Dave Craven: Penning in some colourful analysis to reveal top performers

I am a firm believer that if you try hard and mess around with the numbers enough, anything can be staged, manipulated or massaged into whatever picture you want to portray.

Some people swear by them. For instance, my colleague, football correspondent Richard Sutcliffe, has a stat book which has celebrated status not only here in the office but probably also in a galaxy far, far away.

At a flick of a page, he could tell you the last time David Mirfin scored a goal for Huddersfield Town or how many substitute appearances Gylfi Einarsson made for Leeds in 2006-07.

The gospel according to Sooty would also furnish you with how many times Lee Crooks has been yellow-carded in his spells at various Yorkshire clubs.

I am referring to the ex-Bradford City and Barnsley midfielder, of course, not the famous Great Britain prop, although the latter did once coach the author’s beloved Keighley Cougars so I would not be surprised if there was an additional chapter squirrelled away in his stats tome just for fun.

Admittedly, his analysis can come in very useful and, in each of the last three off-seasons, I have threatened to start my very own version for the RL year ahead.

For whatever reason, it has never materialised, I think primarily because Sooty uses three different coloured biros when he sets about filling his book after a weekend’s action; I struggle to even find the alarm clock Monday morning let alone a single pen that works.

Regardless, I could not help but be astounded by a stat doing the rounds which emerged from last Friday’s Leeds v Wigan game.

According to Opta, who are Super League’s chief statisticians, the competition’s in-form second-row, Liam Farrell, made 44 tackles without a single miss.

That is impressive enough but the real nugget which might have left even John Motson astounded was that he had gone through all seven opening matches of the season without falling off a single tackle.

It equated to 226 tackles and nearly 10 hours of action with Opta claiming the last time the 22-year-old was left grasping thin air was last September in Wigan’s play-off defeat against Leeds.

Now that is a stat worth noting. Obviously, that old curmudgeon Shaun Wane, the ever-demanding Wigan coach, questioned the legitimacy of the analysis, insisting the forward who is pressing hard for an England World Cup place had, in fact, missed a few along the way.

Wane is not the sort of character who gives anything away for nothing; if Farrell had been found wanting, the coach’s analysis would have highlighted it.

But it got me thinking about other feats that have occurred.

A quick scour of the Opta link shows Daryl Millard, the rangy ex-Wakefield centre, is the first to surpass 1,000m this term while the player he forces into second – Hull FC’s Tom Briscoe (947m) – has been similarly effective with tackles bust, recording a high of 37, eight more than nearest challenger Jarrod Sammut.

The Bradford Bulls maverick leads the way in terms of clean breaks, making a dozen to underscore why he is one of the league’s most exciting players though it is interesting to note Sammut also fares high in errors.

His tally of 16 is only ‘bettered’ by Kieran Dixon, whose 24 mistakes suggest why, for all his attacking quality, the young London Broncos winger was overlooked by Steve McNamara in his latest England ETS.

Millard, too, is high up that errors list, in third, while there are no surprises when it comes to who has made most offloads with Ali Lauitiiti and Willie Manu both boasting 21 while, as expected, centres and wings dominate the top 10 average metres gain apart from in one instance.

There is a prop in there and, pleasingly, it is ex-Batley forward Alex Walmsley, who has averaged 9.4m every time he has taken it up for St Helens, proving he is making a mark among the elite.

You know what, I might just buy myself some new biros after all...