In Part 2 of my season preview series, we’ll look at the NRL clubs that have already written off the upcoming season and are instead focusing their attention on 2022.
St George Illawarra Dragons
Key additions: Poasa Faamausili (Roosters), Jack Bird (Broncos), Daniel Alvaro (Eels), Andrew McCullough (Broncos)
Key subtractions: Tyson Frizell (Knights), Euan Aitken (Warriors), James Graham (St Helens), Jacob Host (Rabbitohs), Korbin Sims (Hull KR), Jason Saab (Sea Eagles)
Recap of 2020: the Dragons entered the 2020 season with a coach under extreme pressure, a star player facing imprisonment, and a pair of overpaid playmakers struggling to justify their spots. Shockingly, this environment of fear and uncertainty was not conducive to success, with St George Illawarra finishing 12th.
Paul McGregor coached like a man waiting to be fired. He chopped and changed with the callousness of a NSW Origin selector, using eight different combinations along the spine in only 20 rounds of football, and failed to use the same combination twice until Round 6.
Much like my brother’s relentless adjustments to his golf swing, these constant changes robbed the side of any chance to build consistent form.
Emblematic of this madness was Ben Hunt – the former Bronco started the season at halfback, then moved to five-eighth, hooker and bench utility, before finding his way back into the halves. Hardly the best use of a player absorbing ten per cent of the team’s salary cap.
The only positive note in an otherwise wasted season, apart from the mercy firing of McGregor, was the emergence of Zac Lomax, with the Temora junior quickly developing into one of the better centres in the competition.
Outlook for 2021: with the McGregor era confined to the history books, the Red V had the opportunity to appoint a new coach to revitalise the team and energise the fan-base. Sadly, Craig Fitzgibbon declined the role and the club was forced to offer the job to Anthony Griffin.
Tasked with shaking up the joint, Griffin wasted no time. Hook’s first order of business was an attempt to lure cross-code carcinogen Israel Folau out of sporting purgatory, followed quickly by allowing club captain Cameron McInnes to sign with bitter rivals Cronulla.
In his place, Griffin signed a 31-year-old veteran of almost 300 NRL games who was last seen having his hamstring surgically reattached to the bone.
Needless to say, the Dragons are in for a tough year. The prospect of Hunt and Corey Norman returning in the halves was already unpalatable, but the loss of McInnes is enough to make fans gag. The departures of Tyson Frizell and James Graham further weakens a forward pack still suffering from the absence of Jack de Belin, and the signing of an injury-prone Jack Bird does little to ease the pain.
As an organisation, 2021 will be St George Illawarra’s band-aid season. Ripping it off in one fell swoop will be painful but could lead to fresh hope in 2022. A future devoid of Hunt, Norman, de Belin and even coach Griffin might be worth a wooden spoon.
I hope someone at Kogarah kept Fitzgibbon’s number.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Wests Tigers
Key additions: James Roberts (Rabbitohs), Stefano Utoikamanu (Eels), James Tamou (Panthers), Joe Ofahengaue (Broncos), Daine Laurie (Panthers)
Key Subtractions: Chris Lawrence (retired), Chris McQueen (Huddersfield), Robert Jennings (Panthers), Matt Eisenhuth (Panthers), Harry Grant (Storm), Josh Aloiai (Sea Eagles), Josh Reynolds (Hull FC), Elijah Taylor (Salford Red Devils), Benji Marshall (Rabbitohs), Paul Momirovski (Panthers)
Recap of 2020: sometimes I feel as though the Tigers are trapped in some bizarre timewarp where the players and coaches keep changing, but the problems at the club remain the same. Once again in 2020, they finished just outside of the top eight and were only a few key moments shy of breaking a nine-year finals drought.
Halfback Luke Brooks reprised his role as the perennially underachieving playmaker and team punching bag. His meagre tally of five try assists were dwarfed by the 21 accumulated by his geriatric halves partner and were certainly not good enough to justify his position in the side.
Luke Brooks of the Tigers (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Moses Mbye continued his nomadic drift across the team sheet. Despite his obvious talent, the former Bulldog can’t lock down a fulltime position. At least he had company, as overpriced utility Adam Doueihi joined his tour of the backline.
And no Tigers season would be complete without the side being burdened by prohibitively expensive players signed by a previous regime who were either sitting on the sidelines or starring for another club. The 2020 iteration of this ongoing nightmare was Josh Reynolds and Russell Packer – the pair pulled down a reported combined salary of $1.5 million for a total of 17 games between them.
