More and more, the focus on tackles is not who makes the most, but who misses the least.
2021 has seen more of a skew to that pattern of statistical thinking as clubs grapple with a faster style of play created by the new rules and record scorelines as a result week after week.
Those teams who can tackle better than the rest give themselves an enormous advantage week after week, and it shows, with six of the top eight teams on the tackle efficiency leaderboard finishing in the overall top eight.
Tackle efficiency is worked out by missed tackles as a percentage of a team's total attempted tackles.
Here, we go over the top five teams when it comes to tackling, before revealing the full list, with the final list loosely reflecting ladder position, revealing again just how important this is.
3. Parramatta Eels
8210 tackles, 647 misses, 92.7%
The Eels may have wound up sixth place on the NRL ladder as their defence all but failed them during the final two months of the campaign, but they were excellent in the first half of the season.
While Penrith were unquestionably the best defensive team through the first half of the season, Brad Arthur's side only let in more than 20 points twice in the first ten weeks, which, given the rules and nature of high-scoring matches this year, was a phenomenal effort.
They limited the Storm to 12 points in Round 2, the Sharks to four points in Round 3 and the Roosters to 18 in Round 9.
It's little surprise some of their defensive issues coincided with hooker Reed Mahoney's injury. He made 763 tackles at over 96 per cent, despite playing just 17 games. He was a rock in the middle of the park for Parramatta alongside Nathan Brown and Junior Paulo, whose work rate increased dramatically the longer the season went on, his minutes going up, but his level of output and consistency also increasing.
Isaiah Papali'i, who was the signing of the season, solidified their edge, while the defensive combinations out wide did a solid job for much of the season.
