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Opinion
The NRL season kicks off on Thursday night with 16 teams hoping to first be in the final eight and then be the last team standing with the trophy on grand final night.
Each week, The Roar will put a burning issue to our experts to get their opinions on the main topics for the Greatest Game of All.
Heading into Round 1, it’s only fitting that we see who they all think will be making the playoffs in 2022.
Former premiership-winning player and coach Michael Hagan will be a weekly columnist for The Roar this season and he believes there is a clear top six with at least another six sides in contention for the last two spots in the finals equation.
Check out his first column here on why the halves make a whole lot of difference when it comes to premiership campaigns.
And you can also have your say on each team’s chances of making the finals. Scroll to the bottom to rank their playoff hopes from 1-10. Give them a 10 if they’re dead certainties to challenge for the trophy or a 1 if you think the only prize they’ll receive in 2022 will be of the wooden spoon variety.
1 Panthers
2 Storm
3 Eels
4 Sea Eagles
5 Roosters
6 Rabbitohs
7 Sharks
8 Raiders
The teams defensively that can get their structure in place will be hard to beat as well as the ones with settled halves combinations. A lot of the teams that finished at the bottom last year will improve but probably not enough to make the eight.
1 Roosters
2 Panthers
3 Storm
4 Rabbitohs
5 Sea Eagles
6 Sharks
7 Eels
8 Titans
Canberra would have been playoff bound if Jamal Fogarty hadn’t been sidelined for most of the year in the pre-season while the Roosters should be back to legitimate title contention with Luke Keary giving them an experienced playmaker to steer around their talented team.
1 Storm
2 Roosters
3 Rabbitohs
4 Panthers
5 Eels
6 Sharks
7 Sea Eagles
8 Raiders
As always, the hardest part of picking a top eight is those final two spots. After a disappointing 2021, Canberra steal my final top-eight berth, with the Roosters to rise to the top once again after last season was riddled with injury.
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
1 Roosters
2 Storm
3 Panthers
4 Eels
5 Sea Eagles
6 Knights
7 Sharks
8 Rabbitohs
With a fit and firing roster, I just don’t see who beats the Roosters. Maybe when they’re down on troops over the Origin period. They’re a scary prospect. The Storm were minor premiers for a reason – Craig Bellamy drives unbelievable standards that he won’t let slip in his final years.
Penrith have lost a bit of depth this year but are too good to drop from the top four, Parramatta’s premiership window is the widest it’s been since 2009 and won’t be this open again for the foreseeable future so they have to make it count, while Manly were fun to watch but struggled last year against the superior sides.
Kalyn Ponga will have the year he’s been threatening to have his whole nascent career and Chris ‘The Chad’ Randall is heaps better than you think so the Knights will play at home in Round 1 of the finals, Cronulla’s new recruits will see them improve, but it takes time for these things to gel – especially when you’ve got a new halfback who hasn’t actually played that position in first grade – while there has been too much churn at the Bunnies in the off-season for them to be a top-four team.
1 Roosters
2 Panthers
3 Eels
4 Storm
5 Rabbitohs
6 Raiders
7 Sea Eagles
8 Sharks
Can’t see much change from last year’s top eight to this one. Before they copped so many injuries in 2021 the Roosters were 6-2 and had adapted to V’landysball faster than most. If they stay fit, they’re my pick for the JJ Giltinan. At the other end of the eight, the Sharks can go one better than last year but it was a toss-up between them, the Gold Coast and Newcastle, who wouldn’t look out of place here.
(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)
1 Roosters
2 Storm
3 Sea Eagles
4 Panthers
5 Rabbitohs
6 Eels
7 Sharks
8 Knights
The Roosters are going to be close to unbeatable with a full-strength side, given what they were able to accomplish last season with a team full of walking wounded. The Panthers will be in the top four but will have some carry-over pressure and won’t finish at the top. Craig Fitzgibbon will guide the Sharks back into finals contention, and I know you are all shaking your heads at me picking the Knights coming eighth, but I am putting it out into the universe in the hope it comes to fruition.
