Stat Attack: Which teams cope best and worst with sin bins

An analysis of sin-bin periods in the 2018 Telstra Premiership reveals a handful of clubs actually managed to score more points than their opponents across periods in which they were reduced to 12 men.

There were 112 total sin bins in 2018 but the analysis only looks at regular-season instances of teams being reduced to 12 men.

Therefore, the final five minutes of the Penrith-Newcastle clash in which each side was reduced to 11, or the spiteful Storm-Manly clash that saw Curtis Scott sent off and two Manly players binned before Josh Addo-Carr was also marched, have not been included.

Finals matches are also not included so Cameron Munster's twin grand final binnings or Sam Burgess's 10-minute spell against the Storm in week one of the finals are also excluded.

Of the remaining 100 sin bins in which teams were forced to manage with 12 men, the Storm (+2.7 points on average across three binnings) and Manly (+2.4 points across five sin bins) actually profited while being down a man, according to NRL.com Stats.

The Panthers did it over a longer period, averaging +1.2 points for their 11 sin bin periods while the Sharks (+0.5 in four periods) finished slightly up too.

The Bulldogs (-0.3 in four sin bins) weren't heavily punished while the Eels (-1.1 in 11) only did poorly by virtue of having so many sin bins.

The worst average by far was the Cowboys, finishing 18 points behind in two sin bin periods for a -9.0 average; mercifully they didn't incur more binnings than they did.

The Titans (-5.3 in eight sin bins for a total of 42 points of differential) did the worst in aggregate terms, slightly worse off than the Raiders (-4.9 in seven sin bins).

The Storm outscored the Sharks 2-0 with Cameron Smith off in round four, and the Titans by 6-0 with Christian Welch off in round 10, holding the Eels to nil-all in the 10 minutes Munster was off in round 23 meaning they never conceded a point in their three instances of going down to 12 men in the regular season.

Manly lost Jake Trbojevic for just 17 seconds at the end of a round eight loss to the Knights, and scored right at the end of the same player's stint either side of half-time in the above-mentioned Melbourne clash to win that 10-minute block 4-2. A try late in Trent Hodkinson's binning against the Raiders in round 12 helped shore up their positive sin-bin differential.

At the other end of the scale, the Cowboys were punished 12-4 when Shaun Fensom was sent against the Panthers in round nine, though they held on for a win. They also conceded two late tries when John Asiata was binned against Cronulla to take an 18-16 deficit to a 28-16 loss in round 23.