Wakefield Trinity: The utterly unbelievable stats behind Mike McMeeken’s ‘captain’s knock’ against Warrington

Newly appointed Wakefield Trinity captain Mike McMeeken has hit the ground running for his new employers since his switch from Catalans Dragons this off-season, but he arguably had his best performance to date in their 30-16 win over Warrington Wolves.

The imposing forward – deployed at loose forward for the game – put in a proper captain’s knock to lead his side to victory, which is more than reflected in the stats.

Without further ado, here is a full breakdown of the utterly unbelievable stats behind McMeeken’s performance on Sunday.

Defensive masterclass

As you would expect for any middle in Super League, McMeeken really fronted up in defence against the likes of James Harrison and Paul Vaughan, but he posted some genuinely ridiculous stats in the process.

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Across his shift, McMeeken made an eye-watering 36 tackles, the most of any Trinity player and only bested by Sam Powell’s tally of 37. He also made 7 marker tackles. Not only were his numbers high in this regard, but he also posted a 100% tackle success rate.

The only other players to make over 15 tackles with a 100% success rate were Ben Currie (34) Jamies Harrison (31) and Matty Storton (25).

Brute force

Whilst his defensive output deserves heavy praise, it was his sheer brute force in attack that caught most of the attention. In his day’s work, McMeeken made a whopping 170 metres from 20 carries – again the most of anyone on the pitch in both departments.

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On the carrying front, only Warrington’s George Williams matched him with 20 of his own, and only Stefan Ratchford came close to topping his metres tally, with the Wire back posting 166 from his 12 carries.

His average gain of 8.5 was also the second-most of any Trinity player, with Tom Johnstone just pipping him into first with 9.8 metres-per-carry (12 carries for 118 metres).

To round off a strong afternoon’s work, McMeeken also made 4 tackle bursts,joint-second for his side with Caleb Hamlin-Uele and Tom Johnstone and only bested by Corey Hall and Oliver Pratt (both 5).

It seems the switch to 13 yesterday brought the absolute best out of him, and maybe could be where he features for Daryl Powell moving forward.

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