Most painful of all had to be the play of hooker Harry Grant. The Storm superstar, on loan while Cameron Smith penned the final chapter in his fairy tale, was clearly the Tigers’ best player. His impact was on display in almost every set of six, and he showed the rare ability to improve the play of those around him. Grant will haunt the black and gold for years to come.
Outlook for 2021: of all the tortured fan-bases in the NRL, Tigers fans deserve the most sympathy. What reason have they got to be confident heading into this season? Is Luke Brooks, now entering his ninth season of first grade, suddenly going to emerge? Will Jacob Liddle and his titanium knees finally fulfil his potential? Will coach Michael Maguire recapture the magic he discovered at South Sydney? Not bloody likely.
In an ongoing effort to improve their roster, the Tigers did what they do every off-season – they got rid of a bunch of average players and signed a fresh bunch of average players. This year’s crop is headlined by 32-year-old James Tamou, a freshly rehabilitated James Roberts, and a player not deemed good enough to continue at the Brisbane Broncos.
By all reports, the Tigers have some quality youngsters on the verge of making their presence known in first grade. Big things are expected from halfback Jock Madden and hooker Jake Simpkin, while newly signed fullback Daine Laurie may begin to erase some of the agony left by the departure of James Tedesco.
This season should be all about maximising the opportunities for these kids to get on the paddock. For a team that won’t qualify for the finals anyway, wins and losses are irrelevant. Wests should have their sights firmly set on next season, and finally moving into a promising era of Tigers football.
Wests Tigers (Matt Blyth/Getty Images)
Cronulla Sharks
Key additions: Aiden Tolman (Bulldogs)
Key subtractions: Cameron King (retired), Jayson Bukuya (retired), Scott Sorensen (Panthers)
Recap of 2020: the Sharks are one of those sides that look fantastic on paper but fail to translate name recognition into quality performances. Any team with a veteran nucleus of Andrew Fifita, Matt Moylan, Josh Dugan, Shaun Johnson and Wade Graham should win more games than they lose. The tricky part is getting those blokes off the physio table.
Objectively, Cronulla had a good year in 2020. They finished in eighth position and qualified for the finals, an unwritten benchmark for success at any NRL club. They had the competition’s sixth strongest attack and generally showed signs of growth under coach John Morris.
After a slow start to the year, the Sharks caught fire thanks to Johnson’s purple patch of form. The former Warrior went on a Cooper Cronk-inspired mid-season tear, leading his sides to victory in seven of nine games. During this period, Cronulla averaged a whopping 30 points per game and Johnson was leading the league in try assists.
When Johnson’s Achilles tendon exploded in a Round 19 loss to the Roosters, with it went any hope Cronulla had of contending. An attack led by Chad Townsend might look good in a Fox Sports promo or a Head and Shoulders commercial, but it won’t win you premierships.
Outlook for 2021: there’s no surer signal of a club looking towards the future than a CEO negotiating to sign a new coach before the season has even started. And while you can’t blame the club for coveting Craig Bellamy, you’ve got to feel for Morris. From rumours of Shane Flanagan’s return to whispers about Craig Fitzgibbon and now this, the bloke never got a fair go.
As disrespectful as it might seem, the Sharks are right to look forward. Relying on the current veteran core to remain healthy is borderline negligent – Fifita and Moylan should consider medical retirement, Johnson is a long shot to return the same player, and Dugan needs an exorcist to remove some of the phantoms inhabiting his limbs.
The good news for fans is that the salary cap situation will look much healthier after this season. Dugan, Johnson, Moylan and Aaron Woods are all off contract, and should free up over $3 million in available funds. If they can rid themselves of Fifita, that pushes the figure closer to $4 million.
In the unlikely scenario that the Sharks do convince Bellamy to relocate to Sydney, their fortunes will change overnight. Having the code’s highest-profile coach with half of the team’s salary cap to spend could set this club up for years to come.
Up, up Cronulla (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Newcastle Knights
Key additions: Bailey Hodgson (Castleford), Tyson Frizell (Dragons), Sauaso Sue (Bulldogs)
Key subtractions: Aidan Guerra (retired), Tim Glasby (retired), Herman Ese’ese (Titans), Andrew McCullough (Broncos), Sione Mata’utia (St Helens), Mason Lino (Wakefield Trinity), Tautau Moga (Rabbitohs)
Recap of 2020: last year felt like the season that Newcastle had been building towards. After years of pain brought about by a full roster reconstruction, the Knights finally had a squad capable of contending for a premiership.
