The Roar
The Roar

The Roar

Mike Meehall Wood

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Joined February 2022

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Mike Meehall Wood is a rugby league writer, Celtic supporter and cricket tragic. He has written extensively about rugby league for publications in the UK and Australia, and about sports more widely for Forbes, VICE, LADbible and more.

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The one who finished in the top ten three times in a row and won the FA Cup?

Sure, he got sacked in the end (they all do, right) but Rodgers was defo a very good PL manager…

What the EPL?!: Ange's big day, Claret blues and trouble at the bottom on opening weekend

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Football
 
Today

While I do approach Manly games with the same impartial mindset as any team…you’d only have to read the Power Rankings or Tips column to know I’m not exactly neutral on them 😂

If anything, I hold Manly to a higher standard than everyone else…

ANALYSIS: Madcap Manly embrace the chaos to give Panthers a scare - before Crichton leads them to victory

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League
 
5d

They absolutely do have a stats person in Joel Carbone, but he’s not (as several people have told me at least) in the box on a matchday like everyone else has. He’s a recruitment guy. My guess of why Ricky is the only coach you regularly see on the sideline is this, he might as well be there if they’re not feeding data etc. The last old school guy in that regard.

The Canberra Chameleons: How the Raiders defeated logic - in a tight finish, of course

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League
 
6d

I certainly am old enough to remember Sticky – we had tapes of Winfield Cup sent over to the UK and I watched them over and over, distinctly remember that Canberra side of the mid-90s. Just too young for his Origin (first I remember was 95) and he didn’t get picked for Kangaroos post-95 World Cup.

He’s still terrifying to talk to, and not for the reason you might expect: all I think is “Christ, that’s Ricky Stuart!” Several fairly high profile people in journalism and coaching have told me the same 😂

The Canberra Chameleons: How the Raiders defeated logic - in a tight finish, of course

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League
 
6d

Seibs said Keppie is back iirc, everyone else done for the year. Morgan Boyle szn.

ANALYSIS: Brown sent off for horror high shot but backline fires Roosters to victory over Manly

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League
 
2w

IMHO (as a Manly supporter, not as a journo…) they were on a hiding to nothing without their big men in the middle. As mentioned in the piece, they’re without their best four middles from 5 minutes in – I’m not sure any of the props who played (maybe Bullemor?) are in a best 17.

So much of what we do that is good, especially in getting early ball and playing expansively, comes from that trigger movement from a PTB win in the middle. That’s when Koula and Haumole get involved. Was never on the cards tonight.

Seibs wouldn’t say it in presser (though he went close to) but it’s the truth.

On the PTB speed, Robbo flat out denied that Roosters were laying on the ruck, but everyone knows that they have a lot of form for that (2018/19) and it’s the best way to blunt Manly’s attack. He said that Manly were playing shift plays, which is true, but they only get good shifts if the PTB is fast…I thought the lady protested too much there.

ANALYSIS: Brown sent off for horror high shot but backline fires Roosters to victory over Manly

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League
 
2w

No I don’t like him for a hundred reasons, that’s just my best pithy line on him 😂

You can admit it now - if Stuart Broad was an Aussie, he'd be your favourite player

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Cricket
 
2w

Oh man, I can’t stand Vaughan…him and Root went to the same school, the difference being that Vaughan paid to go there 😂

You can admit it now - if Stuart Broad was an Aussie, he'd be your favourite player

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Cricket
 
2w

Gonna be some brave revalations when you realise how many Aussie cricketers are privately educated…it’s about in line with England these days.

You can admit it now - if Stuart Broad was an Aussie, he'd be your favourite player

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Cricket
 
2w

Pythago is in QLD, RLET and me in NSW, others are in NZ and parts unknown so seems unlikely…

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

The top 5 for errors is Tigers, Sharks, Roosters, Broncos, Rabbitohs…so absolutely no corrrelation. Roosters made the most in 2018 and 2019 and won the comp, pretty sure Dogs made the least in the year they finished last.

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

Yes and no.

It’s just a measure of total metres divided by total sets, which are the two biggest indicative factors in winning, so getting a guide to who is best doing that is pretty useful.

On the other hand, if the other team drops the ball 20m from their own line a lot, you’ll get low metres but (assuming vague attacking competency) probably a lot of points.

Kick metres often have an inverse proportion to ASM because decent teams are far enough up the field via ball progression that they don’t have any need to kick for territory. It’s a limitation of both.

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

It’s a FSL one, so I’m not 100% sure how they calculate it, but other providers do ‘pre-assists’ which is a similar thing.

