The highly-anticipated draw for the 2015 NRL season is out and there are some matches and special occasions that are worth not missing.
Each club has now received their draw for what is expected to be another blockbuster of a season, each varying in difficulty depending on how your team fared last year.
There will be big winners and losers from the 2015 fixture, which will feature an Easter Monday triple-header, an unprecedented Anzac Day quintuple-header, the Bulldogs returning to Belmore, and, at long last, live Sunday football on Channel Nine.
Let’s look at some of the matches or occasions that you must not miss in 2015.
1. The opening round
As is the case at the beginning of every season, the opening round is one that must not be missed.
The opening round will be one full of blockbusters, with premiers South Sydney taking on a Brisbane Broncos side being coached by Wayne Bennett for the first time since 2008. Anthony Watmough will make his Parramatta Eels debut against his old club, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
But wait, there’s more.
The Cowboys will get a chance to seek some revenge on the Roosters when they welcome the two-time minor premiers to Townsville on the Saturday night. The Panthers will look to do likewise when they welcome last year’s runners-up the Bulldogs to the foot of the mountains on the Sunday afternoon.
The Sharks and Raiders will face off in the battle of last year’s underachievers while the Dragons will welcome the Melbourne Storm to Kogarah Oval on the Monday night to end the opening round of the new season.
2. Ben Barba versus Broncos, Round 2
Cronulla’s big-name recruit Ben Barba will not have to wait long to get his chance to make a statement against Wayne Bennett, who informed him at the Broncos that his place was not guaranteed, thus resulting in his departure from Red Hill after just one season.
Not only that, another Sharks recruit, Michael Ennis, will come up against the club for whom he represented between 2006 and 2008, missing their most recent premiership in the former year due to a knee injury.
While the Sharks have been dealt a commercially challenging draw due to their performances this year, it will be one of two Friday night matches the club will enjoy in 2015. Their other only appearance in the NRL’s premium timeslot coming four weeks later against Newcastle at home in Round 6.
The club will look to emulate their stunning comeback win over the Broncos from Round 16 this year, in which they came from 22-0 down after 53 minutes to embarrass the locals 24-22 at Suncorp Stadium.
3. Rabbitohs versus Roosters, Rounds 2 and 26
For the first time since 2003, traditional rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters won’t clash in the opening round, but their fans won’t be disappointed with the clubs set to clash in Round 2 instead.
It serves as a repeat of last year’s preliminary final, which saw the Bunnies end the Chooks’ premiership defence and the career of Roosters stalwart Anthony Minichiello, on their way to ending a 43-year premiership drought with a famous win over the Bulldogs in the grand final.
And should the two teams once again prove to be two of the best teams in 2015, their showdown in the final round, to take place at Allianz Stadium, could serve as yet another warm-up to what should be another great finals series.
4. The Easter Round
Next year’s Easter Round promises to be one of the biggest yet, with the grand final rematch between the Rabbitohs and Bulldogs taking place on Good Friday and an Easter Monday triple-header to take place.
180 days after defeating the Bulldogs to win their first premiership since 1971, the Rabbitohs will look to repeat the dose but will have to do so without at least four of their premiership heroes. Sam Burgess, Ben Te’o, Kirisome Auva’a and Apisai Koroisau are among those who will not feature in the rematch.
Easter Monday will feature a triple-header with the Eels and Wests Tigers set to attract another large crowd at ANZ Stadium, the Storm and Warriors to clash in Melbourne and the Panthers and Cowboys to round out the day on the foot of the mountains.
5. Anzac Day, Round 8
To mark the 100th anniversary of the first landing of the Anzacs in Gallipoli, five matches are being planned across a massive ten-hour block starting at midday and finishing at 10:00pm.
The New Zealand Warriors will kick off the festivities, hosting the Gold Coast Titans in the first match to be played in New Zealand on Anzac Day. Following that, the Newcastle Knights will face off with the North Queensland Cowboys in Newcastle, a mere six weeks after having met in Townsville in Round 2.
At 4:00pm is the main event – the Sydney Roosters up against the St George Illawarra Dragons in the Channel Nine match, which will go head-to-head with Seven’s telecast of the AFL match between Essendon and Collingwood.
But that’s not all – at 6:00pm, long-time rivals the Melbourne Storm and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles will face off in Melbourne, also just six weeks after initially meeting at Brookvale Oval in Round 2, and then it concludes with the Brisbane Broncos facing the Parramatta Eels at Suncorp Stadium.
Thus, Anzac Day 2015 promises to be a footy feast for both NRL and AFL fans with five matches in each code being played throughout the day.
6. Bulldogs versus Roosters, Round 10
The Round 10 showdown between traditional rivals the Bulldogs and Roosters shapes as a New South Wales State of Origin audition between the two sets of halves, Josh Reynolds/Trent Hodkinson and James Maloney/Mitchell Pearce.
Last year, Maloney and Pearce were both overlooked by coach Laurie Daley and were replaced in the side by Reynolds and Hodkinson. The move paid dividends, as the latter pair then went on to mastermind the Blues’ first series victory since 2005 with wins in the first two matches.
However, the Roosters pair would respond to their omission from the Origin arena by guiding the Chooks to a six-match winning streak between Rounds 21 and 26, leading the team to a second consecutive minor premiership in the process.
Thus, Daley will have his work cut out watching the playing styles of both the Bulldogs and Roosters’ halves as he plots to win New South Wales a second consecutive State of Origin series in 2015.
The two teams will meet again at Allianz Stadium in Round 21, well after the Origin series has concluded.
7. Glenn Stewart versus Sea Eagles, Rounds 16 and 22
One of the biggest stories of the 2014 season was the departure from Brookvale Oval of Glenn Stewart for the South Sydney Rabbitohs for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Salary cap issues forced the elder of the Stewart brothers out of the Sea Eagles, and as it turned out he would never don a maroon-and-white guernsey again after Round 8 due to an ankle injury incurred in April.
It thus makes the two showdowns between the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles compulsive viewing for league fans in 2015. Their second meeting at Brookvale Oval in Round 22 will be the one that guarantees fireworks, given Stewart will return to the ground which he once cherished as a Sea Eagle between 2003 and 2014.
And if Stewart and the Rabbitohs can gatecrash Brookvale Oval in their second meeting for the year, it will have Geoff Toovey calling for an investigation.
8. Bulldogs return to Belmore, Round 20
Rugby league will return to Belmore for the first time since 1998 when the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs face off against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in their spiritual home on Sunday, July 26.
Adding spice to the occasion will be the fact that two ex-Bulldogs, Ben Barba and Michael Ennis, will face off against the club whom they led in tandem to the grand final in 2012, which they lost to the Melbourne Storm.
In 2015, they will seek to lead their new club, the Sharks, back up the ladder after the psychological effect of the ASADA scandal resulted in the club winning their first wooden spoon since 1969.
Given what they contributed to the Bulldogs between 2009 and 2013 when in the same team, and the fact that the Bulldogs will be playing at their spiritual home for the first time in 17 years, a sell-out crowd could be on the cards.
For those who cannot attend the match, Channel Nine will televise the match live into Sydney and Brisbane.
Those are some of the matches and grudge showdowns that you will not want to miss in 2015. Of course, there are also the local derbies which will divide the fans of the clubs involved, particularly those between the Roosters/Rabbitohs, Panthers/Eels, Dragons/Sharks and Broncos/Cowboys, to name a few.
For many NRL fans, the countdown has already begun to Thursday, March 5, when the season will open between the Broncos and Rabbitohs at Suncorp Stadium.
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