Opinion
All of us have some routine that helps us manage our lives. Getting up at a certain time, having a coffee or two before facing the day, a certain way of driving to and from work, all contribute to our stable normality.
Now imagine that routine is not only changed, but changed for month or more. That’s the challenge facing the 12 NRL clubs from NSW and the ACT.
The challenge starts with the timing. Those who will be travelling north, will be there by Wednesday. That gives them around 48 hours to get organised to go.
This sudden move will certainly have an impact on training and recovery schedules, especially for those teams who played on the weekend. Some teams have Friday games and will only have a few days to prepare.
The challenge doesn’t only affect the players. The NRL has stipulated each club can take a maximum of 41 players and staff to Queensland. That means clubs have to decide which staff will go, then those staff who need to take equipment etc, have to get that prepared, as well as organising themselves to be away from home for a month or more.
The challenge doesn’t stop once these clubs move north and settle in to their new digs. They still have strict Apollo covid protocols to adhere to and the Queensland government would not be amused if there were any incidents like those from certain NRL players in the past ten days.
Bearing all these things in mind, I wanted to offer some general thoughts who is advantaged by this sudden change and which clubs might cope better than others.
To state the bleeding obvious, the four teams that (currently) don’t have to change anything, the Storm, Titans, Broncos and Cowboys are advantaged. For them, it’s business pretty much the same as normal.
The Titans in particular could really benefit if the NRL decides to play all of their remaining games at Cbus Super Stadium. That’s a distinct possibility given they were scheduled to play the Cowboys and Storm at the Gold Coast anyway and all their remaining games are against relocated teams.
The Titans. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
The Storm are used to playing at the Gold Coast or Brisbane, so away games at these venues should advantage them, far more than the “home” teams. They also get to play their home games in Melbourne, so will enjoy that advantage, especially when they play the Panthers and Eels.
Another team I expect to go well are the Rabbitohs. Their 7-1 away record suggests they don’t mind winning on the road.
They also have a relatively easy draw of the Dragons (twice), the Doggies, Warriors, Titans and fading Roosters, which suggests they could be in with a sniff for a top two spot.
Two teams I think might struggle are the Panthers and the Eels.
The Panthers have made BlueBet Stadium something of a fortress in recent years, being undefeated there in the past two years. Not playing there for at least the next four weeks will challenge their resilience, which in turn will challenge Ivan Cleary to keep his young side focused on footy and not on other issues.
In similar vein, the Eels count on massive support when they play at Bankwest and I’m not sure they’re quite as good a team on the road, when that support is down in numbers. They’ll still have plenty of fans in Queensland, but the advantage they have from playing in Sydney will be lost.
Of the other top eight sides, the Sharks, with a very ordinary 2-6 away record, would be the least thrilled about the news of re-location. That said, they’d be delighted not to be playing the Raiders in Canberra in July and their run home is relatively easy in comparison to other teams.
It’s difficult to know whether the Sea Eagles, Dragons and Roosters will or won’t be affected by the move north. Manly needs to keep Tommy T and Daly Cherry-Evans fit and well to keep winning, Easts seem to be having a back end season fade, thanks largely to injury, while we all know what off-field obstacles StGI needs to overcome, as well as a tough run home.
We’ve seen some teams adapt extremely well over the past 18 months (the Storm), while others have had their struggles (the Warriors). The next month will be hard for the 12 re-located teams, that’s a given and the longer the clubs are based away from home, the more difficulties all will experience.
Many have bemoaned the number of lopsided score lines this season and the lack of upsets. I suspect this move to Qld could change the competition significantly, depending how well and how fast teams learn to cope.
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