Lots of talk about the 14-0 curse after Sunday’s result, so I had a look at NRL-era halftime margins (and specifically HT scores for 14-point margins), to see if the curse does exist Answer: 14-0 is no better than any other 14-point HT margin (other than 20-6), BUT a 14 point lead is worse than 12

Will Kennedy and Kaeo Weekes face off as opposing fullbacks for the second time this season. Interestingly, they have reverse initials of each other (KW vs WK). They are the fifth such pair of opposing fullbacks in the NRL-era, and the only pair to play more than one match against each other.

Fox League is putting me out of business - how am I meant to compete with something as useless as AI player rankings?

Lucky Charms and Bad Omens: Shown are the players for each team that saw the largest improvements and declines in win-rate for their team when they played vs didn’t play. Drop a comment if you’re curious about any particular players/clubs and I’ll share how their team went with/without them

This afternoon, Joe Roddy became the 8th player in the NRL/NRLW era to score a double on debut from the bench

Visualisation of all NRL player transfers that have occurred a) in 2025 and b) as a rolling 5 year total from 2021-25. The chord diagram shows the flow of players between clubs.

If Jesse Arthars can't score a try tonight, he'll become the 6th player in history to score 10+ tries in the first half of the season, and none in the second half of the season. Hudson Young has already become the 5th player to do so, after not scoring any tries since I bought him in NRL Fantasy

Shown on each photo are the last times that each current NRL team scored the outright most and least points in a round. Interestingly it's been a different team in each round since Rd20, while the Titans have somehow not scored the lowest in a round since last year

In the 19-18 Sharks/Knights NRLW match yesterday, hat-tricks to Lilly-Ann White and Georgia Ravics yesterday out of 37 total points set a new record [since 1983] for the lowest total points in a match to involve two hat-tricks. This was also the first NRLW match to involve two hat-tricks.

The Roosters' 30-point win last night was the second highest winning margin by a team that was kept to nil at half-time in NSWRL/NRL history. This was also the fourth highest team score after being kept to nil at half-time, only behind the 46, 44 and 42 point matches all also in this table

Penrith are debuting David Fale and Sione (John) Fonua in the centres tonight. Ignoring debuts from the interchange, Penrith are only the 8th team in the NRL-era to debut two players in the same position in the one match, and the first team to do so in a position other than wingers.

Zac Lipowicz debuts for Penrith this Thursday, making him the first NRL or NRLW player to have a name beginning and ending with the letter Z. All up, he is the 386th such player whose name begins and ends with the same letter.

Kobe HetheringTON brings up a ton of matches today. He becomes the 78th player with a TON in their name to play 100 NSWRL/NRL matches, and the 11th active player. He joins father Jason in this exclusive club, who was the 36th TON to play 100 matches.

Thanks to a fan request, I’ve had a shot at recreating an NRL version of the NBA premiers data vis seen in the linked video. I’m keen to try visualising other season-wide stats in this manner - keen for any ideas everyone might have

Phins UP - the Hammer has set a new NSWRL/NRL record for the most tries (4) by a player in a milestone match (100th, 200th, 300th etc). He becomes the 6th player to score a hat-trick in their milestone match, and the first since Michael Robertson in 2007 for Manly.

Q: How many times have two sets of three brothers faced off in a NSWRL/NRL match? A: Only twice previously before the Fainu’s/Trbojevic’s faced off last night and in Rd25 2024. Thanks @lachlanjeffery.bsky.social for the pickup of my error on IG - I got my Burgii confused

The Broncos have officially set the all-time record for the most rounds into a season before a player makes their club debut. No club has ever gone an entire season without a club debutant, with the previous record of 16 rounds held by the 1978 Bulldogs.

Origin Spirit you say? Led by his royal QLD-ness Kurt Capewell, the Maroons have claimed the 6th ever State of Origin win by a team that scored less tries than the opposition. Tough luck Blues. Don't eye gouge next time.

There are 6 men’s origin players and no women’s origin players that share a first or last name with a Perth suburb. Two are playing tonight (Munster + Martin) A special mention to NSW’s Dale Finucane, the only origin player whose first and last names are suburbs in WA

The Dolphins are currently on the same number of wins and losses (7) but with a difference of +146. In NSWRL/NRL history, they have the ninth-greatest PD [and 4th highest unique team] at any stage of the season for a team with wins less than or equal to losses.

The Dolphins are currently on the same number of wins and losses (7) but with a points difference of +146. In NSWRL/NRL history, they have the ninth-greatest PD at any stage of the season for a team with wins less than or equal to losses.

2025 NRL INITIAGAMI update - 40 debutants with 38 unique initials (dark blue) - Xavier Va'a (XV) the only new, never-before-seen set of initials - other rare initials include Owen Pattie (2nd OP) and Benaiah Ioelu (7th BI) - debutants Nick Tsougranis, Josh Patston and Kaiden Lahrs all included here

On an afternoon like no other, Josh Papalii achieved what no other starting front-rower has been able to do in 48yrs - score two or more tries, and kick at least one goal in the same match. Last player to do so was John Gray (Bears v Souths) in 1977. Mental.

