The Obstruction Rule

The latest NRL news, intelligent rugby league analysis, and innovative NRL statistics

The Obstruction Rule - Rugby league analysis, news, and VOA NRL statistics
  • VOA Ratings
    • VOA Explained
  • Features
    • Tips
    • Editorials
    • History
    • The Month In Review
    • The Greatest Game Of All
    • Culture
  • What Have We Learned
  • Teams
    • Brisbane Broncos News
    • Canberra Raiders News
    • Canterbury Bulldogs News
    • Cronulla Sharks News
    • Gold Coast Titans News
    • Manly Sea Eagles News
    • Melbourne Storm News
    • New Zealand Warriors News
    • Newcastle Knights News
    • North Queensland Cowboys News
    • Parramatta Eels News
    • Penrith Panthers News
    • South Sydney Rabbitohs News
    • St George Illawarra Dragons News
    • Sydney Roosters News
    • Wests Tigers News
  • Tips
  • About

Defense Wins Championships: Why Melbourne always wins (and your team doesn’t)

March 8, 2017, 4:19 pm By Joel Leave a Comment

“Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships”. An exciting offense may indeed sell tickets (as the 2016 Raiders did, attracting their highest crowd average since 1995), but does defense really win championships? Some hacks put it forward as assumed fact without question (as we ourselves did in our 2016 Finals Preview). Others claim it’s a self-perpetuating myth. So, which is it? Do elite defensive teams really outperform elite offensive teams? And if so, why? Let’s take a look at the Melbourne Storm to find out.

[Read more…]

Share:

Related NRL News & Posts:

  • The Month In Review: March ’17
  • A Numbers Game: Finals Week Three Previews
  • NRL Finals Preview: Why your team can win
  • Business Time: When your team last won a finals match
  • Knights look into Glasby, Ah Mau

Filed Under: NRL Features & Analysis, Rugby League Theory Tagged With: Canberra Raiders News, defense, Melbourne Storm News, Newcastle Knights News, North Queensland Cowboys News, NRL, NRL Finals, offense

The Greatest Game of All: Eels defeat Sea Eagles

August 9, 2016, 1:57 pm By Joel Leave a Comment

After Parramatta all but ended Manly’s finals hopes, The Obstruction Rule takes a look at how it happened, digressing into Dylan Walker’s struggles at five-eighth and the excitement machine that is Bevan French.

[Read more…]

Share:

Related NRL News & Posts:

  • The Hayne Plane: Are the Titans about to take flight?
  • Knights linked to Norman
  • Tigers targeting Eagles’ Kelly
  • Barrett holds “crisis meeting” with manager, lawyer
  • The Weekend Wrap: 25/9/17

Filed Under: NRL Features & Analysis, The Greatest Game Of All Tagged With: Bevan French, Dylan Walker, Jamie Lyon, Manly Sea Eagles News, offense, Parramatta Eels News, Semi Radradra, Trent Barrett, VOA

The Hayne Plane: Are the Titans about to take flight?

August 3, 2016, 4:08 pm By Joel Leave a Comment

The prodigal son has returned… but not to Parramatta. No, Parramatta’s favourite son, Jarryd Hayne, has traded in the blue and gold of the Eels for the slightly lighter shade of blue and gold of the Titans. In doing so, he’s not only offended everyone within a 10 kilometre radius of Westmead, but also dramatically changed the dynamics of the race to the Telstra Premiership finals. To add a player of Hayne’s quality to a potential Top 8 team so late in the contest, is to not only throw a cat amongst the pigeons, but to trap the pigeons in a cardboard box and arm the cat with a blowtorch.

