Manly’s push up the premiership ladder has been unexpected in 2017, even for a Manly fan like myself.
The last five weeks in particular have been particularly impressive as the Northern Beaches club has notched up wins against Gold Coast, Canberra, Newcastle, Cronulla and the Warriors.
While Daly Cherry-Evans, the Trbojevic brothers and Marty Taupau have all been praised for this return to form, and rightly so, this five match winning streak also coincides with the introduction of Matthew Wright to the team.
His importance doesn’t lie with the amount of run metres he collects, linebreaks made or tries scored but what he is able to do with his boot. Manly finally have a decent goalkicker!
Looking at statistics for the 2017 season, which can be hard to find for goal kicker percentage, Matty Wright is hitting them at 78 per cent slotting over a total of 18 from 23 attempts. While this is not in the elite class, it sits him slightly over the average of most NRL standard kickers at 75 per cent. Consistently nailing three of every four isn’t half bad.
Going on statistics from last month Adam Reynolds, Nathan Cleary and James Maloney were the competitions sharp shooters, all with percentages above 80. This of course only includes players who had taken more than twenty shots at goal.
More:
http://feeds.theroar.com.au/~r/theroar/rugby-league/~3/j0UTt99ReyA/
Topic: Adding the extras: The importance of having a gun goal kicker
