Saturday, 15 March 2025

Saints Ahoy - Game 22 and the 2024 season to date

Subtle change in name to reflect that the 2025 Rugby League Super League season has started. 

Game 22 was against Hull FC. This time Hull actually managed to score against Saints: Bar chart showing which teams have scored against Saints. Hull FC only feature once because they were nilled in the first game versus Saints. Hull KR, on the other hand, have scored the second most points against Saints in 2024 to this point. 

I wish Saints had kept a clean sheet, but (shrug). 

The good news for Saints is that Morgan Knowles was back from injury in this game, and Jake Burns, got his first ever try for the senior team, then the second in the same game. (A bit of background - https://www.saintsrlfc.com/teams/first-team/jake-burns/ He might be one of the last of the proper, has a non-Saints career to fall back on, players). The most heart-warming part, exactly how happy the Saints Twitter guy was. 

The game 22 "who is present together when Saints score" matrix diagram, I'm including it because I think it looks pretty, and it's nicely shows how forwards interchange (paler colours), while the backs stay on (darker colours). Matrix graph of which Saints players are together when Saints score in game 22. The dark purple patch, of Whitley, Robertson, Ritson, Mbye, Makinson, Dodd, Blake and Davies, who are mostly backs, were together a lot. The forwards, Paasi, Lees, Clark, Bell, Sironen, Knowles, Batchelor, Burns and Stephens, are paler because they are substituted on and off. 

For the season to date, Saints have had 172 point-scoring moments and 98 conceded. 

22 players have scored for Saints. Bar chart. Makinson is far in the lead, with almost 60 point-scoring moments, followed by Percival and Lomax, who both score tries and are the stand-in kickers if Makinson is off the pitch. 

The "Saints often score in minutes 50-53" has been reinforced. Bar chart of when Saints score. The minute with the most point-scoring moments is minute 50 with 6. However, there are also 4 point scoring moments in minute 51, 5 in minute 52 and 3 in minute 53. There is no other cluster with so many point scoring moments. 
Who is present when Saints score? Bar chart showing who is present when Saints score. Welsby is still near the top despite being away with an injury, but Blake has been present for most. After Blake and Welsby, there is a large drop off to Dodd and Hurrell who have been present for the next most. 

The present-together-when-Saints-score matrix has an interesting pattern. Whitley's line makes that pattern. This is because he was present for a lot of point-scoring moments early in the season, then was out for a while, and has now been present for several more tries now he's back. So he's been separated from the main "often present when Saints score" group, but has still been present a lot with them. Matrix of players often together when Saints score, up to game 22. The bottom right corner contains the players most often together when Saints score (Welsby, Blake, Dodd, Hurrell, Percival, Sironen, Bell, Clark, Lomax, Mbye, Makinson, Matautia, Delaney, Lees). Then there is a paler chunk, the darker Whitley line, explained above, and then the palest, least often group who are top-most and lefter-most. 

The equivalent network graph looks like this. Network graph - there is a central blob. Wingfield and Walmsley stick out at the top. Sticking out middle left is Royle. Sticking out at the bottom is Paasi and bottom right is Burns. There are links between Royle and Paasi. Also sticking out from the main blob at the bottom, but not as much, are Davies, Ritson, Robertson and Stephens. There are lots of links from them to Royle, Paasi and Burns, and many between them. When do Saints concede? Bar chart. There are 4 minutes with 5 point-conceding moments, minutes 11, 32, 76 and 80. 

The pattern of Saints conceding minute 9-12 has gone. It is starting to look like Saints concede a lot in the last 10 minutes, which I'm not sure is reflective of tiredness (justifiable) or more time needed on conditioning (not acceptable). 

Who is present when Saints concede? Bar chart showing who is present when Saints concede. Blake is present for the most, then there is a sharp drop to Welsby and Lomax, who are present for the next most, then Clark, present for 76 of the point-conceding moments. 

The matrix diagram of players together when Saints concede also looks interesting. It basically looks like a tartan with a repeating pattern, but each repeat is slightly paler. Matrix diagram of players together often when Saints concede. The first, darkest, repeat, is bottom right, and contains, Clark, Dodd, Bell, Sironen, Hurrell, Delaney, Percival, Makinson, Lees and Mbye. The next cluster up and out are Blake, Lomax, Welsby, Whitley, Matautia, Bennison, Batchelor, Knowles. The palest repeat is both top and leftermost and contains Ritson, Davies, Robertson, Paasi, Stephens and Vaughan. There is another section, all pale yellow, above and to the left of them, it contains Walmsley, Burns, Wingfield and Royle. 

The concession network graph just looks odd. Network graph - while these is a central blob, this is more diffuse than the scoring network graph. Wingfield sticks out to the top and right, and links only to the central blob. Stephens, Robertson, Paasi and Vaughan stick out bottom right, and have links between each other and the central blob. Royle sticks out bottom left, and only has links to the central blob. Walmsley sticks out at the top and only has links to the central blob.
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