The NRL pre-season is over and the footy is here. Over the past months there has been lots of talk about the clubs that have recruited well over the off season and what it means for their premiership chances in 2016.
The Sea Eagles, Warriors, Eels and Sharks have all been talked up as clubs who have recruited well and could be contenders for the 2016 premiership.
Yet in Round 1 each of them have lost their first encounters and a few of them looked anything but contenders going down to the Bulldogs, Tigers, Broncos and Cowboys respectively.
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To be fair to the Sharks they took the Cowboys right to the wire and the Eels showed some grit in their second half against the Broncos. And it’s not to say any of them won’t be premiership contenders as we must remember last year the Broncos were thrashed 36-6 by the Rabbitohs in Round 1, and the Cowboys lost their first three before scraping past the Storm by a point in Round 4.
But what it does highlight is that a roster doesn’t make a team. These four clubs have all recruited well and everyone has been talking about their ‘rosters’ but the key for these clubs is to turn their good rosters into a good team. It was clear in Round 1 that these clubs were struggling a little (as can be expected) against clubs with the exception of the Tigers (still a work in progress) who are very good teams with a stable starting team particularly in the spine.
Each of the Eels, Sea Eagles, Warriors and Sharks have at least two if not three members of their spine who are new to their club in 2016.
For the Eels Michael Gordon and Kieran Foran, plus Nathan Peats has missed quite a bit of footy over the past few years. For Manly Api Korasai and Dylan Walker are new and they lost Brett Stewart to injury meaning a very unfamiliar spine for their first match of the year.
The Warriors have Roger Tuivasa-Scheck, Jeff Robson and Issac Luke new to the club, and the Sharks have Chad Townsend anda James Maloney added to their team. Ben Barba played very little fullback last year.
Can the coaches of these teams turn their rosters into teams that can contend for the 2016 premiership? It’s a long competition so they certainly have time, but they also will need to get a good number of wins over the first couple of months as winning the comp from outside the top four is almost impossible to do.
Out of the four I think the Sharks have the best chance of contending, but it will certainly be interesting to see how they all fair in 2016.
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