Saints Ahoy! - Game 15 and the season to date

In game 15, Saints beat Catalan Dragons, and there was the expected yellow card. https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/05/31/saints-down-the-dragons-at-the-totally-wicked-stadium/ Because there always is at least one card. 

I'm not sure why Saints vs Dragons always ends up violent (I have theories, they're all rude and start with calling them Wigan Sud) but they always do. This time it was one of theirs that got the yellow card, although Saints were already leading by then. 

The other big news was that this was the return of Agnatius Paasi to the team. And we like having him, for he is large and good. Saints were very careful with him, only giving him 20 minutes. 

After game 15, there is still no pattern to when Saints score:  

Percival still leads the point-scorers, as he should as the kicker (also 4/4 tries converted in game 15)  

Welsby is still ever-present when Saints score.  

The thing that intrigues me about this chart is that you have a clear group at the top who are very frequently present (Welsby, Blake, Hurrell, Lomax), then a drop to the group that are often together who have very similar numbers (between 70 and 90), then another few where it tails off before 'boof' big drop to the injured non-presents. 

This is borne out by the matrix graph of players who play together when Saints score. For the darker section (play together more often when Saints score), we've not got a solid 17 players:  

The 17 are, in figure not necessarily positional order, Welsby, Blake, Hurrell, Lomax, Dodd, Percival, Makinson, Batchelor, Bennison, Mbye, Clark, Sironen, Bell, Whitley, Mata'utia, Lees and Delaney. I will return to their being 17 players in the "frequently together" section when we get to the "matrix diagram for when Saints concede". 

The network graph is unclear.  

It looks like Knowles is creeping out of the main section as his injury break gets longer. 

Although there have been 15 games, there are only 13 teams on the "Who has scored against Saints?" bar chart because 2 teams were nil-ed. 

If we look at when Saints concede, the pattern previously identified (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2024/11/16/saints-ahoy-game-14-and-the-season-to-date/), of Saints conceding in minute 9-11 gets even stronger.  

Of the 57 times Saints have conceded, 9 have come in minute 9-11, almost 16 percent, in those 3 minutes. It also looks like there might be a weakness in the last 10 minutes too, but that's probably exhaustion and everyone conceding more then. 

L has asked me to come up with a "why then?" theory. Best I have is it tiredness when it's the opponent's third set and that might mean more likely to concede 6-agains which might lead to scores. But I have no data to back this up. (NRL.com style data, my kingdom for NRL.com style data) 

Welsby is also ever present when Saints concede.  

Next we have the matrix graph of players who play together more often when Saints concede. This time, the darker group of players who play together more often is only 16 players. I think this is because often, when Saints concede, it is because someone has been carded and is either in the sin bin or off entirely. 

The 16 are (again in figure not position order), Welsby, Lomax, Hurrell, Dodd, Mata'utia, Blake, Makinson, Delaney, Clark, Bell, Bennison, Sironen, Whitley, Percival, Batchelor, Knowles. I think Lees not being in here is because of that. 

The network graph is also less clustered for the point-concessions, possibly because there are fewer of them.