Friday, 26 December 2025

Saints Ahoy - Game 30, 2024 season round up and an overall summary of the whole project

Game 30 itself: 
Saints, despite having a pretty pants season overall, still reached the 2024 playoffs. 

And somehow only lost by one point, in golden point extra time, to a Warrington team who'd had a pretty solid season overall. A Warrington team we'd lost to twice, 10-24 and 16-2 (or a combined score of 12-40) 


Going through the data visualisation for this game, the 30th and last game of the season. 

There were 7 point scoring moments for Saints. 

Who scored for Saints in Game 30? Bar chart of who scored for Saints in game 30. There are three players on this bar chart, Percival with 4, Makinson with 2 and Bennison with 1. 
There is something very apt about there being a Tommy Makinson special in his last game for Saints. 

How many point-scoring moments the players were present for? Bar chart of the number of point-scoring moments players were present for. Whitley, Welsby, Percival, Matautia, Makinson, Lomax, Dodd, Bennison and Batchelor were present for all 7. Knowles was present for 6 out of 7 point-scoring moments, Clark for 5, Walmsley and Lees for 4, Paasi and Delaney for 3, Burns for 2 and Bell for 1. 
Which Saints players are together when Saints score? Matrix of which players are together when Saints score. The dark purple, most commonly together section is at the bottom right. There is a red line running through it, which represents Knowles who was not on for one of them. The next darkest line (dark orange) is for Walmsley, but he is all the way up. Between purple and Walmsley lies a paler orange cohort. The palest in this section is Burns, because he swapped in for Clark late on. Lees, on the other side of Walmsley, is the same shade of orange because he got swapped on and off. Delaney is one shade paler, then Bell is the palest. Only 10 players are on the network graph. The ten players on this graph are Batchelor, Makinson, Knowles, Matautia, Lomax, Percival, Welsby, Whitley, Bennison and Dodd. 

The 10 players are the ones in the dark purple patch in the matrix graph. 

Looking at which players were present when Saints conceded: 

There were 8 point-conceding moments. Bar chart showing how many point-conceding moments players were present for. Whitley, Welsby, Percival, Matautia, Makinson, Lomax, Dodd, Bennison and Batchelor were present for 8 point-conceding moments. Clark was present for 7, Knowles for 6, Lees for 5, Walmsley and Delaney for 4, Paasi for 3, Bell for 2 and Burns for 1. 

The who is present when Saints concede matrix does the same thing that the scoring matrix does, where it doesn't put all the players in the same colour together. Matrix of which players are together when Saints concede. The dark red, most commonly together section is at the bottom right. It contains Whitley, Welsby, Percival, Matautia, Makinson, Lomax, Dodd, Batchelor and Bennison, are in that group. Clark who might be marginally less dark red is separated from that group. Between dark red and Clark is Knowles in orange, and Lees in a paler orange. Following Clark in a paler orange than Lees are Delaney and Walmsley, then Paasi in the palest of the oranges. In yellow are Bell, and in paler yellow, Burns. There are only 9 players on the concession network graph. The nine players on the network graph make a sort of multi-faceted diamond shape. They are Lomax and Welsby on the top row, then Whitley, Makinson and Dodd on the next row down. Then Bennison and a short space further down Percival and Batchelor then Matautia on his own at the bottom. Rounding up the whole season 

There were 210 point-scoring moments scored and 148 point-scoring moments conceded 

When do Saints score: Bar chart of when Saints score. The highest point is in the middle, with seven point-scoring moments in minute 51. The rest of the graph is roughly normally distributed. There is possibly another slight rise in minutes 75-80, presumably as weaker oppositions tire.></a></lj-cut>No obvious pattern at the end of the season.Who scores for Saints:<lj-cut text="Under the cut"><a href="https://postimages.org/" target="_blank"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/Y0b4FpbY/Who_scored_for_Saints_up_to_game_30.png" alt="Bar chart of who scores for Saints. Percival is far in the lead with about 65 point-scoring moments. The next player is Makinson, who scores tries and can kick, he has about 23 point-scoring moments. Bennison is next with 21. He can also kick and has kicked when Percival is not available. Unsurprisingly, Percival is way in the lead, because as well as scoring tries, he's also Saints's kicker. That's also, I think, why Bennison is that high, because he also kicks when Percival can't. 

Who is present when Saints score? Bar chart of who is present when Saints score. Blake and Welsby share the lead, followed by Dodd. Everyone else is present for less than 150 point-scoring moments. 

It is clear that there's the very often present, then a chunk of often present, followed by the injured and their replacements. 

An interesting visualisation I haven't shared before, because I wasn't quite sure what it added, but I'm sharing now because as an end of season piece is when players are present at point-scoring moments. Bar chart of when the top 16 players are present for Saints point-scoring moments. Blake, Dodd, Clark, Mbye, Sironen and Matautia have similar shaped curves, while the curves for Welsby, Percival, Bell, Makinson, Hurrell and Lees are similar to each other. 

I'm not quite sure how to interpret it, but it's interesting that the graph shapes can almost be grouped into clusters. The clusters aren't based on position, or anything obvious like that. 

Looking at the which players are together when Saints score matrix at the end of the year. 

