There is much promise and naysaying at the start of each NRL season and 2017 was no different.
New powerhouse, overachievers always emerge and clubs light on for experience and talent struggle.
Individually, rookies and surprise packets pop up and other players suffer from second-year syndrome or a dramatic drop in form after an outstanding season prior.
That, in essence, is sport. The rise and fall, the swings and roundabouts of competition where the participants are working equally hard and seeking that tiny margin or percentage that creates an advantage over others.
So far this season things have played out relatively predictably. The Storm, Sharks, Brisbane and North Queensland have all been strong and the Tigers and Newcastle have struggled.
However, in between, other clubs have been able to buck the trend of recent years and take enormous strides forward.
In case you haven’t noticed, Parramatta are back. Seeing my workspace colleague sitting, grinning ear to ear last Friday, Eels jersey over his business shirt, after the blue and golds thumped my hapless Bulldogs, convinced me of that.
As does their draw, with winnable games to come against Newcastle, Gold Coast and the Rabbitohs. A win against Brisbane in the other game locks in a top-four spot. Personally, I think three wins will be enough.
Seven years in the cold has been hellish for the Eels faithful but they won’t be the only Club making a return to finals football and looking on the rise. Trent Barrett has taken Manly from a youthful, loose and inexperienced team to a poised and professional outfit this season.
Sure there have been a few stumbles, yet the fortitude they showed to grind away at the Roosters last Sunday was a testament to their improvement. Blake Green has been key and the balance with Daly Cherry-Evans has seen them rarely trip over each other’s toes, a vital component in halves combinations.
The metaphor of tripping over toes is a perfect segway to the bumbling disaster of Belmore.
The Bulldogs have successfully managed to get in their own way throughout much of 2017. Even without a telling injury toll, the blue and whites have looked awful from day one and frankly, have become progressively worse as time has passed.
Let’s be blunt, the five-eighth’s kicking game is abysmal, the recently dropped hooker doesn’t appear up to first grade standard and the impotent attack Des Hasler has constructed, manages a pathetic 13.2 points per game.
Blaming the coach alone for the performance of the individual players can be a dangerous exercise and in my view, Hasler’s real crime is the recruitment and retention which has forced the squad to play increasingly bland and negative football, due to a lack of weapons with which to attack.
Despite coughing and spluttering for the first two months of the competition, the Panthers are starting to look more and more like the team many expected them to be. The top-four spot predicted in the pre-season might be just beyond them now, yet it does appear clear that they will see September action.
Winning nine of their last eleven games has seen them roar into the eight. What this team could do with more experience and an ever improving Nathan Cleary is limitless. A premiership within five years is a certainty.
(AAP Image/Craig Golding)
Contrastingly, the powerful Raiders squad, full of size and brawn has lingered outside the eight for some time now and been a categorical disappointment. Wasn’t this the team that belted its way into the top four last season needing only experience and polish in order to loom as a genuine title threat in ’17?
They were, yet unfortunately they are not.
There was an heir of predictability around the Knights struggles and four wins is probably a fair return for a development team. In saying that, blown half-time leads and inexperienced capitulations like the one against the Dragons, may cost them a chance of avoiding the spoon.
The Dragons looked in trouble pre-season, I thought Paul McGregor’s days could well have been numbered. They then produced an outstanding eight weeks of football to sit atop the table.
After losing nine of their last 13, their current ladder position more accurately reflects where they are as a team.
The arrival of Ben Hunt might be the elixir they need. Without dominant forward performances where they roll through the opposition with ease, they struggle with creativity and class and fail to find ways to score against organised defences.
As for the Warriors, well, insert paragraph from last year here, and you’ve pretty much got it covered. I had both New Zealand and the Eels making the eight in a pre-season article.
Unfortunately for the boys across the ditch, the terms status quo and ‘same old’ just appear too ingrained to overcome.
South Sydney have continued the downward spiral since the 2014 Premiership. In much the same vein as the Bulldogs, the game appears to have passed them by in terms of flair and creativity. The style that Michael Maguire played in the premiership year just won’t stack up anymore and the sooner he and Hasler realise this fact, the better off both Clubs will be.
The Roosters have been the big improvers after a docile 2016. The minor premiership might be a touch out of reach, however, there is something to like about the consistency of their performances and their weapons in attack keep them dangerous at all times.
I would be throwing big money at Latrell Mitchell if controlling the purse strings at a club suffering from an impotent attack and happy to wait until 2020 when he is up for grabs.
That brings us to our basket cases for the year. The Tigers became something of a joke earlier in the season. Finally free of Robbie Farah and the associated emotion and romance that over-dramatised what was a smart move for the Club, the media hyped ‘big four’ became farcical and circus-like.
Mitchell Moses was the real winner, getting out of there before it was too late, Aaron Woods and James Tedesco haven’t had that luxury and as a result, both appear low on confidence.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
After an amazing coaching performance where Neil Henry led an injury ravaged Titans team all the way to the finals in 2016, the club has come back to earth with a thud.
After a full pre-season, Jarryd Hayne should have produced more and Kane Elgey’s return to the halves to partner Ash Taylor loomed as the missing piece of the puzzle.
Instead, the Gold Coast have only managed seven wins and the recent drop off in application has been noticeable.
Whatever unfolds in the coming months will merely reflect these stone cold facts around the fabric and culture of the clubs. Facts that were easy to conclude watching the way they went about business this season.
There is probably only one team that we didn’t learn much about at all.
We know all there is to know about the Melbourne Storm. Big, fast, clinical and efficient. You will not win the competition in 2017 without beating them.
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