With 20 rounds to play, no Origin break and no byes, the eventual winners of the 2020 NRL season will justifiably hold their heads high.
This is no usual year but let there be no mistake, the victors on grand final night will have every right to call themselves the legitimate premiers.
However, just because our winners will be entitled to wear their premiership rings with pride and, in all likelihood, get a shit tatt to have their accomplishment forever etched into their skin, the other end of the table will be a different story.
Because while there is no asterisk to be found in the 2020 history books to delegitimise the club that claims the Provan-Summons Trophy (vale Arthur), there will be plenty of excuses for teams that inevitably struggle.
And while a wooden spoon season can be enough to see a coach get the sack – unless you’re Nathan Brown – there’s a decent chance we won’t see any team fire their clipboard holder this year.
So who’s got the best excuses in case things go pear-shaped when the comp resumes?
Stephen Kearney
Now in his sixth season as a head coach, the evidence suggests that while Stephen Kearney makes for a great assistant and a World Cup title proves he can lead rep sides, he’s probably not a long-term club coach.
In five completed seasons he has won just 35 per cent of his games, with the Warriors’ 2018 season the only time he’s steered a side to the finals.
However, the Kiwi club have indefinitely relocated to Australia and Kearney is their leader in what will surely be the most difficult season in their history.
It could yet be the making of both the Warriors as an organisation and Kearney as a mentor – they’ll certainly be everyone’s second-favourite team and the other clubs will hopefully show them the kind of respect Canberra paid them after their Round 2 match.
Stephen Kearney. Solid bloke but can he coach? (AAP Image/David Rowland)
But if things don’t go so hot and the Auckland-based team struggle for wins, reckon anyone at the organisation will be game to fire Kearney?
Regarded as one of the game’s nice guys, if it all goes to pot for the Warriors, the man doing his all to keep his players motivated in a foreign country for an undetermined period of time will be heralded as a hero.
I hope the Warriors make a fist of it and really shake the comp up.
If they don’t however, the coach can rest assured his job isn’t under any threat.
Paul McGregor
The man in the hottest seat in the comp at the start of the season, Paul McGregor kicked off 2020 with a pair of losses.
If things had continued the way things were going, you’d have to think ‘Mary’ would have been out of work by midway through the season – the Dragons having given the coach more than his share of rope.
But COVID-19 has reset the comp and, with it, expectations of what success and failure look like.
Funnily enough, what may save McGregor in the short term is the same person who looks set to cost him his coaching gig in the future.
His 2IC at St George Illawarra is Shane Flanagan, the premiership-winning coach who signed with the Red V this season after being deregistered by the NRL at the end of 2018.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor. (AAP Image/Michael Chambers)
Under the terms of his return to the game, Flanagan is not allowed to be a head coach until 2022, so while he acknowledged earlier this year that McGregor’s future was “the elephant in the room”, the club can’t shuffle their assistant up a rung if results don’t go their way this season.
If it had been any other year, you’d think poor results would have seen ‘Mary’ given the boot, with an interim coach keeping the seat warm for Flanagan until 2022.
But given the disruption to 2020, a poor season for McGregor is more likely to be forgiven, with the club realising it’s financially prudent to let the current coach ride out the next two seasons before replacing him with the bloke at the club whose CV is more impressive from a win-rate perspective, albeit far less impressive from a disciplinary point of view.
The Roosters’ three-peat
Trent Robinson’s team broke a decades-long record last year when they won back-to-back titles for the first time since the ‘90s.
And while they lost some serious talent ahead of 2020, with Cooper Cronk retiring and Latrell Mitchell heading to Souths, you’d be a fool to write off a team featuring the likes of James Tedesco, Boyd Cordner, Luke Keary, Joey Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Siosiua Taukeiaho, Victor Radley…
The Chooks are stacked with talent and have arguably the best coach in the game. If any club could win three from three for the first time since the Eels of the early ‘80s, it’s this club.
And, in fact, you could probably argue that with no Origin interference, Easts are in an even better position to mount a charge for an elusive third title on the trot.
But club chairman Nick Politis has already trotted out the excuses, arguing his side have been unfairly put out because they were 0-2 when the season was suspended and the new draw “makes it almost mathematically impossible for the bottom sides to make the top four”.
“If you change the draw, you’ve got to start again. If the current points are to stand, we have to play over a full season,” Politis told the Daily Telegraph.
“It’s like changing the race from a Melbourne Cup (two miles) to a Doncaster (one mile) after it’s already started.
He’s wrong of course – you don’t play to lose, Nick – but there he was, preparing his arguments for why his club will have been hard done-by if they don’t break an almost 40-year-old record.
Will the Roosters make it three in a row? Like I said, given the talent at their disposal, I wouldn’t put it past them.
But much like Kearney and McGregor, if the Chooks fail – and the definition of failure for that club these days is not winning the title – they’ve got their excuses locked and loaded.
The Barry
Roar Guru
“Separate competitions, separate teams, separate rules.” So what? The point is the premiers of those seasons have an asterisk next to them. They still trained just as hard, played hard, had luck with injuries and all the rest of the things you pointed out are part of a successful team
Nick
Roar Guru
Separate competitions, separate teams, separate rules. Super League and the ARL were different. "because of things that happened off the field outside their control" You make it sound like the players were innocent victims of the super league war. Every player consciously chose to stay or go.
