Bring on NRL Round 1's glorious uncertainty

League fans have never wanted a season to kickoff more than this year. How good is it to get real, meaningful games back?

After the damage the game did to itself over summer, watching some actual rugby league is a welcome relief.

Predictions pieces are all over The Roar, tipping and fantasy competitions are back, and lunchroom chat has moved from being aghast at yet another video story to being aghast at AJ Brimson starting on the bench for the Gold Coast.

We’ve got a stack of new recruits, young guns full of potential and stories within stories that will reveal themselves as the year goes on.

But there are a few things I’m keeping an eye out for in particular.

The Roosters
Or more to the point, how coach Trent Robinson approaches the year. Since he arrived in 2013 Robinson has built a formidable 111-63 (64 per cent) record with two premierships and four minor premierships.

His 2018 grand final was a masterclass in preparation and execution.

It’s worth noting though that in the first ten rounds of their six seasons under Robinson, the Tricolours are a combined 33 wins from 60 games (55 per cent).

Robinson’s teams know how to pace themselves so they hit their peak when it matters.

They’ll be open to early criticism about how they’re travelling but don’t be fooled – if ever there was a chance for the first back-to-back champs in a long time, it’s this team.

Trent Robinson has had great results with the Chooks, but was that merely down to the roster he inherited? (AAP Image/Paul Miller)

Michael Morgan
When Michael Morgan last had the Cowboys to himself, in 2017, they drove all the way to the grand final from seventh position.

After a few uninterrupted years, Morgan’s injury-affected 2018 was one of the key factors in the side’s tumble away from contention when a lot of pundits gave them a chance to win it all.

Partnered with Te Maire Martin, Morgan’s leadership will be critical to North Queensland’s plans to get back into the eight. Make no mistake though, he’s up against it. He needs a clear run from injury and more from his forward pack.

He’ll need to be magnificent to make something of his decent, but not game-breaking backline, featuring new recruits Nene Macdonald from St George Illawarra and former Brisbane Broncos Tom Opacic and Jordan Kahu.

Morgan is one of my favourite players. What can he do with the team now he’s in the pilot’s seat?

Phil Gould, Ivan Cleary and Penrith Panthers
Ivan Cleary is back, Phil Gould is still there. Away from the club, Penrith had a rancid off-season but on the field, fans expect their team to be right up among premiership discussions.

Cleary has had to do a lot of fixer-upper work in his career to date, but now he’s taking a job where strong foundations already exist, the setup is purring, and there’s no need to call for a bus.

Penrith’s going to be running out a squad seasoned with finals experience that’s keen and ready to take the next step.

There’s also the influence of Gould, the general manager of football who’s more hands-on than most. ‘Gus’ has the ear and respect of most of the game’s key figures and, as he has shown over and over and over again, he won’t hesitate to act if he thinks something needs to be done to get the club where he wants it.

Just ask Anthony Griffin. Just ask Ivan Cleary.

Drama is never far away from the Panthers. And boy oh boy, have they contributed to their own problems this year. Who knows what else will come as the season plays out?

Ivan Cleary is reuniting Penrith. (Photo: Renee McKay/Getty Images)

Newcastle and expectation
The Knights finished 11th last year with an ordinary nine-win, 15-loss record. They started the year well with Mitchell Pearce, before a pec injury to their star recruit and consistently bad defence saw them yet again do little more than make up the numbers.

There’s a lot riding on the year for coach Nathan Brown. He’s got the squad he’s wanted since landing in the Hunter, this season adding proven performers like David Klemmer, Tim Glasby, James Gavet, Jesse Ramien and the underrated Kurt Mann.

Can Brown get this club where he wants them? The long, long-suffering Knights fans rightly expect some reward after turning out in numbers to watch the dreck that’s been on offer over the last few years.

Knights coach Nathan Brown. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Sydney’s playing surfaces
While the stadium debacle drags on ahead of the New South Wales election, the SCG is going to get Super Rugby, A-League, NRL and AFL games shredding a surface that has already struggled during AFL seasons when the cricket-pitch area cops boots and poor weather.

Get ready for a classic, cross-code blame-game as the SCG cops a beating.

With two of the biggest Sydney stadiums closed for the year, it shouldn’t surprise to see average crowds down across the board. The opening of the new Parramatta Stadium could save the overall numbers – let’s hope its surface is up to snuff.

2019 is a litmus test for those who advocate for more games at local grounds and would prefer the NRL goes ‘back to the future’. If no one shows up to these local games, what do we blame?

#RefsFault reloaded
Another season, another set of riding instructions for the referees – and this year, we’ll also get a weekly dose of NRL head of football Graham Annesley answering contentious refereeing decisions. What could go wrong?

“Some games will allow the referees to stay out of it, other games will require the referee to intervene on a far more regular basis,” Annesley told The Australian during the week.

“So I want them to show discretion and ensure they adopt the appropriate approach based on the game they are confronted with.”

Graham Annesley (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Referees are to ‘call it as they see it’ and leave the trivial penalties alone. All fine and good, I suppose. It shouldn’t take long for a team to lose a game because a few trivial penalties weren’t called, but that’s what the fans want, isn’t it? I’m sure they’ll understand.

I’d love to see Annesley get up on a Monday night and tell the critics to do one, but I’m not holding my breath. The NRL’s form for protecting its most important employees is nothing short of shameful.

With history as our guide, it wouldn’t be a shock to see these weekly reports become show trials to publicly hang referees who made one wrong call out of hundreds (even though they’ve been cleared not to make some calls at all. You keeping up?)

Whatever happens, we can rest easy that dozens of crisis pieces about how refs have lost control of the game are drafted and ready to post.

Expanded thinking from head office
If someone wrote 30 years ago that the 2019 NRL season would kick off with the Broncos playing the Storm in a packed Melbourne stadium, they would have been laughed out of town.

But we need that kind of imagination now. The game needs to think about its next move, and that move must be further outside the comfort zones of NSW and Queensland.

ARLC chair Peter Beattie and CEO Todd Greenberg are on the record saying the NRL needs to expand and the game’s strategic plan highlights it too.

Expect to see announcements at some stage this season that the Commission are into more advanced planning for expansion.

Whether it’s relocated teams, new teams, more teams, I don’t care. I just want to see that options are being actively considered.