I wrote a whole column once on xT and ‘Packing’, both soccer advanced stats that worked out who was the most effective passer/bypasser of opponents even when they were miles from the outcome of the move.

TC is a little limited too, because it needs a try to happen to exist. Lachy Ilias therefore gets nothing if his winger drops the ball. My suspicion is that a lot of flashy-but-effective players get dudded this way.

In my mind (and this might only be my mind) I think of it like that: in judo, which I did for many years, the key to throwing someone is the moment you break their balance. Thereafter, it’s all a much-practiced technique that pretty much any decent player could do. The hard part is breaking the balance in the first place.

Guys in the middle of the field often ‘break’ the line’s resistance, but they still have to go through all the process to actually score the points, including the inevitable scramble D. We’re yet to come up with a Packing-style stat that recognises this.

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

They do that, KRM is a stat. For a while people thought it was the most important one, but then realised it was just that Penrith scored highly at it and Penrith won games, classic fighting the last war stuff.

Run metres are useful for comparing apples to apples – predominantly middle ball-carriers for example – but useless for comparing, say, FBs. Is Latrell worse than Edwards because edwards carries more? They’re not trying to do the same thing…

Same for (say) To’o and Alex Johnston. It’s a question of style before anything. You might say BT is the best yardage winger, or that DE is the best yardage fullback, but that’s about it really.

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

Passes per run/set is an interesting stat for some positions (forwards especially) but on a team level it tends to just tell you who plays side to side.

Good teams tend to get wide in a minimum of passes rather than going through six sets of hands, whereas bad teams (again, the Dragons…) go slowly though everyone.

Metres per set would defo be in if I did a ‘stats we don’t rate but should’ piece!

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

Also totally distort completion rates as a set restart counts as a completed set. Well done, you did one tackle and the opponent decided to lay on…

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

Conversion rate is interesting – hard to work out, but I could certainly build something that worked out T20 efficiency. I think League Eye Test already has but I’d have to check.

I’d say the major point is a public misunderstanding of the utility of stats, evidenced by how frequently we use numbers that don’t mean much.

In other sports (of course, because it’s me, I look to soccer) they’ve long since gone past the numbers you always heard 20 years ago. If someone talks about Pass Completion Rate now it’s to point out that all the passes went sideways, not as a good thing, for example.

Hard to come up with ‘bad miss’ stat for a tackle without being too subjective but I would like something like ‘pressing tackle’ that rewarded Holmes and Martin for their work.

Complete nonsense: What are the NRL’s most overrated stats?

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League
 
3w

Two of Hull FC’s 2016 Challenge Cup winners there my man, I will not accept these insults.

Model professionals: Which NRL teams do the stats say are overachieving in 2023?

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League
 
4w

No but League Eye Test does something like that, well worth looking up. PythagoNRL also has ‘Wins Above Reserve Grade’ too.

I did once come up with one similar to NHL’s +- stat that I called the Kenny-Dowall Number that contrasted how many tries you scored with how many were directly your fault…

Model professionals: Which NRL teams do the stats say are overachieving in 2023?

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League
 
4w

I’ve thrown one in just for you!

Model professionals: Which NRL teams do the stats say are overachieving in 2023?

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League
 
4w

The point of the xLadder is to isolate performances from results to work out who is benefitting/not benefitting from luck, which very much includes refereeing. It’s more than factored in 😁

Model professionals: Which NRL teams do the stats say are overachieving in 2023?

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League
 
4w

It’s a good show, they had it on in England when I was there for RLWC. Defo worth SBS on Demand 😂

NRL Power Rankings: Put the pen through Manly and Chooks - and get ready for a Spoonbowl for the ages

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League
 
4w

You read correctly…I used to come into the comments and argue more frequently on this but the point of the P Ranks is to rank based on where they’ll end up, not where they are now…that’s what the actual ladder is for.,

NRL Power Rankings: Put the pen through Manly and Chooks - and get ready for a Spoonbowl for the ages

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League
 
4w

What Dave said. Anarchism is about self-organisation rather than a rejection of any organisation.

Anarcho-syndicalists would say that the problem with unions is that they have a leader at all, or least, one who can’t be immediately recalled (and wouldn’t want to do the job for a long time anyway.)

Why players are right to boycott media in RLPA dispute with NRL - and why they’re shooting themselves in the foot

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League
 
Jul

I’d been using ‘Melvyn & his Guests’ as a great fake band name and ten points to anyone who gets that reference.

Why players are right to boycott media in RLPA dispute with NRL - and why they’re shooting themselves in the foot

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League
 
Jul
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