So last night i was presented with the cold, hard, raw facts that put into perspective the struggles of Benji Marshall in 2013. Below is a tally of key attacking stats for Marshall in the past 3 seasons:
TA: Try Assists, LBA: Line Break Assists, LB: Line Breaks
2013 (up to end of R19) - 3 TA, 2 LBA and 4 LB.
2012 (season stats) - 36 TA, 32 LBA and 6 LB.
2011 (season stats) - 24 TA, 28 LBA and 17 LB
It's interesting to note though that in 2012 Marshall took it upon himself to be less of the player that he had been and more of an organizing half back. Wests Tigers had struggled to produce an organizing half since Scott Prince's departure and then coach Tim Sheens was desperate for Marshall to develop into one. This to me explains a massive drop off in line breaks (17 in 2011 - 6 in 2012) and a slight rise in try assists and line break assists over the same period. Marshall was instructed to be less the individual and more the organizer for the sake of the team. This is in part in my opinion is part of his downfall..
As the saying goes, "Stats don't lie", well this certainly provides a deafening scream of alarm for those in Team Benji. Sure, it's also true that stats don't tell the whole picture. In this case Wests Tigers have dealt with a massive injury toll and a seriously inexperienced 17 for an extended period. The end result being more losses than wins to this day, Those factors do contribute to Marshall's low numbers in 2013, however these key attacking stats have always been high. In fact Marshall has been top of the tree or near in these categories for quite a few years now. The bottom line is we expect better from a player the calibre of Marshall. To see them drop off the way they have in 2013 is staggering!
* Stats provided via @NothingButWT
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