparison of 2019 vs 2018.yourhero wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:30 am Just expanding on my post above RE 2018, particulalry how we fared against the better teams in the comp...
We played 11 games against Top 8 teams (for 6 wins - 55%)
We played 13 games against Bottom 8 teams (for 10 wins - 77%)
Storm Combined Margins - against each team:
Sydney Roosters (-14)
South Sydney Rabbitohs (-9)
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (+3)
Penrith Panthers (-6)
Brisbane Broncos (+30)
St. George Illawarra Dragons (+2)
New Zealand Warriors (+46)
Wests Tigers (-3)
Canberra Raiders (+34)
Newcastle Knights (+44)
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (+18)
North Queensland Cowboys (+17)
Gold Coast Titans (+16)
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (-19)
Parramatta Eels (+16)
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For comparison:
The Roosters and the Bunnies each played 11 games against Top 8 teams (for 5 wins - 46%)
The Roosters and the Bunnies played 13 games against Top 8 teams (for 11 wins - 85%)
So the Roosters and Bunnies performed slightly worse against Top 8 teams throughout the year and slightly better against Bottom 8 teams... The competition was that close in 2018 (esp in Top 8 ) that the data means not a whole lot and simply whichever team showed up with more intent, was probably going to win.
We simply sh*t the bed on the biggest day of the year.
In 2019...
We played 15 games against Top 8 teams (for 9 wins - 60%)
We played 12 games against Bottom 8 teams (for 12 wins - 100%)
Storm Combined Margins - against each team:
Sydney Roosters (-7)
South Sydney Rabbitohs (+10)
Canberra Raiders (+6)
Parramatta Eels (+86)
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (+29)
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (+22)
Brisbane Broncos (+46)
Wests Tigers (+2)
Penrith Panthers (+30)
Newcastle Knights (+30)
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (+24)
New Zealand Warriors (+23)
North Queensland Cowboys (+14)
St. George Illawarra Dragons (+2)
Gold Coast Titans (+36)
In 2019 we scored 95 more points
In 2019 we conceded 63 fewer points
In 2019 our For and Against (+331) was 158 points better than 2018 (173). The best F&A since 2007 (+350 also Storm).
That is as good a regular season as any team could ever hope for. Once again, we simply sh*t the bed come finals.
We only lost 2/17 to start the year but finished the year losing 4/10.
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Stormhunter
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Losing Christian contributed to that.
Correlation does not equal causation. We were at times very lucky to win games in the first half of the year. There were numerous games where virtually every time Brodie touched the ball, unless he was simply shuffling it on, would end in a negative play. Then there was his hit and miss defence. The change had to happen... Craig lost his patience and hooked him in the Broncos game. That spelled the end of Brodie's first grade run at the Storm IMO.
Hughes was actually pretty decent at halfback as well - way better than what we were getting from Croft. I wouldn't put our losses on him/the change in halfback.
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Stormhunter
- Squall
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- Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:25 pm
- Location: Newcastle
We lost Christian rd 20, 2nd August against Brisbane. We played 8 more games without him. We lost a lot of impact off the bench and that exposed a few flaws in the side, such as Chambers and Croft.
We literally lost a finals game because a ball got popped out of JAC's hands. And then in the prelim we had a player slip at the worst possible time in a lead up to the Roosters scoring.
Maybe if Croft was halfback neither of those things happen.
If's, buts and maybe's. If your Aunty had balls she'd be your Uncle!
Maybe, just maybe, if we'd scored a few more points then these isolated incidents wouldn't have cost us.