According to Fox Sports Lab:
Cody Walker
22 games
37 try assists
12 tries
54 linebreak assists
Pretty astounding stats for someone likely to still finish 3rd behind Tom and Nathan. Symptomatic of our season - incredible, record breaking, still not as good as a couple of others.
Imagine, if you will, if they banned short pitched bowling in Test cricket. You'd never be able to get the best batsmen out, and records that have stood for many decades would be broken. This is precisely what is happening in the NRL. The balance of the game has been skewed in favour of attack almost overnight. That is why the number of tries scored has risen by 22% since 2019. Conditions have been made more ideal for strong attacking players, with defences more fatigued.
This is accentuated in the lesser performed teams, and you are seeing the powerful attacking players running roughshod over those teams especially at the back end of games. If it's discrediting these attacking players to point out this simple fact, then I'm guilty. Thisngs are never as bad or as good as they might appear, and I'm sure the Storm at their best would have led Manly by 30 at the 70 minute mark the other day.
The paradox here is that this does not mean a strong attack will always beat a strong defence, as I think we will see in the coming weeks. Especially when the strong defence is coupled with a strong attack of its own. It's just that it is now harder to maintain a strong defence for 80 minutes of football, and even 70 minutes of strong defence will see you concede just on 50.
But back to the heading, award Tom the Dally M now. He's the best attacking player in the game, and that's what gets noticed. Defensive excellence certainly doesn't.
