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Could the Roosters win next year’s premiership without Sonny Bill Williams?
I can only guess as to whether SBW will stick with the Roosters or return to rugby union in 2014.
Before the development last night that he decided to make himself available for New Zealand in the rugby league World Cup, I thought it was pretty clear his first season with the Roosters would also be his last.
I thought he was just waiting a respectable amount of time before he announced a return to rugby.
Now, I don’t know. Maybe he just wants to play for the Kiwis while he still can, before resuming his rugby career next year, or maybe he is leaning towards a second season with the Roosters.
We’ll have to wait and see.
Recent noises made in New Zealand sounded like SBW was being “encouraged” to accept it would be best for him to return to rugby next year, rather than wait until the World Cup year of 2015, if he wanted to best position himself to figure prominently for the All Blacks in the event.
Let’s not forget, Williams only got five minutes off the bench in their World Cup final win over France in 2011, and the All Blacks continue to power on this year as the code’s major force.
It might be regarded as presumptuous of him to wait until 2015 to return and expect to walk straight into a major role in the team.
But, then again, SBW does love a challenge.
Obviously, the Roosters would be in prime position to make it back-to-back premierships if he did play for them again next year. But, for the sake of the argument, where would it leave them if he did depart, given that he had a massive impact on their season?
Still the favourites to win next year’s premiership, in my view, albeit in a wide-open market.
They face a huge challenge to go back-to-back, which the records show is so hard to do in the modern game, but when you line them up against the other most likely good chances they compare very well even without SBW.
The Roosters were a team on the rise this season – they just happened to rise so well that they ended up winning the competition.
They are far from being an old team – apart from Anthony Minichiello, who is set to move to the wing anyway with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck given an extended crack at fullback, and Luke O’Donnell, who may or may not be there next season.
There are so many players in the squad who should naturally be even better next year than they were this year.
Tuivasa-Sheck, Daniel Tupou, Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend are a few of the younger ones in that category, but even more established players such as Mitchell Pearce, Michael Jennings and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves are plenty young enough to be able to continue making big strides.
The beaten grand finalists, Manly, may well be right up there again. They have brilliant halves, in Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans, and a proven record in finals football.
But some of their older stars will be bordering on the veteran stage in 2014. Anthony Watmough has turned 30. Glenn Stewart will be 30 in January and his brother, Brett, 29 in February. Steve Matai is 29, and Jamie Lyon will be 32 in January. Brent Kite, who is 31, has joined Penrith for next season.
The memory of how Cooper Cronk had a shocker, Cameron Smith was no better than average and Billy Slater was below par when Melbourne were eliminated by Newcastle in week two of the finals series is still fresh.
Smith and Slater have turned 30. Cronk turns 30 in December. Do the Storm look as well placed to challenge for the title next year as the Roosters do, even without SBW? I don’t think so.
That leaves the other top-four team from this year, South Sydney. Their immediate challenge is to somehow overcome the mental scars that are surely there as a result of the way they exited the finals in week three.
After building a 14-0 lead against Manly they conceded the next 30 points along the way to losing 30-20.
After the Sea Eagles had powered their way to the lead in the second half, the Rabbitohs began looking like rabbits in the headlights.
Souths haven’t made a grand final in 42 years, and that burden seems to have been heavier to carry than we realised.
But the Rabbitohs are still a mostly-young team with a huge amount of promise. They have just got to find a way to take that extra step into the last game of the season, and right now they look the biggest threats to the Roosters next year.
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