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2016 NRL season: The story so far

Roar Guru
3rd May, 2016
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Jack Bird is set to join the NRL's rich list. (AAP Image/Michael Chambers)
Roar Guru
3rd May, 2016
8
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With the NRL taking this weekend off for the representative round, let’s take the time to look back at what has been an eventful first third of the 2016 season.

After nine rounds, the North Queensland Cowboys, Brisbane Broncos, Melbourne Storm and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks jointly lead the competition, while the Parramatta Eels currently prop up the ladder after salary cap breaches saw the club stripped of twelve competition points as well as the Auckland Nines title.

If the form of the Cowboys and Broncos is anything to go by, then they could become the first pair of clubs since the Storm and Sea Eagles in 2007-08 to contest two consecutive NRL grand finals.

Both clubs have identical win-loss records, are both undefeated at home and have split their away records, however the Cowboys’ points differential of +140 is enough to see them just lead the Broncos (+135) on the ladder.

The Cowboys enter the weekend off having won their last five matches, with their closest result being a 23-18 win over the Penrith Panthers in Round 6. Their most recent outing saw them claim a 34-18 win over the Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval.

The Broncos, on the other hand, had their own five-match winning streak ended last Sunday when, despite a late surge, they fell short in a 30-28 loss to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, costing them the outright premiership lead.

Had Wayne Bennett’s men found an extra try in them during the second half of that match, and not squandered the lead in their Round 3 loss to the Panthers, they could so easily have entered the representative bye undefeated.

Having already met in Round 4, when the Broncos won a thrilling grand final rematch in golden point extra time, the two clubs will be at it again in just over a fortnight’s time when they clash at 1300SMILES Stadium in Round 11.

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Before that, though, the two clubs will take part in Suncorp Stadium’s first double-header since 2011, with the Cowboys playing the Storm and the Broncos playing as the away team against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

The ominous form of the two Queensland premier clubs is bad news for the fans living south of the Tweed, who are pinning their hopes on the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, who in fourth place are currently the best-ranked of the NSW-based clubs.

The Sharks have emerged as serious premiership contenders this year on the back of some smart recruiting, in which they landed the likes of Michael Ennis, Ben Barba and James Maloney.

Shane Flanagan’s men were slow to get starting, losing two of their first three games, but have since won their last six matches, which is currently the longest by any club this season.

Their last match before the representative bye saw them withstand a furious second half comeback by the Brisbane Broncos to win 30-28. After next weekend, they will play the second last-placed Newcastle Knights and eighth-placed Sea Eagles before getting to rest their feet again in Round 12, the round before Origin I.

Despite failing to win back-to-back matches since rounds one and two, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs sit fifth on the ladder; the Canberra Raiders, Penrith Panthers and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles round out the eight.

The Raiders had started the season with two straight victories for the first time since 2005, but injuries to key players has seen them lose four of their last six matches; still, they sit sixth on the ladder and have a positive points differential of +18, helped by their 60-6 thrashing of Wests Tigers in Round 8.

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If there’s one team living on the edge, it’s the Penrith Panthers.

Their nine matches so far this season have been decided by single-figure margins, and they could so easily be joint-leading the competition with the Cowboys, Broncos and Storm had they not suffered three heartbreaking two-point losses to the Bulldogs, Dragons and Sharks in rounds two, four and eight respectively.

Three of their four wins, however, have come against quality opposition in the Broncos, Eels and Raiders, with only the Eels ranked lower after they were docked 12 premiership points for salary cap breaches.

Following the penalties handed down to the Eels for salary cap breaches, the Sea Eagles were the ones to benefit, being raised to eighth place on the ladder despite having a negative win-loss record (4-5) and points differential (-24).

Their place in the eight will go on the line in the fortnight following the representative weekend, when they take their home game against the Broncos to Brisbane before they head down to Cronulla to face the high-flying Sharks.

Moving outside the eight now, and just when it was thought everything was starting to come together for the New Zealand Warriors, suddenly it is starting to fall apart.

