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) 

Full match report here: https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/09/28/spirited-saints-beaten-in-golden-point/ 

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?  

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?  

Which Saints players are together when Saints score? Only 10 players are on the network graph.  

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.  

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. There are only 9 players on the concession network graph. Rounding up the whole season 

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

When do Saints score: 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?  

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.  

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.  

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: Looking at points conceded, this is when Saints concede.  

There is no obvious pattern. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

Here is the shape of when the players were present when Saints conceded.  

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.  

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: 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/ 

Motor Neurone Disease Foundation - https://www.mndassociation.org/get-involved/donations/rob-burrow

Saints Ahoy - Game 29 and the 2024 Season to Date

Yes, I am writing this post to try and distract myself from their match against Hull KR in the 2025 play-offs. (No, I have no idea how we got past Leeds.) 

This game, the last of the 2024 regular season, was a narrow loss to Leigh (https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/09/20/saints-suffer-narrow-defeat-to-leigh/), 18-12. Now we had a try chalked off, but Leigh were the better team for the whole game and all of Saints actual points were scored in the 10 minutes that Leigh were down to 12 men because of yellow card to Leutele for attempted Welsby murder. 

Because it was all in that 10 minutes, the "who played together when Saints scored" matrix chart is ... uninformative.  

So, instead, let's look at the season up to the end of game 29. 

When do Saints score?  

Who scores for Saints?  

Who is present when Saints score?  

Saints reached the 200 point scoring moments in this game (vs 160 point-conceding moments), so it's a good time to see if there's any players present for more point-scoring moments than point-conceding moments (or vice versa). Percival is one of the players with the greatest differences, he is present for a lot fewer point-conceding moments, but that is because he got substituted at around minute 50. Hurrell and Dodd are also present for relatively fewer point-conceding moments. 

Delaney is the player present for relatively more point-conceding moments, as does Whitley. That I can't explain. There's two clear teams, the most often together (a full match day 17 - Welsby, Blake, Whitley, Bennison, Batchelor, Dodd, Percival, Bell, Hurrell, Mata'utia, Sironen, Lomax, Mbye, Clark, Makinson, Delaney and Lees) and the less often together (12 - Royle, Whitby, Vaughan, Wingfield, Walmsley, Robertson, Burns, Paasi, Knowles, Davies, Stephens and Ritson). 

Oddly, only 10 players are not in the central blob, when you look at the network graph. Looking the point-conceding moments 

This was the third time Saints and Leigh played this season. Leigh 3 are about mid-way up the chart.  

When do the point-conceding moments occur?  

That these aren't in a normal curve makes me happier that the point-scoring moments truly are normally distributed rather than it being some artefact. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

The who is present together when Saints concede matrix now looks like this:  

The equivalent network graph looks like this Again, the matrix and the network graph don't quite match.

Saints Ahoy - Game 28 and the 2024 Season to Date

Two points specifically about game 28. 

The first is about the diagrams. 

You will notice that this is game 28. In a 12 team league, the most games you should get is 22. Even counting Saints's two Challenge Cup games, that would be 24. Super League has 27 games in the regular season. 

How do you get from 22 to 27? 

To fill these "gaps" they have Magic Weekend, the Rivals round and a couple of seemingly random loop fixtures. Mysteriously, this means that we have to play our best/worst rivals more often - Saints got 2 extra games against Wigan in 2024 :( 

In 2024, one of Saints's loop fixtures was versus Castleford, which is why you'll suddenly see Castleford 3 in the figures. I'm putting this explanation in this post because it's the first time one of the teams will be referred to as [team name] 3. 

The second is about an odd tradition Saints have. For the last home game of the season, if a dearly beloved forward is retiring, and we've already won the match, we let them kick a conversion towards the end of the game. I suspected Mata'utia was going, but him getting given the kick to take was when I knew for sure. (Yes - this is often how we find these things out) 

It makes me sad, because I like him. He's an excellent forward, gives his all, and seems to care. I ask for very little and demand only two out of those three. 

