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One month out from the finals, with teams either still in the thick of that race, battling to avoid the wooden spoon or floating in the twilight zone in-between, it’s time to take stock of each of the 16 NRL clubs.
Broncos
Looked a mid-table team at the start of the season and that’s where they are now, in 10th place.
Still in the finals race, mainly by virtue of their very healthy points for-and-against differential, but more likely to miss out than make it.
They’ve got their share of good players, but they miss that truly dynamic player who could drag them into the finals on his own.
CATCH UP ON THE LATEST NRL HIGHLIGHTS:
>>Brisbane Broncos vs Canterbury Bulldogs
>>Manly Sea Eagles vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
>>Parramatta Eels vs Canberra Raiders
>>Newcastle Knights vs Melbourne Storm
>>New Zealand Warriors vs Cronulla Sharks
>>St George Illawarra Dragons vs Penrith Panthers
Bulldogs
The series of indiscretions from Josh Reynolds in Friday’s game against the Broncos was a clear indication of just how frustrated the Bulldogs are at the way they’re playing. Sooner or later, somebody was going to lose it.
Remember, their four straight losses, to the Tigers, Cowboys, Panthers and now the Broncos, came immediately after they had beaten the Sea Eagles and Storm in back-to-back rounds. A form turnaround like that just doesn’t make sense, and Bulldogs coach Des Hasler, as good as he is, clearly hasn’t been able to do anything about it.
If he can’t find the answer shortly, the Bulldogs will miss the finals.
Cowboys
They’re making their traditional post-Origin run and looking pretty damn good. It’s easy to identify Johnathan Thurston as the key, but they need more than that if they’re going to break through for a maiden premiership win and the player who really impresses me is Matt Scott.
He’s playing big minutes and making big metres – 197 metres in 63 minutes against the Tigers and Saturday and 210 in 62 the week before against the Titans. Scott is a ‘follow me’ player and his fellow forwards are doing just that.
No wonder Thurston has suddenly got so much room in which to work.
Dragons
The club’s management did the right thing delaying a decision on whether to give Paul McGregor the coaching job for next season.
The Dragons would have thought they were still a chance of making the finals before yesterday’s loss to the Panthers, but they’re gone now, and McGregor faces the sizeable challenge of keeping the team ‘up’ over the last four rounds. This will be the real audition.
Eels
Yes, the vast majority of it revolves around Jarryd Hayne producing killer plays, but that is what you’re entitled to expect of the best player in the world.
The Eels have got a mostly young team that threatens to be awesome within a couple of years, but right now a lot of them don’t know how to take charge. So they often need Hayne to make the difference between winning and losing. Some people seem to think there’s something negative about the Eels because of that. I don’t.
They’re a team on the way up who just happen to have a superstar at the back. Good luck to them.
Knights
The Knights are all over the shop, which is probably to be expected from a club that has experienced major issues regarding its ownership and then had its legendary coach announce he is leaving a year early.
After being belted by the Rabbitohs the week before, they started awfully against the Storm on Saturday and looked like they were in for another bad result when they trailed 12-0. Yet they got back into the game and then, when it appeared to have got away from them again, staged a stunning late recovery to score a miraculous win.
Further ups and downs are likely between now and the end of the season.
Panthers
Now this is a club where everybody knows their job – the players play, the coaches coach and the administrators administer. There is never any threat of the lunatics running the asylum here.
The forward planning by the Panthers is outstanding. Last season, they missed the finals because a growing injury toll exposed their lack of depth. So they went out and added to their depth. Again in the latter part of this season they’re having injury woes, but they’re still winning because they’re better equipped to handle it.
Seriously, how good a buy is Jamie Soward?
Rabbitohs
That was a superb performance against the Sea Eagles on Friday, but anyone declaring them premiers off the back of the win is going off a bit early. Of course, they’re genuine contenders, but the real challenge for the Rabbitohs will come when they actually make the finals and, presuming they get through the first two weeks, try to negotiate the third.
The media and the non-Souths-supporting public will go to great lengths to remind them of how they have fallen at that hurdle two years running and suddenly the pressure of trying to end a 43-year drought since the Rabbitohs last made the grand final will rise again.
They may well be good enough to do it this time, but in the meantime they won’t be allowed to forget how long it’s been.
Raiders
Much-improved performance against the Eels on Saturday, but it still always looked like a matter of time until the Eels – via Jarryd Hayne – came and got them.
It was good to see Jack Wighton, Edrick Lee, Matt McIlwrick and Mitch Cornish all out there for the Raiders. It’s going to be interesting to see what coach Ricky Stuart does when Terry Campese is available again – whether he leaves him out or not.
The Raiders have still got plenty to play for, in trying to avoid the wooden spoon, so hopefully they’ll have a red-hot go from here and not slip back into bad habits that result in more floggings.
Roosters
They can’t expect to simply turn on something resembling last season’s form once the finals start, and if they haven’t turned it on by this stage of the season they’re not going to.
They’ll make the finals, but I don’t see them going all the way to the grand final. Week two or three should see them eliminated.
Some people reckon Anthony Minichiello’s retirement announcement will spark a revival. If the Roosters need that to motivate themselves then they’ve got big problems.
Sea Eagles
Back in Round 16, the Roosters thought they could maul the Sea Eagles through the use of a bigger forward pack, but failed. On Friday, the Rabbitohs pulled it off. That means it’s time for the Sea Eagles to take stock.
They have to establish exactly what the Rabbitohs had that they couldn’t handle on the night and also what they did themselves that didn’t work and figure out what they can do about it.
Sometimes, we allow ourselves to get too carried away with one result. The loss wasn’t the end of the world. If the Sea Eagles learn from what happened it will be a worthwhile jolt.
Sharks
Only the Raiders can save them from the wooden spoon now, which makes their Round 24 clash at Remondis Stadium all the more intriguing.
It’s been the season from hell for the Sharks, with a massive injury toll, Todd Carney’s sacking and, of course, the ASADA investigation still ongoing. It’s only natural that they have struggled.
If they can somehow raise a big enough effort from here to avoid the wooden spoon it will be quite an achievement.
Storm
Storm coach Craig Bellamy can blow up about referees as much as he likes, but if you’re leading by 10 points with two minutes and five seconds left, as the Storm were against the Knights on Saturday, and you lose, you should be heading for the room full of mirrors and spending a good few hours there.
My opinion on the Storm hasn’t changed from early in the season. They haven’t quite got the level of quality back-up the ‘big three’ need from the rest of the team, and they won’t win the premiership.
Titans
Remember when the Titans were riding high on the competition table early in the season? Their position now serves to remind us just how long the season is. They won’t make the finals and they won’t run last, which means results aren’t going to be as crucial to them over the remaining rounds as they will be to most of the teams they are playing.
Don’t be surprised if they cop a hiding or two under those circumstances.
Tigers
What a mess. I tipped the Cowboys would give them a touch-up in Townsville on Saturday, but I wasn’t expecting 64-6. The club so badly lacks leadership it’s embarrassing.
Results eventually had to go the same way as the club has gone off the field, with all of the Robbie Farah-Mick Potter-Grant Mayer-Gorden Tallis drama, down the toilet.
Now that they have, someone may as well pull the chain and flush it on this season.
Warriors
The Warriors will seemingly always be the Warriors. Yesterday, on paper, they looked like they should win easily against the Sharks at home, but once they got out on the field they failed to bring the hammer down and only just fell in for the victory.
They are without Shaun Johnson and Konrad Hurrell, and those players are obviously key. When they get them back it will make a massive difference.
Unpredictability is the Warriors’ middle name, but if they enter the finals in form and with their squad intact, they can go far.
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