Prize recruit Roger Tuivasa-Sheck suffered a serious knee injury against the Bulldogs in Round 7, which has all but ended his season. That was then followed by a humiliating 42-0 loss to the Melbourne Storm, after which several senior players were axed for last week’s match against the Dragons.

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The Warriors bounced back on the field, defeating the Dragons at home for their first victory over the Red V since 2007. The club hopes that it is a turning point in their season, having so far failed to live up to pre-season expectations.

As for the Dragons, the loss ended a two-match winning streak and leaves them in tenth place in the ladder with a negative points differential of -97 and as the only club that have yet to score 100 points this season.

Further down the ladder is somewhere you wouldn’t expect to see the South Sydney Rabbitohs, who are eleventh with just three victories for the season.

On the back of the return of Sam Burgess, and after thrashing the Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights in the opening two rounds, fans were sensing another big season at Redfern once again following last year’s first week finals exit.

But it has been anything but plain disappointment since, with stars such as Burgess, Greg Inglis and Adam Reynolds playing well below their best, and their only win since Round 2 coming against the Sea Eagles by four points in Round 5.

Having started the season by winning three of their first four matches, it has also been anything but disappointment for the Gold Coast Titans, losing their last five matches, the latest being a 38-0 loss to the Melbourne Storm at home.

It will not get easier for Neil Henry’s men after the representative bye, when they host the Sydney Roosters at home before making the long flight to Darwin for a match against the Parramatta Eels.

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The pressure might be easing on coach Jason Taylor after the Wests Tigers snapped a six-match losing streak by defeating the Rabbitohs 30-22 last Thursday.

It was achieved amidst the losses of James Tedesco and Mitchell Moses to injury and came five days after they suffered a horrific 60-6 loss to the Raiders in Canberra, after which it was thought that Taylor was on the firing line.

With Mitchell Pearce finally back after serving his eight-match suspension for his role in the Australia Day video scandal, the Sydney Roosters’ 38-0 thrashing of second-last placed Newcastle could prove to be a season-turning victory for the Chooks, who lost seven of the eight matches in which Pearce was absent.

The Knights just haven’t been able to take a trick this season, with their only points coming via a draw against the Raiders in Round 3 and a narrow win against the Wests Tigers in Round 6.

They have also copped some huge defeats along the way, including a 48-6 loss to the Rabbitohs in Round 2 and shutouts against the Broncos and Roosters on either side of a 26-10 loss to the Sea Eagles on Anzac Day.

These losses highlight just how much work Nathan Brown has to do to not only clean up the mess left behind by Wayne Bennett between 2012 and 2014, but also restore a competitive edge into the playing list.

And last but not least, the Parramatta Eels find themselves in familiar territory tonight, being sent back down to the bottom of the ladder after being stripped of twelve competition points and their Auckland Nines title, in addition to being fined one million dollars, for salary cap breaches.

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Prior to the penalties being handed down by the NRL, the Eels had enjoyed a resurgence on the field following six consecutive years without finals football.

After starting the season with a 17-4 loss to the Broncos, Brad Arthur’s men rebounded to win seven of their next nine matches, including defeating reigning premiers the Cowboys at home in Round 2 as well as defeating the Bulldogs twice within seven weeks.

The latter win came after prized recruit and captain Kieran Foran was granted indefinite leave to deal with personal issues; in fact, a handwritten letter directed to his teammates was what inspired them to victory last Friday night.

Those are just some of the biggest stories to emerge from the first nine rounds of the 2016 NRL season, and there will be some questions asked of the teams as we enter the dreaded State of Origin period.

Can the Broncos and Cowboys continue their march to a second consecutive grand final showdown against each other? Can the Sharks salvage some pride for the NSW clubs? How will the Parramatta Eels recover from their salary cap debacle? And which teams should we be watching out for in the run to September?

All this and more is set to be answered when NRL action resumes on Thursday, May 12, when the St George Illawarra Dragons and Canberra Raiders kick off Round 10 at Kogarah Oval.

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