(For what he did next - https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/former-st-helens-man-sione-matautia-agrees-deal-to-play-alongside-his-brother-in-2025-98888/ Awesome as Sione Mata'utia is, his big brother is amongst the best of people - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/61464889) 

Now onto game 28: 

The who was on the pitch when Saints scored figure looks really good. You can see the replacements coming on and off.  

Who played together when Saints scored in game 28. Knowles's crossing point with several players is much paler than expected given where he is in the diagram. 

Network graph from the same game:  

On to the diagrams for the 2024 season. 

First of all, when do Saints score?  

Who scores for Saints?  

Of the top 3, Percival and Bennison are kickers so should be up there. While Makinson can kick, he's there mostly because of his tries. Oh, we are going to miss him! 

Who is present when Saints score?  

What does the matrix diagram of players who play together when Saint score look like after game 28?  

The thing that interests me about the matrix as it stands now is that for each section, the player most often involved with the others (and therefore the darkest line) is at the top left of their section, but the darkest section over all goes at the bottom right and the sections get lighter as you move up and left. 

That pretty much matches the network diagram, but not exactly:  

The player in the matrix but not in the network graph is Whitby. 

If we swap over to look at when Saints concede - here are the teams that have scored against Saints.  

There have been 28 games but only 25 teams feature on this chart because Saints kept 3 teams to 0 point-scoring moments. 

When do Saints concede?  

I can't really see a pattern to the times. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

Who plays together when Saints concede?  

The equivalent network graph looks like this:

Saints Ahoy - Game 27 and the 2024 Season to Date

Game 27 was a dismal loss to Warrington. 

Dismal because Warrington, and even more dismal because the only points that Saints scored was from a penalty. It seemed to be that sort of game (https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/09/07/saints-beaten-by-warrington-at-the-halliwell-jones-stadium/), with lots of their points also coming from penalties and 3 yellow cards - 2 for them, 1 for us. 

Yup, the team with fewer cards lost.

The "who is present together when Saints concede in game 27" matrix indicates quite clearly who the "missing" player was, enveloping Matty Lees in one group even though his line is paler than the players around him. 

Yes, I wonder who got the yellow card! Looking at the season to date: 

When do Saints score?  

Bennison is now equal to Welsby in the "who scores for Saints?" bar chart. Game 27 was when Welsby made his return from injury. Who is present when Saints score, up to game 27?  

To my mind, the interesting thing here is you've got the three present the most (Blake, Welsby and Dodd), followed by one slowly declining cluster (Mbye, Hurrell, Sironen, Percival, Bell, Lomax, Clark, Makinson, Lees, Whitley, Mata'utia and Delaney) then a drop to the bottom cluster who also slowly reduce in number present as you go down the list (Batchelor, Bennison, Knowles, Davies, Ritson, Stephens, Robertson, Walmsley, Wingfield, Paasi, Burns, Royle, Vaughan and Whitby). 

In the matrix of who plays together most often when Saints score, now updated to game 27, the top left border of Whitley, Bennison and Batchelor, first seen in game 26 is still there.  

The network graph looks like this: When do Saints concede?  

The "who is present when Saints concede" chart has a very different shape to the "who is present when Saints score" bar chart. While that has three distinct sections, this chart has Blake and Lomax in the lead (because they have played a lot of minutes), then a slowly degrading curve covering most of the other players, then a small section of the infrequently present players at the bottom.  

The concede matrix looks very similar to last time, except fuzzier once more. It's interesting that as there's more data, the boundaries between the groups get weaker, then they suddenly pop back into strong colours, then weaken again (and so on). Another interesting this is that, although the shape is similar, some of the players have moved section e.g. Ritson has moved from the middle group to the darkest group, in just one game. The network graph is the same shape but has shifted about 15 degrees clockwise. Last time I suggested that players were either being sucked into the centre or moving out. It was being sucked in because they're all much closer now. Despite the piles of data, there are still changes, and the players brought in as other players were injured are now clearly part of the main group due to number of matches played. It's been interesting to watch that exchange of players coming in and out of the matchday squad. 

There may be a slight delay as I work on the Women's Euro 2025 network graphs. I am already seeing some interesting patterns.