Thanks mate, appreciate all of that. Yes, the commentators work themselves into a frenzy about certain stats and it really doesn't mean a lot.
I guess coaches need to keep them but I would say that they put a certain emphasis on some more than others and definitely different to the commentary team.
Do you know what stats are most important to coaches?
I know what isn't. Completions in the way the NRL reports them (i.e. a set restart counts as a completed set).
Melbourne kick to a corner, hold the fullback down for an age on tackle 1 and give up a set restart. Next play is tackle 1. You kick on the fifth.
NRL record this as 2 completed sets despite it being one possession and only 6 tackles.. This skews the completion% stats.
Coaches are smart enough to use their own measurement for completions that don't include this.
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Someone mentioned the Bellamy interview about watching guys off the ball etc. All good coaches value that stuff, but very few punters **** a **** about it. All teams would have stats on off the ball work that wouldn't be publicly available. Also - like bort said, the coach may not care too much about raw numbers (e.g. metres) but he would want to see the contextual stuff around it (was he in the right place at the right time, what part of the field was he taking his runs, etc.).