The footy is back, golden point has already been used, Round 1 is in the books and without jumping to conclusions three months before we should try to, it’s time for my first edition of talking points for 2018. Let’s jump straight in.

The Knights will improve on last year, but the jury is still out on their finals hopes
The Newcastle Knights have ‘won’ three straight wooden spoons, but there is a different vibe in the air this time around.

While new recruits help a hell of a lot, their own home grown talent is improving out of sight and Nathan Brown seems to be putting his stamp on the side.

They have been widely tipped to improve in 2018, with the success-starved, but still passionate fans in Newcastle packing out McDonald Jones Stadium for Round 1. In fact, there were more than 20,000 people in, which is one of the biggest – if not the biggest – Friday 6pm crowd since the concept was brought in at the start of last year.

If one team’s fans deserve some success, then it’s the Knights.

Kalyn Ponga and Mitchell Pearce led the recruits and both started strongly, while Jacob Lillyman, Aidan Guerra and in particular Herman Ese’ese were all strong in the forwards.

The season-opening victory over Manly needs to be taken with a grain of salt though. Newcastle only had to work it out of their own end a handful of times from start to finish, with constant penalties helping them out of their own end.

While the actual penalty count wasn’t bad, the position and timing off them helped the Knights big time.

Manly were far from 100 per cent as well, making plenty of silly errors and inviting Newcastle to win it time and time again.

So even though the Knights will definitely improve, the jury is still out on exactly how much.

Ben Hunt and Gareth Widdop will have the Dragons in the eight – but where?
The Dragons were one of the more impressive teams in Round 1. The first 20 minutes of their clash against the Brisbane Broncos was scrappy on both ends of the park from both sides, but the final 60 minutes were dominated by Paul McGregor’s men.

Their attack came together beautifully, the new spine working well together. Ben Hunt controlling things seemed to aid Gareth Widdop’s game, while Cameron McInnes looked in good touch. Matt Dufy’s touches were few and far between, but most were high quality.

As with any team, there is plenty to work on after the season opener, but the Dragons look to be in good shape.

The collapse of the Dragons in 2017 will be weighing heavily on the members who were apart of it and we will get a better idea of where they are at after playing Cronulla on Thursday night in Round 2.

Some have suggested a top four finish for the Dragons. I’m far from sold on that being likely, but anything less than top eight will be an abject failure for the Red V.

The sin bin is going to be a big part of 2018
The sin bin is back in Round 1. While there was increased use of it in 2017, it was still inconsistent at times and not used to its full potential to enforce rules around professional fouls.

Already in Round 1, it’s played a part with multiple players given a rest. Luke Brooks of the Tigers and Eels half Mitchell Moses were among them.

Playing with 12 men for ten minutes it a tough ask for any team and it proved costly for the Eels on Sunday afternoon with the Panthers putting the hammer down and never looking back on their way to the first two competition points of the year.

While the Tigers hung tough in the face of adversity, the sin bin is going to be brought out more than a few times this year, and it’s up to opposition clubs to work out the best way to manage that period of time.

Ten minutes can change the course of a game – even more so when a team don’t have the defensive resources – and if it used a few times per round on a consistent basis, don’t be surprised if a silly play costs a team a finals berth late in the season.

Have we all underestimated the Tigers?
Maybe. The jury is still out on the Wests Tigers.

Their victory over the Sydney Roosters was a most unexpected one. In our expert tipping for Round 1, less than ten per cent of Roarers voted the club – now minus James Tedesco and Aaron Woods – to beat one of the premiership favourites.

Telling those ten per cent Josh Reynolds wouldn’t play probably would have cut it even more, with the Tigers new recruit ruled out leading up to kick-off.

In his place stood the club’s returned prodigal son Benji Marshall, alongside Luke Brooks in the key halves pairing.

The Tigers had their backs to the wall, but ensured the Roosters didn’t score a point in the first half, then kept that level of defence up in the second to take a 10-8 lead.

Ivan Cleary has made the standards set of the club very clear in the lead up to the season, and they were on display during the first game.

While the Roosters were far from their best and are going to take plenty of time to gel as a cohesive unit, Tigers supporters couldn’t have asked for a better start.

On the other hand…

The Eels were supposed to be top four, but look anything but
Dear oh dear.

While the Eels were strong enough in the first half, they fell to bits during the second 40 with the Panthers taking the game away from them in a stunning comeback upset victory.

Brad Arthur’s side have been widely tipped to finish in the top four this season, but they looked a long way from that during the second 40.

There are going to be teething issues of course, with Clint Gutherson injured and Jarryd Hayne slotting back into his old stomping ground, but with the one, six, and seven of Bevan French, Mitchell Moses and Corey Norman unchanged, working with a new hooker in Cameron King, there were no excuses for the blue and gold.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Panthers who turned it on, but Parramatta have a lot to work on before they start winning games – and they can’t afford to wait too long.

Martin Taupau is going to go kapow
Martin Taupau is looking in very good shape to start the 2018 season. He played with a free spirit for the Sea Eagles on Friday night, offloading at will, dragging defenders with him and making an impressive amount of post-contact metres.

There has never been any doubting the physical attributes Taupau possesses. Put simply, he has the potential to be a Jason Taumalolo-like forward, who most pundits would rate as one of the top three players in the game.

For a metre-eating forward to be in the top three players in the NRL, you have to be very special, which JT is.

There is absolutely no reason Taupau shouldn’t be aiming for the same heights, and the way he played on Friday suggest at the very least he will be a key man for Manly this season.

