Attacking stats

[Woody90]

I was having a look at our stats this year and how they stack up against the other sides. They definitely paint a picture.

Our current attacking stats for 2025:

Handling errors: 87 (highest in the comp by far).
Tries: last
Possession: last
Set completions: last

On the other hand:

Offloads: 2nd
Tackle breaks: 3rd

Most other stats somewhere in the middle.

Compare this to last season where we threw very few offloads (4th least) and were 4th for set completions.

Just to step back from piling it onto the side more for just a moment, but it genuinely looks like we’re trying to be a bit more adventurous in attack this year, but that’s also contributing to the additional errors. Then we’re exhausted from defending errors and can’t put much on the few times we do get the ball.

Hard to know where to go from there. We hated AOB ball but at least it kept us somewhat competitive. If I was looking at these stats for another team common sense would tell me that the passes will start to stick and with less errors will come better attack, but it’s also very hard to be optimistic of that happening as a Knights fan.

As an aside: interesting defensive stat that we’re 2nd for ineffective tackles. While I think our defensive structures have definitely improved, there are still issues there (fatigue would no doubt be contributing to that though).

 

[perverse]

I think you're over-reading the stats to be honest. It's clear that we're last in attack by some margin - probably the most inept NRL team i can remember seeing with the ball in quite some time. I don't think you can say we're trying to play more expansive and it's causing the errors, though. I don't see a massive amount of evidence for that, even in the first 2 games when we could hold the ball.

I think the errors are causing us to panic, play catch-up footy, and do stupid shit - which leads to more errors. We also banked a bit too heavily on youth in our top 30 this year and as a result have a very light forward pack when injuries hit - which they inevitably did straight away because we're the Newcastle Knights.

 

[Woody90]

I don't see a massive amount of evidence for that, even in the first 2 games when we could hold the ball.

I think the errors are causing us to panic, play catch-up footy, and do stupid shit - which leads to more errors. We also banked a bit too heavily on youth in our top 30 this year and as a result have a very light forward pack when injuries hit - which they inevitably did straight away because we're the Newcastle Knights.

We held the ball in the first 2 games? I don’t recall that at all to honest other than the first half of the Dolphins game. To me we do look to be trying to change it, at least we did early on, (Joey noticed the same thing early doors) but we’re also making so many errors it’s hard to really get much of a read on what we’re trying to do.

I definitely agree with your second paragraph. The over reliance on youth in the top 30 is a buy product of us f**king up the cap in previous years and now needing to clear it out. Screams the post Bennett spoon years.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

It’s hard to see any real change in our style just yet because the handling errors have been so poor and we rarely have the ball for any extended period of time. A lot of them are just basic dropped ball especially when coming out of our own 20m zone which has nothing to do with playing expansive footy or offloads etc. There are also errors happening in the PTB which also doesn’t have anything to do with expansive footy and mostly to do with fatigue and lack of experience.