Josh Papalii's journey to become the most capped Raider in history is like no other. He has played at 37 unique venues, more than any other NSWRL/NRL player before him, and level with only Marty Taupau

Latrell Mitchell has not played the Raiders since the 2019 GF, a streak of 5 and a half years and 83 matches played by him. In the NRL-era, this is the 9th longest gap (in matches played) between a player lining up against a particular opposition team.

The second of two Adam Reynolds stats today. Reynolds scored points of some form in every match from his debut until his 87th match in 2015. This streak of 86 consecutive matches with points scored is the second highest streak in NSWRL/NRL history.

Having been a goal kicker his whole career, Adam Reynolds, has not kicked a goal in only 11 matches out of his 299 so far. With goals in 96.32% of his matches, he holds third place for highest percentage of matches with a goal kicked.

Ethan's Strange and Sanders become the seventh halves pairing in history to have the same first name, and surname initial. If they get a full season together next year, they will shatter the record of 7 matches together played by Tom's McInerney and Monaghan for University

The Panthers areonly the 5th reigning premiers in history to sit in last place at any time after round 12. They're the first team to do so since Melbourne in 2010 - at least Penrith earned this stat the hard way rather than cheating their way to it

A new NRL-era record will be set this weekend for the largest difference in surname length between two direct opponents on the team list: Nawaqanitawase (14) vs Iro (3) at centre for a difference of 11 Double-barrelled names have been excluded from this stat, feels like they're cheating that way

Dane Gagai's 300th tonight makes him the third player in history to play match #300 with a debutant on his own team (Fletcher Hunt) and a debutant on the opposition (Toni Mataele).

This is just getting out of hand now. Quartic extrapolation from Fletcher Baker's debut in 2021 suggests that a full 30-man squad of Fletchers will be possible before 2033

Ryan Papenhuyzen single-handedly outscored the other 15 teams in Rd10. He is only the 5th player to outscore every team but his own in the one round (in rounds with 14+ teams playing). Also, this has only happened in rounds divisible by 5, for whatever reason

A joint record set today by the Raiders and Bulldogs, with all 52 points scored at the one end of the field. This is the equal most points scored all at one end of the field, alongside the 1987 Rd9 Eels v Raiders match.

Big news on the Fletcher front. Truly unprecedented times we're living in

Another one for the heatmap fans this week – plotting all NSWRL/NRL combinations of first and last name lengths. Most common is the 4/6-letter pairing, while KL Iro is one of 17 unique representatives of their length combo (listed below)

Bootwatch is back! Celebrating 5 seasons of analysing boot trends, I've TRIPLED the data by including every game from AFL Round 7 & Round 11 of Super Rugby Pacific as well as NRL Magic Round Do white Asics boots dominate each of the oval ball codes? www.rugbyleagueeyetest.com/2025/05/05/b...

The Fletcherning continues! Fletcher Sharpe has become the 5th (and youngest) player in history to score a hat-trick on their birthday.

Happy democracy sausage day – here’s every current NRL (2025) and NRLW (2024) player who shares a name with a federal electorate in Australia.

At 5 letters long, KL Iro now holds the outright record for shortest name in NSWRL/NRL history. There were 29 6-letter names that jointly held the record prior to Iro’s name change, most recently Tom Ale.

Don’t let the record number of sin bins in Rd8 distract you from the fact that there was also a record number of alliterative names (4) sin binned this round...

If it walks like a crackdown and it talks like a crackdown… it’s probably time for Magic Round. The refs are just following orders, they don’t deserve hounding from the fans for doing their jobs. Head office (Vlandys, Abdo, Annesley etc) on the other hand…

Sandon Smith has scored the equal second most points in a match by a player that was also sin-binned or sent-off. With 2 goals and 7 tries, his 22 points is level with Val Holmes last season, and only sits behind Ben Reynolds’ 26 for Penrith in 2003.

The Dogs have conceded the most points ever by a team that held it’s last two opponents to nil Further, they conceded the 6th most points ever by a team that held it’s last opponent to nil.

The Bulldogs have conceded 42 points in one match after entering the match with a Points Against of 58. This is the 3rd highest percentage (72.41%) of a team's prior PA to be conceded in one match. [NRL-era only, ≥5 matches played]

Hudson Young is now the third player in history to score 3 consecutive doubles as a starting second-rower. He joins: Ernie Lapham (SOU) 1927 Rd5-7, and Steve Menzies (MAN) 1998 Rd22-24 No second-rower has ever scored 4 straight doubles....

King Curran: Sixth time in history that both Canterbury starting props have scored in the same game - first since Tolman+Kasiano in 2013 vs Brisbane. A second half Mahoney try would make the first time the entire Dogs front row has scored in a match.

The 2022 grand-finalists (Penrith and Parramatta) now occupy the bottom two ladder positions. In the 12+ team era (1967-), this is the second fastest time taken in rounds played since the GF for both teams to sit at the bottom of the ladder.

After Moses Leo’s debut on Sunday, he joins an exclusive club of 43 player pairs – where one player’s first and last names can be extended into a different player’s first and last names. There are 3 such pairings involving current NRL players (see table)

The Tigers scored two less tries than Brisbane, but lost by 22 points. This is the equal greatest winning margin in NSWRL/NRL history by a team that only scored two more tries than the opposition. This 22pt margin has been reached 6 previous times - last by Dragons over Knights (2015)