Continuing our look back at season 2014, we move on to the teams that finished twelfth through ninth.
Newcastle Knights
The 2014 Knights season will be remembered mostly for two things: the end of the Tinkler-Bennett era and the horrible injury to second-rower Alex McKinnon. Sadly the form of the team on field was just as awful as the events off the field, as the club limped out of the gate recording just two wins from the first 13 games.
The team improved in the second half of the season to finish up with ten wins, however it remains to be seen if this can be carried on in 2015 under coach Rick Stone.
Best Player: In a season without a real standout for the Knights, Roberts enjoyed a solid if generally unspectacular season – consolidating his role at halfback and providing a consistency that injuries didn’t allow for in other key positions
Highlight: The spectacular last minute win over the Melbourne Storm in Round 22.
Honourable Mention: There is no genuine good that can come from Alex McKinnon’s injury however the wholehearted response of the Knights community was terrific to see and McKinnon’s plight looks likely to lead to better support for other players injured playing NRL.
Lowlight: A seven-game losing streak between Rounds 7 and 14 effectively crushed any hope of finals football as the club struggled to post more than 18 points a game.
Dishonourable Mention: Wayne Bennett has long been known for his curious comments to the media but to claim that the Rabbitohs were ‘predictable’ and that other teams had figured them out on a day in which they had flogged the Knights by a score of 50-10 was among his more outlandish comments.
Reason for Hope: One word: Mata’utia. Rugby league fans who closely follow the NYC and reserve grade have long known the brothers were coming but it didn’t take them long to announce themselves to the rest of the competition. The addition of Tariq Sims to the forward pack will also add some much needed go forward.
With Bennett also leaving, the club can put the Tinkler era firmly behind them.
2015 Prediction: Bottom four. Questions remain about the depth in the forwards and the club faces a potentially ugly situation as the rapid decline of Kurt Gidley becomes more of a liability.
St George Illawarra Dragons
The Dragons entered the season as a wooden spoon contender and didn’t do a whole lot to disprove that assessment. A final record of 11 wins and 13 losses is a flattering to the club as seven of those wins came against the bottom four teams.
Once hailed as the future of the club post Wayne Bennett, Steve Price was dumped as coach after ten rounds to be replaced by player favourite Paul ‘Mary’ McGregor. The club improved but were still unable to trouble the top teams and finished the season with only two wins against teams that would finish in the eight – the worst record in the competition.
Even the Sharks (4) Raiders (3) and Titans (4) had a better record against finals teams than the Dragons.
Best Player Gareth Widdop. The signing of the season, Widdop defied sceptics who thought he was simply an accessory to the big three in Melbourne to establish himself a genuine playmaker.
Highlight: For a team with low expectations, a 3-0 start to the season fuelled by the new recruit in Widdop was a truly exciting way to start the year. Losing seven of the next eight was less fun.
Honourable Mention: Lifting the hoodoo. The most publicised losing streak in the NRL finally came to an end as the Dragons finally won in Canberra for the first time since 2000.
Lowlight: The one and seven streak from Round 4 on is a candidate but perhaps the sadder site for Dragons fans was watching Jamie Soward – who the Dragons had cast away – led a remarkable revival at the Panthers.
Dishonourable Mention: The Round 26 whimper as the club was flogged by a similarly mediocre Knights team to go into their offseason on a distinct downer.
Reason for Hope: Mary. The players clearly love Paul McGregor and the team improved noticeably under his control. While he posted only a 50 per cent success rate, the attitude and application were markedly improved.
2015 Prediction: Lost in the mire, 14th to 10th. While the players seem to love McGregor, the squad is still thin on ability and Josh Dugan is due for his next major injury.
Parramatta Eels
After four grim years including back-to-back wooden spoons, any sort of improvement was always going to be greeted with rejoicing in Parramatta. For much of the season it seemed like the club was going deliver that and much more.
Barring a Round 2 flogging from the Roosters, the Eels had their best start to a season in years. They won four of their first six games to sit fifth after six rounds. New boy Nathan Peats was looking like the buy of the season and a coterie of talented young forwards was making an impression.
However Peats was soon lost to a season-ending injury and was soon joined on the sidelines by other key contributors like Manu Ma’u and Pauli Pauli. Nevertheless the club entered the final rounds of the season in position to make the eight for the first time since their glorious run in 2009, only to fall short with a pair of embarrassing performances.
Best Player: Jarryd Hayne. The return of the 2009 Hayne ‘plane’ was a welcome sign for Eels fans, after his disjointed 2013 season.
Highlight: The Eels confirmed that they were back among the contenders with a three-win sequence between Rounds 4 and 6.
Honourable Mention: In Round 14, coach Brad Arthur pulled a (former) Rabbit out of his hat by playing Chris Sandow in the unfamiliar role of fullback. Sandow repaid his coach’s audacity with a match-winning performance as the club beat rivals Canterbury.
Lowlight: The heartless displays against the Knights in Round 25 and the Raiders in Round 26. With their season on the line, the Eels went down without a fight getting flogged in Newcastle before showing little appetite for a struggle in Canberra against hated former coach Ricky Stuart.
Dishonourable Mention: The Auckland road trip is always a challenging one however the Eels did themselves no favours missing 37 tackles and completing only 20 sets as they registered a goose egg in a 48-0 hiding.
Reason for Hope: The club is finally getting out from under years of mismanagement and poor roster construction and building the squad of the future. Players like Peats and Tepai Moeroa and Pauli along with established stars like Hayne will be the backbone of the club for years to come.
With a rumoured second player cull to be conducted this offseason, the club will be in a position to enter the player market in a big way for season 2016.
2015 Prediction: Stagnation, fringe of the eight. While they will get some injured players back it is hard to imagine that Jarryd Hayne can reproduce his electric 2014 form again and many of the teams around the club will also improve.
New Zealand Warriors
In typical Warriors fashion, the club combined some epic losses with some truly remarkable wins. The early season swing of a home loss to the unfancied Dragons followed by an away win in Townsville would set the tone for a typically frustrating year for the Warriors.
Even so, the Warriors waited until the final hour of the season to fall out of the finals picture altogether with an insipid performance against Penrith.
Best player Simon Mannering. The captain was again terrific in 2014 adding nine tries to his already high work-rate and leadership.
Highlight: A run of five wins in six games culminating in a 48-0 obliteration of the Parramatta Eels catapulted the Warriors into sixth place on the ladder and had them poised for a finals run.
Honourable Mention: The Canberra Raiders were not a good team in 2014 but only four teams scored more than 28 points against them and the Warriors did that twice, posting 50 on the hapless Raiders in both Auckland and Canberra.
Lowlight: Heading into the Round 24 clash with the Roosters, the Warriors were sitting in eighth and could have secured their finals spot. Instead, they produced their worst performance of the year – missing 44 tackles and conceding 11 penalties to fall out of the eight.
Dishonourable Mention: a home loss in Round 2 against the Dragons established early that the Warriors would continue to be the league’s most infuriating team.
Reason for Hope: They have a coach that the players seem to like and they still have that pipeline of talent.
Plus Shaun Johnson is among the most talented playmakers in the game and English import Sam Tomkins only got better as the season went on.
2015 prediction: Boom or bust. The team that no one can pick will continue to be the team that no one can pick. All the talent in the world but impossible to know when they’ll put it together
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