1 Roosters
2 Panthers
3 Storm
4 Raiders
5 Sea Eagles
6 Sharks
7 Eels
8 Broncos
The Roosters had a horror 2021 with injuries, losing Keary, Cordner, Manu, Billy Smith, Morrises, etc. That they even made week two of the finals was remarkable. Surely they’ll have better luck this year. With all their cattle on the field they will be formidable. The Panthers have lost a combined six games in the last two seasons. Anyone who thinks that form is going to evaporate is misguided.
Anyone who thinks the Storm will not be in the top four similarly needs their head read. In the past decade the only two times they have not finished in the top two was 2015 (fourth) and 2014 (sixth). That’s a 90 per cent top-four record. Craig Bellamy has the cheat codes.
When you talk about horrid luck, the Raiders’ 2021 was awful for injuries, suspensions and departures. Even with the injury to Jamal Fogarty, the squad depth is as good as anyone’s and they’ll be itching to get back into the winners circle on the back of some great experience and emerging talent.
The Sea Eagles have some outstanding talent which will see them figuring in the finals. However, their depth may not be as great as other sides.
With Craig Fitzgibbon, Nicho Hynes, Dale Finucane and Cam McInnes arriving, the odds of the Sharks again featuring in the finals are really good.
The Eels will make the finals but they won’t be one of the leading lights. The Broncos, led by Adam Reynolds, Payne Haas and Kotoni Staggs, will be the big improvers.
1 Roosters
2 Panthers
3 Storm
4 Eels
5 Sea Eagles
6 Rabbitohs
7 Sharks
8 Titans
Predictions are hard, because injuries and Covid will play havoc with tipping long-term. The Roosters have the best squad to cope with that, with so many battle-hardened players and youngsters with first-grade appearances already. That might not get them over the line in the finals, but in terms of piling up regular-season wins, they should be too good for most teams.
Melbourne and Penrith will keep on keeping on, but probably not at the same level as last year – that wasn’t sustainable. The Bunnies might well slide as Lachlan Ilias tries to replace Adam Reynolds, while the Sharks won’t get any higher than the lower reaches of the eight.
Kurt Capewell and Adam Reynolds (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
1 Storm
2 Roosters
3 Rabbitohs
4 Raiders
5 Panthers
6 Sea Eagles
7 Sharks
8 Eels
It doesn’t matter who they lose, Craig Bellamy’s perennial man-factory just keeps on producing. The Roosters ran fifth last year with a reserve grade team and with a quality spine, Vic Radley and the special sauce of Trent Robinson, they’ll be up there.
Souths skipper Cam Murray is among the best of his kind – and no-one’s really sure what that is – while the Raiders are the ultimate momentum team that plays fast footy and has a plethora of games both at home and in the day-time.
Penrith will be the hunted – they have superstar halves but it’ll be harder again in ‘22 while if Manly have Tom Turbo fit they can beat anyone but without him they’re back in the pack. The Brookie Hill tribe will pray for his hamstrings.
Nicho Hynes will bust out into the stratosphere for the Sharks and while Parramatta have too many good players not to make the eight, the Curse of Sterlo lives still.
1 Panthers
2 Sea Eagles
3 Roosters
4 Eels
5 Dragons
6 Raiders
7 Storm
8 Broncos
There is little chance of the Panthers being anything but a very similar form of their 2021 selves this season. Once again, they should be top of the pops come the end of the home and away season. The Sea Eagles and Roosters will be thereabouts, with a full season out of Tom Trbojevic and a better start, likely to improve Manly’s chances of making the top four. Look for the Eels to impress, the Dragons to be the big improvers and Melbourne to be not quite as dominant as they have been in recent seasons. A certain halfback will turn the fortunes of the Broncos and should the Raiders early injury woes subside, look for Ricky Stuart’s men to be very competitive.
Vote on which teams you think will make the finals below and we’ll bring you the results next week.
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