Sadly, it just wasn’t to be. The Knights started the season strongly enough, only losing one of their first six games, however a string of season-ending injuries to their top three dummy-half options severely stifled their attack, robbing them of any chance to form consistent combinations along the spine.
Injuries aside, Newcastle’s star players were poor. Halfback Mitchell Pearce regressed from his Dally M form of the previous year. His 16 try assists were 13th in the competition, fewer than the likes of Scott Drinkwater and Kodi Nikorima. And most alarmingly for a player who prides himself on defence, Pearce led the entire NRL in missed tackled (73).
It was a similar story with fullback Kalyn Ponga. After bursting onto the scene in 2018, Ponga looked predictable last season. His shimmy-shimmy-whoosh move to get on the outside of his opposite number was no longer fooling the defence, while his backfield carries seemed to lack venom. Calf and shoulder injuries were certainly a factor, but the Knights would have hoped for more from their marquee player.
Outlook for 2021: while hardly the ‘off-season from hell’, the club would have hoped for smoother sailing. Pearce was engaged in some texting shenanigans which saw him stripped of the captaincy and the respect of his teammates, coach Adam O’Brien copped some negative press after a couple of schooners at the Broadmeadow races, and poster boy Ponga was unable to train fully with the side as he recuperated from shoulder surgery.
Kalyn Ponga (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
On a positive note, while the Knights lost over 750 games of NRL experience with the departure of several veterans, the addition of Tyson Frizell will improve their pack and add big-game experience.
But the situation with Pearce bears watching. Off contract at the end of the season, the former Rooster has made it clear that he wants a multi-year extension. Newcastle have baulked at this suggestion, instead offering Pearce a one-year deal at a dramatically reduced rate.
Such callous treatment of a premier playmaker is rare in the NRL and a clear indication that Newcastle is happy to move on without Pearce. And for good reason.
Whether it happens this season or next, this team belongs to Ponga. His shift into the halves and appointment as captain are inevitable, so prolonging the Pearce era makes little sense.
Heyou
Roar Rookie
Thanks for a great read. Rocking rollercoaster of a first half of the season for the Dragons is how I see it. The second half of the season should be characterised by a fairly settled seventeen working together to rack up some hard-fought wins. There is evidence of spark in attack and the possibility of some great combinations cracking opposition defences, if they can just follow through to completion. Captain Hunt may just play his way into great form and inspire his teammates. We might find a solution to our forward pack lacking in firepower atm and even work out our ruck nightmares. If the team selection is based on merit, I don’t believe we will see Norman in the first grade side on a regular basis, barring a big improvement. We have some young hopefuls who give me hope. They are already knocking on the door, if not bent on smashing the door down to make their presence felt. The Dragons’ latest recruits have caused a stir among the faithful, many who believe we are bent on running a retirement village for the aged AND the infirm. Maybe they have a point but... maybe they don’t and we will see great work from our 30 and overs. Who the heck knows? My personal crystal ball ???? is pretty useless. I think it’s broken... or it could just be the old Gypsy looking into it is half blind and wearing dragon-coloured glasses.
Boingo
Guest
Fizzle is overrated. "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane" definitely applies.
Boingo
Guest
Yikes...
mushi
Roar Guru
I can see the tigers eulogy: Luke Brooks died last night in his sleep at age 92. Coaching staff still believe he could grow into an elite half back next year.
matth
Roar Guru
I was being sarcastic
matth
Roar Guru
Hence the Mitch Marsh school of potential for a decade.
mushi
Roar Guru
Leaving aside Tedesco’s contract (we’ll never know if it was he or the tigers telling the truth here) I’d find that more a reason to bag management. If you can’t outbid to keep players you have on the books then management has failed catastrophically. That would be true in an industry, more so in one reliant on talent. If there was collaboration within the club they have money, supporters and a huge junior base. And they are what the 13th or 14th best team of the past 10-20 years, despite those advantages. It just baffles me. The tigers cap worries, heck every teams, have been created by themselves doing the exact opposite of what you said they offered up Woods etal – comically overpaying for external players. So of course that creates tension when you have to say look for the [insert number here] time we’ve screwed the cap but if you could take this offer to bail us out it would be great. I think Grant’s stint is a huge alarm bell. It shows that they don’t have any key player approaching elite in that team regardless of what they’ve spent on guys. At the same time they’ve got ex tigers players playing that role at other clubs. They’re now stuck in a bit of a conundrum, surely amongst players they’re now that +10% club in that you need to be over paid to go there. And bringing young guys through is hard on the W/L which is then hard to keep them. I think the tigers staff responsible for all this would rather believe they “let” Tedesco go rather than every major decision they made was so rubbish he wouldn’t stay.
