The NRL premiership is still wide open

With only six teams remaining in the NRL premiership, who will take the silverware?

Will it be Melbourne again? Or are the Roosters the team to beat? Do we rule out Souths and Cronulla, or are they still a chance? What about Brisbane? They haven’t won a premiership since 2006. Can James Maloney win a third premiership with as many teams?

It’s anyone’s competition this year, with just a win separating first and eighth at the end of the home-and-away season.

It seems as if everyone is backing the Roosters, with Sportbet having them at a low $3.40 to claim their 14th premiership. Melbourne come in at second despite being without star halfback Cooper Cronk.

A Melbourne win will need to be off the back of strong performances by captain Cameron Smith. We saw on Friday night that when he takes control and organises, takes the pressure comes off young half Brodie Croft to deliver, with the confident 21-year-old playing arguably his best NRL game, delivering a crucial try assist seconds before half-time.

James Tedesco seems likely to be the man to take the Roosters to their second premiership in five years. The former Tiger had an outstanding performance on Saturday night, having two try assists and three line breaks in their crucial win against the Cronulla Sharks. The fullback had a slow start at his new club, battling injuries and finding it difficult to adjust to new structures, but he looks at home now at Bondi.

Excellent performances of late have given him an outside chance at the Dally M Awards as well as a red-hot shot at the Australian number one jersey, so expect Tedesco to create even more havoc in his first finals series.

(Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

The South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks fought hard on Friday and Saturday respectively, but both fell just short of having a week’s rest. Greg Inglis’s men will take on the Brisbane Broncos and the Sharks, less Wade Graham, will come up against Penrith Panthers.

For the Souths it will have to be the Burgess boys leading from the front. When they defeated Melbourne in Round 21 in arguably their best game of the year it was Damien Cook with a stellar performance off the back of the English mob’s metres and quick play of the balls that allowed the New South Wales hooker to scoop from dummy half while the defensive line was rushing to get back on side.

For the Rabbitohs to win the next three games they need more of this, which Anthony Seibold has built their season on.

The man to deliver the Cronulla Sharks to another title would have to be fullback Valentine Holmes. Recently he has looked at home at number one, helping Cronulla to win their last four games of the regular season to finish in the top four. Although it wasn’t to be for Cronulla on Saturday night, Holmes still had a solid game without it being spectacular.

Cronulla will need more from Holmes to beat the Panthers and ultimately win the premiership. When he goes to the right side and links up with the powerful Josh Dugan, Cronulla are at their best. Shane Flanagan will be wanting more of that from his fullback to keep Cronulla’s premiership hopes alive.

The Penrith Panthers have looked like a different team since captain James Maloney made his return in Round 25. The 32-year-old has led his side to victories over the Storm and Warriors, transforming a side that looked to be only making up the numbers a few weeks ago into a genuine premiership threat.

(AAP Image/Michael Chambers)

He has taken the pressure off Nathan Cleary, who now looks to be more relaxed and flamboyant, which converts into more points for Cameron Cilraldo’s men. With Maloney leading three different teams to grand finals, two victoriously, can he do it again? First they have to beat Cronulla in probably their toughest challenge of the year.

Now to the Dragons, and who saw that coming? A 30-point victory was their first finals win since 2010. It was off the back of a dominant display from their forwards, which saw them start the competition so well and leading for the first 16 rounds.

Although the Dragons put their best foot forward, it may be a difficult night for them against the Rabbitohs next Saturday. They will be without injured skipper Gareth Widdop and potentially New South Wales lock forward Jack de Belin.

They will need to their forwards doing the job if they’re to record back-to-back wins, as when they do, they take pressure off Ben Hunt’s long kicking game, which in turn frees him upto have the confidence to kick early on in sets, as we saw on Sunday. That put pressure on Brisbane and ultimately resulted in a win for the Dragons, their first over a top-eight team since Round 9.