The Barry
Roar Guru
No it’s a perfectly apt comparison. Two teams who did all the things you said, played hard, trained hard, prepared well and beat everyone in front of them but because of things that happened off the field outside their control, whenever people talk about those premierships it’s followed by a “yeah, but...”
Nick
Roar Guru
They are separate competitions... it's an irrelevant comparison tbh. If they were the same comp that split mid season, then yeah you'd have an argument.
matth
Roar Guru
I guess we will. I’m thinking it will have no asterisk for one team’s supporters and asterisks for the rest.
The Barry
Roar Guru
So is some teams playing all their home games at their home ground while other teams play all their home games at someone else’s home ground not a material impact? Are clubs like the Cowboys having to schedule their travel as fly in and out in the same day not materially impacted? Are the Warriors living away from home permanently and playing all their games in another country not materially impacted? Clubs like the Bulldogs and Eels get key players back in their team from injury who would have otherwise missed 1/3 of the season. Is that not a material impact? On top of that you’ve got rules being changed mid season Hypothetically, if the NRL only plays say four more rounds then has to stop again. But then gets the opportunity to re-start in September, in time for semi finals and goes ahead with the top 8 as it stands. Would that have an asterisk against it for you? What if the NRL only got to start in time for semi finals and made a call to play the semi finals as the competition stands after two rounds?
The Barry
Roar Guru
What about the two 1997 competitions...?
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
Yes but only because it let the Melbourne Storm back into the game and nobody needed that. :silly:
The Barry
Roar Guru
They don’t all have to have asterisks Newcastle’s grand final win in 97 is a good example. I was cheering for the Knights that day and when Joey sent Darren Albert over I was jumping around like a lunatic cheering It was a magic moment, fairytale, all the rest of it. But when you consider that premiership, as brilliant as it was it’s always followed by “well it was a split comp year” so yeah, to me it does have an asterisk I always count the 97 SL premiership when counting Brisbane’s and Wayne Bennett’s titles, but it has an asterisk for the same reason It remains to be seen what happens this year, but like those years and through no fault of the teams that won / will win, I think it’s more than likely to have that “yeah but...” after it We’ll see I guess...
Nick
Roar Guru
The Barry A material impact is when one team plays more/less than the other, or plays games in modified rules more/less than the other. For perspective of "material impact" check the Dutch and French football League determinations now that the season's were called off.
Nick
Roar Guru
Mate, if you want to think this season is an asterisk, it's your call. No other season has been given the asterisk treatment, and I - and a significant chunk of others, including pundits, players and coaches - don't think this season is asterisked either. Dragons don't consider the 2010 premiership to be asterisked. Roosters don't consider the 02 season asterisked. Cowboys don't consider 2015 to be asterisked. Cats in 09 don't consider their AFL flag to be asterisked. Not even in the strike affected American leagues would they asterisk a season that had a severely truncated H/A and full finals series.
Nick
Roar Guru
Hey, it's silly to misquote to promote your argument. You and I both know I said no such thing. Refs were told to change their ways mid season. That HAS an impact on the rest of the games. No ifs or buts. It does. All the changes you mention prove MY point. It is a harder season to win now. But it's a fairer season as a result. One team will be inconvenienced.... and that team is the one with the biggest challenges in regular years anyway. We agree to disagree, clearly. But you are in a fairly small minority (as you acknowledged).
matth
Roar Guru
What I’m saying is that there has been many different types of seasons including 2020. They either all have asterisks or not. I don’t believe we can single out 2020 as being more of an asterisk than other odd seasons. You may think they all should have an asterisk against them. I don’t
matth
Roar Guru
You can go with unprecedented if you like. I’ve certainly never seen it before. I think we agree to disagree on this one.
The Barry
Roar Guru
“No team has been materially affected by this” - that’s just not true. I pointed out multiple examples of teams that have been either negatively or positively impacted by the changes to this season Any comp that gets started as normal, paused for nine weeks, has its season shortened, rules changed, draw restructured, travel arrangements altered, scheduling revised, home grounds altered, played behind closed doors and the officiating system changed, before round 3 HAS to be considered differently to the seasons around it. I don’t know how anyone could possibly say otherwise Comparing what’s happened this year to “once upon a time some refs made some bad decisions” is ridiculous
The Barry
Roar Guru
But by your own rationale, all the teams are dealing with the same changes and impact. So relatively, it’s no harder So every player and coach has spoken about the multiple external impacts that will have an impact on this competition that have never occurred in the history of the game and you don’t think that marks this season different to any other...
Pickett
Roar Rookie
Can't agree Barry. You can say there's an asterix on any premiership - ref's decision, unfair draw, SOO duties, an act of treachury (1908: Here's looking at you Sou ffs) etc The rules are same for everyone and in fact there's no SOO, no undure crowd influence, no excuses - it's probably the fairest conditions I've seen for a long time. And in a couple of year's time we'll just see the name of the 2020 premiers and all the white noise about Covid, competition points, 1 ref etc will disappear.
Pickett
Roar Rookie
@ Adam - I don't totally disagree with your point on Uncle Nick.
Pickett
Roar Rookie
The brown paper bag was oh so 90’s Craig, when we were the Transit Lounge with no soul, spirit, passion. You remember the 90’s don’t you – you were in your prime ripping in against the Windies & the poms. We are no longer the Transit Lounge. In fact these days, our blokes play for love not money. Well, we play for the Provan Summons trophy – something we’ve had for 2 years running Craig.
T Bradley
Roar Rookie
That’s it Pickett...and on the off chance you don’t get it, throw a full brown paper bag at ponga for next season?