Greg
Roar Pro
Mate, I totally understand Tedesco leaving. Tigers were a basket case at the time, and only marginally better now. If he was my mate asking for advice at the time I'd be telling him to go to the Roosters. I just don't like the bagging of clubs for "letting" players leave when they have tried to retain a player but the player has actively chosen to play elsewhere, whether that be for financial reasons or for premiership chances or any other reason. Perhaps you are right and Tigers did offer the highest price. It just further emphasizes that the club didn't choose to not re-sign him. From what I vaguely remember (from so long ago) there was limited cap space to fit in all of Tedesco, Moses, Brooks and Woods. All were given fair but not massive offers, offers that matched the players standing at the time, but didn't compensate them for having to play at a disfunctional club.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
That's the first time I've heard them called "the merge". Well done.
Randy
Roar Rookie
yep.... 2018 will always be remembered as the year the merge nearly won their 2nd premiership LOL
mushi
Roar Guru
Actually it's more like an investment manager saying they hit the benchmark returns for your risk allocations which. You know like what those vanguard and other etf's with ~5 trillion in FUM do.
mushi
Roar Guru
Well you could say the decision was made for him by the roster right? (I thought teddy claimed the Tiger’s offer was the highest) He’d already tried to leave once before and they convinced him to stay, then he got years of in fighting, losses, coaching carousel and was somewhat tarnished by it all. Seriously if that was a marriage, and Teddy your relative or friend, you’d intervene for emotional abuse.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
New coach, new dawn. But they'll probably have to kick out Melbourne somehow.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
Paul McGregor was a centre who couldn't get his forwards firing but he was the coach in 2018 and close to a premiership winning coach. He was frustrated and perplexed by his team's poor performances as evidenced by his comments that many of the tries scored against his team were from kicks. In his defence bombs are used because the bash, barge and bomb is the most common way of scoring tries. The bomb means teams need to have big strong forwards to get close to the line where anyone can boot the ball in the air for the lucky dip bomb. Creative forwards aren't needed, only players who can look up in the air as they obstruct the defence and attackers. Referees could improve the game by penalising such tactics but it would still come down to tall players having an unfair advantage. Rugby League could be the greatest game if they could reduce the effects of the bomb. When we copied US Football we should have taken the rule that on the last tackle (down) they have to kick a field goal or give the team the ball. They don't have the bomb and it means their early tackles have to be creative in attack rather than use the bash barge that gets closer for successful bombs..
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
The Dragons have had two poor years where they faded badly after better than average starts but they only have to reproduce their 2018 form and they'll be looking at their second premiership. In 2018 they could've been minor premiers if not for embarrassing losses to lowly Canterbury, Penrith and Parramatta but they did thrash Brisbane in the elimination final. They would've been in the Grand Final if not for an incredible brain fade against Souths in the preliminary final. Widdop kicked a beautiful penalty goal to put them in front and then the kick off wasn't going to make the 10 metre line but a Dragon touched it giving Souths the penalty that should've gone to the Dragons. From the penalty Souths scored the winning try. They probably would've lost to the best team, Easts, in the grand final.
KenW
Roar Rookie
So to be clear, the argument for the Dragons is that other teams have been a whole lot worse. It's not a high bar admittedly, I'm not going out to get a tattoo proclaiming it - but we're talking about the spoon here. Winning at least twice as many games as the team that came last means they were never really close to getting one.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
Haven't played finals since 2011. Players want to go to successful clubs
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
He had the Panthers in great form when he was punted and I like the way he talks about giving our juniors more opportunities.
Greg
Roar Pro
Whilst I agree with your assessment of the Tigers and do also attribute their woes to poor personnel decisions, I think those you have highlighted are incorrect. In regards to Tedesco, Tigers were outbid by the Roosters who not only offered more money but also all the perks of playing in a premiership contender. There was no decision to not resign Tedesco. And Moses has delivered little more than Brooks despite playing behind a far superior pack. They don't need a complete rebuild. Their years of being competitive (without any actual success) shows they aren't to far off. I think the youth they have invested in the last 2 seasons will pay dividends in a couple years time. The challenge will then be retaining these players, which they may be able to do given all their high priced recruitment blunders of the past few years will be over by then.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Sure, doubt many clubs quantify successful seasons based on their for and against.