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Opinion
There’s nothing quite like the pre-season hope of the NRL fan. The new signings are going to turbocharge your club’s premierships chances, your team has been “training the house down”, and Peter V’landys 585th proposed rule change only benefits your playing squad.
Yes, hope springs eternal in February.
Yet it represents something a little different for yours truly. Namely, it’s the time when I have to once again put my neck on the chopping block, and publish my fearless predictions for the year.
It’s always a fun exercise, made even more enjoyable by Roarers telling me the exact same prediction is both “not fearless at all, that’s boring and easy” or “absolutely stupid, has no chance of happening”.
So, drum roll please, because here we go again!
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Getting fearless early this year.
One look at the Dolphins roster is one look too many: you shouldn’t stare at ugly things for long. Yes, it’s not pretty in Redcliffe – or wherever this club is calling home – but as a new team, that’s somewhat expected. Though they did try to sign a superstar, they came up short, and instead filled the roster out with journeymen and youngsters.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
That means there will be plenty of growing pains for the NRL’s newest team. Wins won’t come easy or often, and almost everyone is picking them to win the spoon in their first season. But not I.
Wayne Bennett is worth a few wins all by himself, and there is enough talent there to win the odd game, and maybe even keep them off the very bottom of the ladder.
Didn’t take long for some Bulldogs bias to creep in. Prediction number two, and already I’m handing out some medals to my team.
Burton has already won a premiership, played Origin football, and represented his country, so it would be very easy to overlook the fact that he’s still just 22 years of age. He’s a relative ‘baby’ who still learning his craft.
He’s also an undeniable talent though. He has a super boot, excellent skills, and a touch of class. He shows glimpses being of legitimate superstar.
With some more playing talent around him in 2023, he may just fulfil that potential well ahead of schedule, and take home the NRL’s highest individual award in 2023.
There are 17 teams in the competition, so predicting that just one of them won’t make the grand final at season’s end doesn’t seem all that fearless.
Yet when that team has the shortest odds to win the premiership (just $4), and have made the last three grand finals, it does give you a reason to pause. In fact, you know a prediction is outlandish when you’re not really sure you should be predicting it, as you suspect you’ll be wrong.
However, the Panthers have lost some very good players, and making four grand finals is incredibly hard. As defending premiers, they get every opponent’s best effort, as everyone always wants to beat the best team. Additionally, when you make the grand final every year, you’re playing more games than everyone else, in a fairly gruelling sport. All of that may catch up with Penrith this year.
(That’s me trying to apply some rational logic to a very irrational prediction.)
OK, this prediction needs something a little more quantifiable, as ‘hot garbage’ is quite subjective and therefore hard to judge. A cynic may even suggest I did that on purpose …
How about we unleash one of my famed two-for-one predictions, and state the Tigers won’t finish in the bottom four, and will have a points differential of -120 or better? Both of these would be massive improvements on 2022’s efforts of the wooden spoon, and a points differential of -327.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
The Tigers have a pretty solid pack, which means they shouldn’t get bashed up too heavily in the middle of the park. While the recruitment of Api Koroisau will help give them a little more direction and dynamism in attack.
These are the two areas the Tigers needed to address, and have, so I think they’ll improve quite a bit in 2023.
1. Panthers
2. Roosters
3. Sharks
4. Storm
5. Rabbitohs
6. Eels
7. Cowboys
8. Bulldogs
9. Raiders
10. Sea Eagles
11. Knights
12. Broncos
13. