Glasby can become standout somebody
Man labelled nobody could put paid to statistics with standout game
LIES, damned lies and statistics. Numbers are powerful and you can pretty much make them say just about whatever you want them to say.
Statistics, or rather the way they have been used, have come under fire this week for the so-called “vitriol” from south of the border against left-field Maroons selection Tim Glasby.
The man himself admits he’s “a bit of a nobody” and most league fans wouldn’t have known what he looked like until they Googled him.
That’s no slight on the guy. It doesn’t mean he won’t do the job. Plenty of players would like to enjoy the level of anonymity of Glasby.
Anyone on Twitter would have seen the tweet doing the rounds about how in some circles a player with a dozen games under his belt nabbed for poor behaviour is a “NRL star” (eg. Matt Lodge) and yet a cleanskin with 76 games (Glasby) is a nobody.
Let’s be real. Only 400 players at any one time are fulltime NRL players. It’s a great achievement to spend a season in that environment.
But on the other hand, it is a world dominated by statistics. It’s what puts zeros on contracts at the end of the day.
They are what all good What do you think of this? twitter.com/The CairnsPost and tell us what you think coaches refer to, whether it be GPS data or the cold, hard numbers of tackles, metres gained, errors or the new fad, which this year is post-contact metres.
Arguably Australia’s greatest coach in any sport, Ric Charlesworth, is a massive fan of statistics, so much so he finds ways to develop his own unique ones.
But they have to mean something when the players walk on the field.
The fact Tim Glasby ranks 133rd for metres gained and 61st for total tackles might mean a lot if he was an 80minute forward, but in reality he plays 46 minutes a game in the NRL.
But you can bet the 307 tackles he’s made and the 1105m he has run this season have meant something.
It doesn’t really matter what numbers he puts up next Wednesday, because every statistic he racks up will relate back to the Kevvie Walters game plan.
If it means something to Cameron Smith, or Cooper Cronk, or Billy Slater in clubland, it will play a big part in leading Queensland to victory.