Stat Attack: How each team fared in first year of captain's challenge

In a year that brought change and challenge like no other, the introduction of the captain's challenge sparked plenty of debate through the season.

There was ongoing interest around when and how teams decided to use the challenge, what degree of trust a captain placed in a teammate who argued they had the ball stripped rather than losing it, whether it could or would be used tactically, and just how good players were at recognising when an official had erred.

Across the 20 rounds of the regular season, the Dragons proved to be the standout performers in this.

St George Illawarra finished the year with the best strike rate of 70%, using the tactic sparingly with just three incorrect challenges, which was two fewer than the next-best Eels.

Parramatta, the Roosters and Canberra managed to get more than half of their challenges right while the Panthers were right on 50-50.

At the other end of the scale, the Knights really struggled with barely a quarter of challenges successful while Brisbane, the Warriors, Wests Tigers and Cowboys weren't much better.

Splitting the data into first and second halves reveals the Storm and the Dragons as the only two sides not to register a single incorrect first-half challenge all year.

The Storm tried just twice and were successful both times while the Dragons went an impressive 6-0 with first-half challenges. The Raiders and Roosters, both with 3-1 first half records, were the only other sides to get more than half of their first-half challenges right.

The Titans had the most first-half attempts with 12 (seven wrong and five right) and the Sharks weren't far behind with 10 (six wrong and four right).

The Eels only had five first-half attempts and got four wrong but when they hung on to their challenges for after half-time they excelled, getting seven right and just one wrong.

The Eels bucked a competition-wide trend for teams to get looser with their challenges later in the game with only the Panthers (5-4), Roosters (7-6) and Raiders (5-5) getting half or more right in second halves.

The Knights (2-9) barely got a second-half challenge all season.