Following game 30, the shape has changed significantly. Where previously it had gone (radiating up from the bottom right) darkest, most often together area, then paler and paler as you move up or to the left, now there's a medium dark border at the upper left as well. This cluster has to be players who play together often when Saints score, but not as often with the darkest bottom right cluster. Matrix graph described above. The darkest most often together when Saints score section in the bottom right has Blake, Welsby, Dodd, Whitley, Percival, Lomax, Mbye, Clark, Hurrell, Makinson, Bell, Delaney, Lees, Sironen and Matautia. Then there is a paler section, Davies, Wingfield, Walmsley, Stephens, Ritson, Robertson, Burns and Paasi, followed by the palest section, Royle, Whitby and Vaughan. The interesting and second darkest section now on the top and left border includes Knowles, Bennison and Batchelor. 

I know that Knowles, Bennison and Batchelor all had either injuries, suspensions or are first reserve, which means it makes some sort of sense, but it's interesting that the pattern has only come out right at the end of the season. 

The equivalent network graph looks like this: Network graph. There is a central blob. On the outside of the central blob are (reverse clockwise) Bennison, Paasi, Stephens, Robertson, Ritson and Davies. Further out Wingfield, Walmsley, Burns, Vaughan and Royle. Looking at points conceded, this is when Saints concede. Bar chart of when Saints concede. The minute with the most point-conceding moments is minute 76, which had 7 point-conceding moments. Four minutes had 5 point-conceding moments (minutes 11, 32, 39 and 80). Minute 84 is the latest and was the heart-breaking golden point moment from the last game. There is no obvious pattern. 
There is no obvious pattern. 

Who is present when Saints concede? Bar chart showing who is present when Saints concede. Blake is present for the most point-conceding moments, around 120 of them. He is followed by Lomax and then there is a sharp drop to Welsby. From there, there is a slow reduction to Percival. There is another drop to Sironen, and medium sized drops down to Vaughan. There is a large drop to Walmsley and Stephens and the last 4. 
Here is the shape of when the players were present when Saints conceded. Bar chart of when the top 16 players are present for Saints point-conceding moments. All 16 bar charts have different shapes. 
There is less of a pattern than in the equivalent figure for when players were present when Saints scored. 

This is what the matrix for who is present when Saints concede. Matrix chart of which Saints players play together most often when Saints concede. It looks like the top left quarter of a fuzzy mosaic of the sun. The darkest, most often together group are in the bottom right. They are Lomax, Blake, Welsby, Whitley, Matautia, Dodd, Clark, Makinson, Mbye, Sironen, Lees, Bell, Percival and Delaney. The quarter of the axis up from them is paler, these players are together less often when Saints concede. They are Stephens, Vaughan, Davies, Paasi, Robertson, Ritson, Batchelor, Bennison, Knowles and Hurrell. Finally at the top and leftermost are the palest and least often together section. They are Walmsley, Wingfield, Royle, Whitby and Burns. They are players who were injured or played few minutes. 

The edges between the different areas of "played together" have got a lot fuzzier in this one over time. It still looks very much like the top left quarter of a mosaic of the sun. Interestingly, the "dark top and left border" that the "point-scoring moments" equivalent developed is not present here. 

The equivalent network graph looks like this: Network graph of which players play together when Saints concede. There is the central blob. Davies, Vaughan and Stephens are just outside it. Further out on the left are Wingfield and Royle, and on the right are Walmsley, Burns and Whitby. Comparing players's position on the "present when Saints score" vs their position on the "present when Saints concede" graphs - in a purely ranking based analysis not the number they were present for, there's some interesting numbers. 

The players with the greatest difference between present when Saints score vs when they concede are: Hurrell and Percival were present for relatively fewer concession moments than scoring moments. Whitley and Delaney were present for relatively fewer scoring moments than concession moments. 

I am sure that's skewed slightly but interesting none the less. 

2024 Summary: 

I think, taking 2024 and 2025 into consideration, as a Saints fan I have to accept that this is one of the rough (ish) parts we take with the smooth. For whatever reason, Saints have not been playing like themselves (except in fits and starts like *that* try against Leeds in the playoffs in 2025 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/articles/cn95qgeyn3lo). 

Lack of results for Saints always worries me. Now with the IMG rankings nonsense (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMG_Grading_for_the_British_Rugby_Football_League), it worries me more, because Saints's supporter base is never going to be huge because of the size of the town. There's us, and Wigan, Leigh, Warrington and Widnes within a 40 minute driver and Oldham and Salford not much further out, so limited chance for expansion. So our "fandom" (yuck!) score will always have a ceiling, as will our ability to diversify our income streams, while the thing Saints the club do well (community work) counts for the least. We need to do well to maintain our ranking. 

As always, I am pleased to see Saints bring on young players, for instance Harry Robertson who got his debut in the 2024 away match against Wigan has gone on to be the Super League Young Player of the year in 2025. 

I am very sad about some of the players who left at the end of 2024, even if it made sense for people at their various stages of life - https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/st-helens-confirm-seven-player-exits-with-one-major-name-omitted-from-list-97627/ 

What did I get from the season-long data visualisation project? 

Not what I expected, which is a good reason to have done the project. 

I was expecting a clearer separation between the players who were played often and those who weren't, because if you asked me as an external viewer I know who I would have put in each of those groups.  The data tells me I was wrong on my placement. 

In terms of point-scoring, it highlighted the people I expected, and how high Bennison is really highlights the importance of conversion kicking. 

I was hoping to see a pattern in when players played e.g. these two are our props for minutes 0-20, 21-40, 41-60 and 61-80, but that didn't happen, even before the injury disasters. 

I did see how important the non-first team players are to covering for those injuries because you could see players moving in and out of the network graphs over the course of the season. 

Experiment definitely worth doing. 

If you have enjoyed reading these, the following charities are definitely worth contributing to: 

The Steve Prescott Foundation - https://www.steveprescottfoundation.co.uk/ 
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