Using statistics devoid of context is completely useless.
You would be correct in saying that Farah (33.9 tackles per game) has more tackles than Ennis (24.9 tackles per game). However, Ennis has three players with high defensive loads at his club to compete with, in Stagg (47.5 tackles per game), Hannant (34.3 tk/g) and Ryan (30.3 tk/g). Farah's closest team mate is Ellis (26.7 tk/g). The Tigers are the worst team in regards to defence (by points allowed). The Bulldogs are in the top five (fifth
). At the Tigers, Farah must complete more tackles because his team mates either won't or can't.
Perhaps an even larger flaw in this method of statistical comparison, is the lack of consideration for which defender makes first contact in a tackle on a more consistent basis. If a defender makes first contact it would be reasonable to assume that he is more likely to have either a miss tackle, or ineffective tackle recorded against him as opposed to a defender who makes contact after the ball runners initial momentum has been broken by another defender. There are no statistics publicly available that show whether the defender is first, second, or third in (NRL teams do keep this stat though). That aside, there is a one-on-one tackle stat. Farah will make a one-on-one tackle every 28 tackles. Ennis will make one every 14.4 tackles. That means Ennis will tackle a bloke, on his own, roughly twice as much as Farah. Combine this with the fact that as mentioned above, Ennis plays with some very active tacklers, and Farah does not, it makes it somewhat off an oddity of stat and suggests that Farah does not often make first contact as compared to the amount of tackles he makes and that Ennis does. The amount of one-on-one tackles he makes, and the assumed amount of first contact, does go a ways to explaining Ennis' inflated miss tackle rate, one every 6.7 tackles. Inversely, it could also explain Farah relatively low miss tackle rate, one every 15.6.
Simply saying: "
Farah nearly double the tackles, one third of the misses", does not really paint the full picture. The above does not even really go into the detail that it could (i.e. considering the relative attacking ability of opposing teams they faced, or statistics relative to other hookers, etc) but was written to show that if numbers used out of context prove very little.
As far as providing more repeat sets, is this merely an observation or are there stats available to the public on this? And how would you measure it? Does the kicker get the stat, or the tackler? I mean if a long kick (i.e. a kick for field position, not a kick within the 20 that is looking for a repeat) goes down to the five, the fullback goes to return it, makes it to the eight and gets forced back in goal by the chasing team does this count for the kicker or the chasers or both?
EDIT: Should actually note that there are inconsistencies between the stats on the nrl.com website, and the company sportsdata (who provide stats to the NRL) who have nrlstats.com as it has not been updated to included the latest round yet (I beleive they wait until all stats are verified on replay, until then all match stats are subject to change). All calculations are based on nrlstats.com, except for the 1-on-1 tackles, nrlstats.com do no offer the cummlative of this stat over the course of a season in their detailed stats. Numbers for that will be slightly off, but should not change the ultimate outcome of my point about first contact. Will update it when stats are available.