I grew up watching the Dragons at Jubilee Oval. Sunday afternoons watching Goldthorpe, Gourley, and Teirney go to work. It was the same routine every time – grab food on the way, find a car spot that shouldn’t have existed, walk through to the ground and hear it before you saw it.

The Dragons in that era were scrappy – not always pretty, not always a win. But it didn’t really matter.Those Sunday afternoons are probably why I’m still here, decades later, watching a team that tests your patience as often as it rewards it.

For my day job I spend a lot of time looking at data – figuring out what’s working, what isn’t, and trying to separate the signal from the noise. At some point I realised I was doing the same thing every Monday morning with the Dragons, just informally. Pulling up the stats, checking completion rates, tracking which halves combination actually created something. Getting frustrated with forum posts that were based on vibes rather than numbers.

So I figured – why not do it properly?

Red V Nerd is what happens when a data nerd and a lifelong Dragons fan collide. Every claim is backed by a number or a quote. Every stat is sourced and traceable. If I don’t have the data, I’ll say so – I’d rather leave a gap than make something up.

This site is written for the fans who already know the squad. The ones in the match threads who want more than hot takes and recycled press conferences. If you’re after analysis that actually looks at what happened and why – rather than just reacting to the scoreline – this is for you.

It’s an independent fan site. Not affiliated with the NRL, NSWRL, or the Dragons. All stats sourced from NRL.com Match Centre unless stated otherwise, with historical data from Rugby League Project.