The key area for Taupau setting him apart from other big bustling forwards is his offloading. He had six against the Knights, most of them high quality and given he dragged multiple defenders into every tackle – there is no other option or he will trample you – the space he created for Daly Cherry-Evans and Lachlan Croker, who by the way was impressive on club debut, was dangerous.

Manly didn’t get the job done, but in games they do this season, Marty Taupau will be a key part of the reason why.

Shaun Johnson and Blake Green might be a match made in heaven
Shaun Johnson has always played his best footy when he hasn’t had to manage the kicking game of his team. The Warriors half was ordinary last season, because he was leading a team with no realistic options beside him to score points.

His first round of this season was completely different and the key reason is new recruit Blake Green.

Green showed his worth at the Sea Eagles alongside Cherry-Evans last year, providing the perfect foil for the explosive Queenslander.

He will have the same role this year for an explosive Kiwi.

Johnson had some excellent plays in the Warriors romping of the Rabbitohs on Saturday night. While the Warriors biggest issue has always been consistency – something which will be answered in coming weeks – all the signs were positive in their opener, with Johnson dancing, dazzling and being virtually unstoppable at times to lead the way.

The Broncos don’t have a dominant half and it’s going to hurt them
I really do want to give the Broncos a few chances. They looked short of a gallop in the season opener against the Dragons, which is hardly a surprise.

It’s not the first time I’ve mentioned it on this website, but the Broncos played just one trial against an NRL club – that being the Titans in Toowoomba. Otherwise, they played Queensland Cup sides.

While trial form doesn’t count for anything once the first ball is kicked in anger at the start of Round 1, it does count for match fitness and combination building and the Broncos looked clueless at times against a strong Dragons outfit.

Match fitness or not, they don’t have a managing half. It’s the same problem the Warriors had last season – the one we have just talked about, although maybe not on the same level.

Anthony Milford is one of the most talented players in the game and will find a way to keep the Broncos in the middle of the ladder, but there are grave concerns for how far they can go after that.

Milford’s pairing with Kodi Nikorima screams problems, although judgement must be reserved until hooker Anthony McCullough regains match fitness. The Brisbane number nine only just made Round 1 fitness-wise after an ACL injury at the end of 2017 and came off the bench, clearly lacking his usual game.

Once he gets that back and starts to direct traffic more effectively, then a judgement on how much not having a dominant half will affect the Broncos can be made.

What role will Blake Austin play in 2018?
On Tuesday, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart made headlines by dropping half Blake Austin to the bench. On Sunday at 5:30pm, he made headlines again by changing his mind and starting Austin.

There seemed to be little wrong with Austin’s play during the first game of the season, but the Raiders, with Sam Williams and Aiden Sezer also on the books, have plenty of questions to answer this season.

Austin and Sezer have been their first-choice halves combination for two years, but last year was poor, to say the least, and Stuart will be keen to make amends.

While Austin’s explosiveness makes him the ideal man to get a team off to a good start, his consistency and combination – or lack thereof with Jordan Rapana and Joey Leilua at times makes him frustrating to watch.

He has to be in the starting 17, but Stuart has questions to answer.

JT and Scott are back – the Cowboys should be premiership favourites
The Cowboys played most of 2017 without co-captains Matt Scott and Johnathan Thurston. Take that much talent out of any side and they are going to struggle.

Both are legends for their club, state and country, and seeing he pair back on the field during Friday’s clash against the Sharks was sensational.

While Matt Scott – being a front rower – is going to take some time to get back into his work, Thurston was outstanding on his return.

He played well during the pre-season as well, but Thurston was almost fit at the end of the 2017 NRL season, so has had a full pre-season and seemed to handle the speed of the NRL well during his return.

JT has a huge role to play for the Cowboys, but joining the player of last year’s finals series Michael Morgan and a forward pack who all had to stand up in the absence of Scott, anything less than another trip to the grand final for Paul Green’s men in 2018 won’t be up to scratch if they can stay healthy – particularly with Thurston pulling the pin on representative footy.

Moses Mbye at fullback might just work for the blue and white
While the Bulldogs didn’t get the chocolates in their first game of the season over reigning premiers the Storm, it was far from a poor performance from new fullback Mbye.

He didn’t look quite at home, but in truth, he isn’t far away.

If Mbye can turn into a strong option at the back for Canterbury, it means Brett Morris and Will Hopoate can both be on the flanks – something they made their name doing.

On top of that, it gives them an extra ballplayer to go with Kieran Foran and the rest of the spine. Mbye is an explosive runner, to go with Michael Lichaa out of hooker and there is a feeling the pair could combine well this season.

The performance of Mbye at the back will be directly proportionate to that of Lichaa and Foran, and if the trio go well, Canterbury will make the eight – if not, it’ll be another long season for Dean Pay’s side.

How does Craig Bellamy use Sam Kasiano?
The transformation of new Melbourne recruit Sam Kasiano has been one of the key talking points out of the summer to arrive from the Victorian capital.

Of course, it’s not the first off-season with big Sammy was supposed to be a completely different player, but it’s never lasted long.

You get the feeling that might be a completely different script under master coach Bellamy though.

Still, it’ll be hard for Kasiano to stay motivated if he is only going to play limited minutes. While he is probably only an injury or two from a much-increased role, he played only played a short burst at the end of the second half in Perth against Canterbury.

It must be noted Kasiano has battled with an injury during the last few weeks of pre-season and he wasn’t even supposed to play in Round 1, originally named on the extended bench.

Whether his role increases remains to be seen, but all signs early on point to him having the potential to be an X-Factor for the men in purple.

Roarers, what did you make of Round 1? Drop a comment below and let us know.