We coped just fine, because Kearney simply doesnt make that much of a difference.

Are you serious?

Only he does. Anybody with working retinas and some comprehension of the game can identify that.

No he doesnt.

Your inability to mitigate your (incorrect) point, is duly noted.

Good for you.

It's no coincidence that an upturn in form came without Kearney in the side. Poor decisions and missed tackles are Kearney's all over.

You can, of course, back up that statement with actual fact?

Or is just like everything else you type? ie your opinion that you've confused with fact?

It is just my opinion.
But I actually pay attention at games and notice these things happening.

Heath, Rangi Chase, Iosia Soliola, Michael Witt, Ben Galea, Scot Dureau and Michael Monaghan have all missed significantly more tackles than BK. All would walk into most teams. But that really isn't the point, merely that you are incorrect from a statistical point of view in terms of it isolating abilities of players.

From the standpoint of him being a fine player to the naked eye, the axe you continually grind is both irrational and without foundation. As for poor decision making. No. His speed of thought is light years ahead of the rest of the side.

OK, Statto.

You should of gone to specsavers !!!

A superbly considered, reasoned and well thought out response. I'd expect nothing less.

My mince pies are perfectly fine. Ta.

Dont get me wrong Royston is doing a great job at FB and should only be replaced in that position by BK if Shad is moved to centres and whitehead back in the front row, with the team now getting some form, IMO BK has the quality to inject more confidence into the team just because of his quality

Stats for selected Bulls players and the others GB listed.

Name------tackles; missed; % missed

Kearney-------73; 26; 35%
L'estrange-----342; 32; 9%
Ah Van--------153; 33; 22%
Chase---------149; 40; 27%
Soliola---------305; 34; 11%
Witt-----------244; 36; 15%
Galea----------423; 35; 8%
Dureau---------191; 46; 24%
Monaghan------375; 32; 9%

What does this tell us?

1 - Other "key" players have indeed missed more tackles than Kearney.
2 - Kearney has missed a significantly bigger % of his tackles than any of the others - over four times as many per tackle as some of the others.

What does it NOT tell us?

1 - How many tackles BK missed playing at 6 c/w at 1?
2 - What ELSE BK did that contributed significantly to our performance on the field.
3 - How many matches each player has played, and what the match averages are.*

Can we conclude anything form the missed tackle stats?

Even though GB's figures could be viewed as misleading in isolation - the figures I have quoted maybe give a more balanced picture - he is surely spot on when he points out that to judge a player - one who most of us view (or, for those with short memories, viewed) as being our most important creative and threatening player on the park - by a single stat is disingenuous at best.

* EDIT: BK played 11 matches, so he missed 2.36 tackles per match. Chase played 15 matches, so he missed 2.67 tackles per match. So did Monaghan, so he missed 2.13 tackles per match. Durerau played 14 matches so he missed 1.92 tackles per match.