Disclaimer: Bit of a long post.
TL;DR: some compiled stats for preferred positions, substitutions from injury, and the management of our interchanges.
This is just a breakdown of how injuries shaped how the squad looked for the 2024 season. Hopfully highlighting that some of the chocies made in who goes where, was more of brakedown of who's avaliable. To make predicting the team for 2025 a little bit easier. And give people context to why some players were playing the way they were last season. Not the whole picture of course. But some context.
Context:
I think AW's
preferred team for 2024 is as follows:
- Fullback: Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
- Right Wing: Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
- Right Center: Rocco Berry
- Left Center: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
- Left Wing: Marcelo Montoya
- Five-Eighth: Luke Metcalf
- Halfback: Shaun Johnson
- Right Prop: Addin Fonua-Blake
- Hooker: Wayde Egan
- Left Prop: Mitchell Barnett
- Right 2nd Row: Jackson Ford
- Left 2nd Row: Kurt Capewell
- Lock: Tohu Harris
Interchange
- (14) Dylan Walker
- (15) Marata Niukore
- (16) Jazz Tevaga
- (17) Chanel Harris-Tavita
I think the only dispute here will be over the
bench positions and
Jackson Ford. So I'll go over my reasoning for those, as the rest (in my opinion) were set in stone. Simply put:
- (14) Walker as the main “super-sub” utility. Mainly prop/lock
- (15) Niukore as the second-row forward or prop rotation
- (16) Tevaga as the middle-prop bench cover
- (17) Harris-Tavita as the hooking/halves insurance
Walker is a given.
Niukore was training as a prop/middle, but as injuries mounted, he was our go-to second-row sub.
Tevaga there was never a time this year we got that “one-two combo” off the bench—i.e., the
“bald brothers.” Whenever Jazz was on the bench, Walker was either injured or playing lock. His position last year was just all over the place. So this was quite hard to pin down. It could of also gone to Afoa. But as soon as jazz was back up. Even Ale seemed to be more a better pick in AW's eyes.
Harris-Tavita is interesting. I don't think it's Lussick, and here's why: Lussick played 15 games (4 filling in for Egan, 3 on the bench but never subbed on—so effectively 8 real “on-field” games). All those “real” games occurred when CHT was unavailable (injury) or starting at #6. There were also 5 games with CHT out for injury/HIA and 4 “not selected” rounds.
The only times Lussick was picked over CHT were Round 1 and Round 26. I'm striking off Round 26 as a “mistake,” because that was one of Lussick’s 3 bench-only games. Which means in every other opportunity, CHT got that #17 spot over Lussick.
The Meat
Here’s an Excel sheet of
all the positional changes made throughout the season, based on the original “AW’s preferred team.” Hopefully, it highlights what combinations we were trying to train with vs. what we actually had to play with. I also added the result, opponent, and home/away context to see how this affected the team.
Quick Caveats:
- Home is only considered home if it’s in NZ. Otherwise, I marked it as away. I don’t think there’s a home advantage without a “home field.”
- If Egan was playing (even if benched initially), I counted him as the hooker.
- The interchange is all over the place. So:
- The 14th is used as impact prop/utility cover,
- The 15th is second-row/prop cover,
- The 16th is another prop cover,
- The 17th is hooker/half cover.
View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQoLHL2JgAXjmDU--qHM8Qu3a_3QZQFaJl32H8Wah1O8SHxJB3Jz7aynjiiIiTQq8_HAT0WQzfrBIjk/pubhtml
But that’s not the only thing.
Here is another Excel sheet of all the Warriors’ player interchanges, including those who didn’t actually get subbed on. This shows how changes in our rotation affect the interchange system and how effectively it was used overall—especially since most of the chopping and changing happened on our bench.
Example stat from this second set:
- Freddy Lussick (3 zero-min times)
- Paul Roache (2)
- Tom Ale (1)
- Zyon Maiu'u (1)
- Adam Pompey (1)
Above is a quick count of zero-play-time games—where we effectively burned a bench slot. Much of it seemed tied to hooker cover... There's more to dive into, but I'd rather just post all the info first before it becomes yet another unfinished mini-project.
View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTxq-_GJt4Yw5UlJwgtI5clhSFpARXWXNms9AJdRnGbUoTInZnen2mFxNu20ASbyrv9RTSNG64dVgYf/pubhtml
Anyway happy new years eve everyone!
