The NRL pre-season is here and we are now just under a month away from the regular season.
As Round 1 draws near, four-time premiership winner Peter Sterling sat down to discuss the big issues ahead of the upcoming footy season.
Here is what Sterlo had to say on some of the hot topics including the Knights, Roosters and Cowboys.
Who do you see improving the most in 2018?
Newcastle. They’ll go up the ladder. How far I’m not quite sure because if they get a couple of injuries, the depth of the club is still a concern.
I’m delighted for Nathan Brown that I never had any doubt that he was the right man to take over a club that I thought was at rock bottom and there was only one way to go – but the way that you approach that is important. And Nathan Brown has been so impressive, he’s never panicked, he’s never looked for a quick fix, he didn’t go into the marketplace spending money willy-nilly, he was prepared to endure some really difficult seasons, which had to be the case, to get them to a place where they could be competitive and we’ve seen that progression.
You look at their squad now and it so much more competitive than it was two seasons ago but depth is still their concern. What they’ve done really well, to be a successful club and play finals football, you have to have your stars, I think Kalyn Ponga is going to be something special. They’ve now got Mitchell Pearce, so they’ve got some elite players. They’ve got Aidan Guerra who’s played Origin.
(AAP Image/Darren Pateman)
You need the young players coming through and that’s been the biggest thing for them is that some guys who now have 20 or 30 first grade games under their belt have got those a lot earlier than they ever should have done and ever would have done in different situations. But your real success comes from the middle tier of player that don’t get a lot of raps each week outside of their peers – the players they play with and against – they don’t carry the high profile but they’re a 7-8 every week.
Your Jacob Lillymans, those kind of players, and that’s an area that they build up. Jamie Buhrer, these kind of guys that are coming in. At Parramatta I liken our success, we had a lot of star players, but Steven Sharp the way that he played was as important as anybody else because he just went out there and got the job done every week.
I’m really excited for Newcastle under Nathan Brown and I hope he gets to stick around to see fruition of his labours, bare fruit, because there are better times for them. I don’t know about playing finals football this year but they will be better than they were last year and they were much better last year than they were the year before that.
I think he’s done a great job and I hope that there’s success coming his way because he deserves it and so do the people of Newcastle who have stuck solid through some dark times lately.
Speaking to the other end of the ladder – Storm, Roosters, Cowboys or someone else. Who is the best chance of taking out the premiership?
I’m not going to make a premiership tip before a ball is kicked but I think it’s fairly obvious.
You’ve got a North Queensland side that played in a grand final last year, and they’ve got Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott coming back in plus they’ve got Jordan McLean who I have enormous raps on and have no doubt will play Origin for NSW this year.
So the emergence of Michael Morgan, he’s a better player than maybe we all thought he was so his development has been tremendous as well. They’re a huge contender.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Melbourne again without Cronk, it will be interesting to see. It will be strange to see someone running around in the jersey but they are perennial finalists and they have the best coach in the business as far as I’m concerned.
And the Roosters, Tedesco coming across is exciting for them. No Mitchell Pearce which will look strange again but the depth of their squad is very very good. I thought Luke Keary was a real success for them last year.
I’d like to see a little bit more from their forward pack – I thought at a few times last year that guys like Jared Waerea-Hargreaves I expected a little bit more so if they can be strong through the middle then they’ve certainly got some strikepower. But I think they’ve got to be a little bit stronger in the middle than what we saw last year and no Kane Evans. Guerra is gone as well so there’s a lot of responsibility on the big guys up front to make it easy for the class out the back.
Stay tuned for part four where we will discuss cracking down on the play-the-ball, junior rugby league weight restrictions and international eligibility.
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