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Who are the NRL's biggest premiership pretenders?

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Roar Pro
29th August, 2018
6

The last round of the NRL is finally here, and after next week only 8 teams will remain with the dream of the 2018 premiership still alive.

These are my ratings for the best and worst of the candidates. As they haven’t played their final round, I have rated them in their positions after round 23.

8. New Zealand Warriors
This team should always be strong candidates for the premiership, but every year they end up pretenders. This season is no different.

A cracking start, a less than cracking middle and a reasonable finish. To be a Warriors supporter is akin to loving those daredevil rides at Disneyland – one minute you feel elated, the next you feel sick.

Outlook: Once they were Warriors.

7. Brisbane Broncos
If you can work out what’s going on with Wayne Bennett and the Broncos administration, you are a better man than I am. Their form has picked up dramatically since the drama was revealed, and I sense a fiendish Bennett plot.

A great win against the Roosters showed that this team could have the goods. However, excuse my scepticism, as I don’t believe that they can repeat their rare vein of form.

Outlook: At times they play like tired nags, at other times like wild horses.

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6. St George Illawarra Dragons
This team was flying high at the beginning. They had a number of State of Origin representatives, but after the series was over, so were they. They have gone backwards as fast as they went forwards.

Serious injuries to Gareth Widdop and Jack de Belin and an alarming lack of confidence by Ben Hunt has rendered this team an also-ran.

Outlook: They have been Dragon the chain lately.

James Graham

(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

6. Penrith Panthers
This team reflects the whole season – snoozy first halves and mad, helter-skelter second-half comebacks to amazing wins. Then, in scenes reminiscent of Canberra last week, their quite successful coach was sacked by Phil Gould even though it seemed he had done nothing wrong.

Then followed lacklustre form. Their talent is unmatched, their juniors are the best, but the club needs stability. The 2019 season can’t come early enough.

Outlook: They sometimes play like jungle cats, at other times like straggly tabbies.

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4. Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
This club has had a pretty good year. A tough but savvy coach and solid unyielding forwards led by the indestructible and never-retiring Paul Gallen have enabled their scintillating backs, including Valentine Holmes, who returned from State of Origin supercharged, to score some spectacular tries

Outlook: Can their players pilot the side safely through the shark-infested waters of the play-offs?

3. South Sydney Rabbitohs
Everyone’s second team, the Souths have the talent, the support and the ability to be premiers. I love the bruising Burgess family and the damage that Greg Inglis and Alex Johnston will do when they get some games under their belt. And of course they have Damien Cook, the fastest hooker over ten metres the game has ever seen. A team that literally can do anything. But will they?

Outlook: To win they will need to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Adam Reynolds

(Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

2. Sydney Roosters
The Bondi billionaires are not everybody’s second-favourite team, but they deserve equal favouritism for the big prize. Their backs are player-for-player the best in the league. Their forwards have their moments. I feel that with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves back instead of Dylan Napa they are more solid in the centre.

Victor Radley and Boyd Cordner are rare talents. Blake Ferguson on the wing is the most entertaining player this year. Whether he is fumbling catchable bombs or repeatedly running into James Tedesco and then scoring impossible tries, he is the centre of attention.

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Outlook: You need to get up early to beat the Roosters.

1. Melbourne Storm
They are rightly favourites to repeat as premiers. They have the best coach, the best captain, the best full back and probably the best number six in the game.

Their pattern of play is mature and consistent. They will never beat themselves, and their wingers have scored some breathtaking tries this year. It will take a team playing at their very best for 80 minutes to beat them.

Outlook: The Storm will win the lot. The only way to escape a storm is to beware.

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