The Modern Day Winger

Gone are the days of catching a ball and putting it down to score, a winger nowadays is far more hard working than ever. The best of them come in-field as much as they can to help their forwards, while still being able to go back in position and do all sorts of acrobats to score magnificent meat pies. However, that is just the attacking side of things, rugby league is and always will be about defence.

In this article, we are going to label the best winger from every club (on 2022 form) and find the stats that matter in the modern-day winger. These are the players we will be looking at;

• Broncos: Selwyn Cobbo

• Raiders: Nick Cotric

• Bulldogs: Josh Addo-Carr

• Sharks: Ronaldo Mulitalo

• Titans: Greg Marzhew

• Sea Eagles: Reuben Garrick

• Storm: Xavier Coates

• Knights: Dominic Young

• Cowboys: Murray Taulagi

• Eels: Bailey Simonsson

• Panthers: Taylan May

• Rabbitohs: Alex Johnston

• Dragons: Mikaele Ravalawa

• Roosters: Daniel Tupou

• Warriors: Dallin Watene-Zelezniak

• Tigers: David Nofoaluma

Because of the wide range of games played, and in different positions such as Reuben Garrick playing fullback, it’s best to look at their averages while playing on the wing

Tries

Before we dive into the deeper stats, let’s look at the obvious one. From these 16 players, the worst try scorer by far is Bailey Simonsson, with just 3 tries in 14 games, meaning the Eels wing only scores in 22% of games. Comparing this to every other winger combined, they score on average in 70% of matches, the best of them all being Taylan May with an incredible 14 tries in 13 games.

And is it really a revelation that the best try scorer is the player from the team coming first? From that, it's not a shock that tied the next best try scorer, Xavier Coates, with a 100% strike rate with 11 from 11. The other perfect try scorer is Alex Johnston, but the Rabbitohs winger is on track to break Ken Irvine’s record of all time tries scored, so I think he can be considered an exception. The top teams have wingers who can score tries, and plenty of them - that shouldn’t be shocking to anyone.

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Receipts and Run Metres

A receipt in the NRL is every single time the player touches the ball in attack, and as expected, is a statistic dominated by hookers and halves, but is an extremely underrated component of being a winger.

The player who averages the most receipts? Daniel Tupou. The Roosters winger has touched the ball a massive 269 times from just 13 games, averaging out to 20.6 a game. This directly correlates to him averaging the 8th most run metres in the NRL (167), coming second out of this list of wingers, with only Taylan May above him in run metres (171). May also averages the second most receipts, with 19.5. Whilst fans may complain about Tupou’s Origin selection, Brad Fittler sees something that they don’t, and it may just be this.

The player who averages the next most receipts from the wing is the very player he stole the NSW jersey from, Josh Addo-Carr. The fox averages just over 19 touches a game, which has allowed him to come 7th in average run metres (132). To do this in a team coming 13th with the 11th worst possession, I think that proves just how much of an elite winger Josh Addo-Carr is. The players ahead of him in run metres are 3 players from top 4 teams, 1 other top 8 team, as well as Daniel Tupou and an incredible feat from Greg Marzhew who averages 145 metres in the team running last.

Tackle Efficiency

Contrasting his amazing running metres statistic, Greg Marzhew has one really not so good thing about him. The Titans winger has by far the worst tackle efficiency in this list of players, with a poor 74% efficiency. The next worst is Josh Addo-Carr, with an efficiency of 75.9%. Other than Daniel Tupou's great form, this may prove another reason why the fox has been omitted from the Origin arena. Daniel Tupou has a tackle efficiency of 81.6%, the fifth best of any NSW eligible winger on this list, behind Nick Cotric (83.3%), Bailey Simonsson (85.3%), Taylan May (85.7%), and Alex Johnston (82.85).

It also needs to be understood that defence for a winger is also about how much they jam in defence, including the efficiency in hitting the attacker or not, as well as how good they are under the high ball. The only issue with this is that there is virtually no statistics to back these ideas up, and is more so up for interpretation. From this, I think it's very clear why Daniel Tupou is the NSW winger - alongside having top spots in receipts, run metres, and tackle efficiency, he could also be considered the best under the high ball.

All in all, I think it’s quite obvious that Taylan May truly is one for the future. Yes, he is in a star-studded Penrith outfit, but when Charlie Staines first broke onto the scene, the only statistic he truly shined in was tries scored. In contrast, May has a hand in every single one of these stats spoken about. He averages;

• The most tries

• The most run metres

• The second most receipts

• The best tackle efficiency

But, as always, NRL is a game for the fans, so as fans of the game, who do you think is the current best winger out of this list?

Best NRL Winger

• Selwyn Cobbo
• Nick Cotric
• Josh Addo-Carr
• Ronaldo Mulitalo

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