[Read more…]

Share:

Related NRL News & Posts:

  • Norman met with Titans
  • The Weekend Wrap: 23/7/17
  • The Weekend Wrap: 4/6/17
  • Eels pull out of Peats race
  • The Weekend Wrap: 14/5/17

Filed Under: Editorials, NRL Features & Analysis Tagged With: David Mead, Gold Coast Titans News, Jarry Hayne, Josh Hoffman, offense, Parramatta Eels News, VOA, Willaim Zillman

The Greatest Game of All: Storm defeat Cowboys

August 2, 2016, 5:32 pm By Joel Leave a Comment

Without a major upset in Round 21,  The Obstruction Rule turns its eye to the battle of the premiership heavyweights – the Melbourne Storm and the North Queensland Cowboys, in this edition of The Greatest Game of All. [Read more…]

Share:

Related NRL News & Posts:

  • Film Study: The 2nd Man Play
  • Life After Cronk: The Thurston Eleven
  • Defense Wins Championships: Why Melbourne always wins (and your team doesn’t)
  • The Weekend Wrap: 25/6/17
  • The Weekend Wrap: 30/4/17

Filed Under: NRL Features & Analysis, The Greatest Game Of All Tagged With: Cooper Cronk, defense, Johnathan Thurston, Justin O'Neill, Kevin Proctor, Lachlan Coote, Melbourne Storm News, North Queensland Cowboys News, offense, Rory Kostjaysn, VOA

The Greatest Game Of All: Panthers defeat Broncos

July 26, 2016, 2:56 pm By Joel Leave a Comment

The Obstruction Rule takes a look at the biggest upset of the round – the Penrith Panthers defeating the Brisbane Broncos, and asks how it happened and whether we could have seen it coming? [Read more…]

Share:

Related NRL News & Posts:

  • The Weekend Wrap: 2/7/17
  • The Weekend Wrap: 23/7/17
  • The Weekend Wrap: 21/5/17
  • The Weekend Wrap: 14/5/17
  • The Month In Review: March ’17

Filed Under: NRL Features & Analysis, The Greatest Game Of All Tagged With: Alex Glenn, Anthony Milford, Beau Scott, Brad Arthur, Brisbane Broncos News, Bryce Cartwright, Corey Oates, defense, Jack Reed, James Fisher-Harris, Josh McGuire, Michael Jennings, New Zealand Warriors News, offense, Penrith Panthers News, South Sydney Rabbitohs News, Te Maire Martin, VOA, Waqa Blake, Wayne Bennett

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »
As featured on NewsNow: NRL news
NRL News 24/7

Latest Features

TOR in 2022

NRL Tips – 2019 Grand Final

TOR in 2019

Rabbitohs Need To Put Difficult Pre-Season Behind Them

End of an Era: No sunset ride for Thurston

The Month In Review: July ’18

The Month In Review: June ’18

The Month In Review: May ’18

Numbers Do Lie: Why Woods isn’t better than Campbell-Gillard (Or, why Michael Chammas should stick to reporting, and leave statistics to people who actually understand them)

The Month In Review: April ’18

More Features

Latest NRL Previews

NRL Tips – Grand Final, 2022

NRL Tips – Finals Week Three, 2022

NRL Tips – Finals Week Two, 2022

NRL Tips – Finals Week One, 2022

NRL Tips – Week 25, 2022

More Tips & Previews

Email Updates

Sign up for The Obstruction Rule email updates and receive FREE VOA-based NRL line-betting tips for each round for the rest of 2018!




Top 5 NRL Offense VOA

Melbourne34.04%
Cronulla26.65%
Penrith23.46%
South Sydney22.76%
Sydney21.79%

Top 5 NRL Defense VOA

Penrith-46.43%
North Queensland-24.33%
Melbourne-22.88%
Cronulla-20.29%
Sydney-20.25%

Full sortable NRL VOA ratings

LIVE NRL SCORES

Friends of TOR

NRL Universe

Contact Us

Email Facebook Twitter Instagram

Search

This is an unofficial and independent source of NRL news and information not affiliated with any team(s) or the National Rugby League (NRL).

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

The Obstruction Rule - The latest NRL news, rumours, previews and analysis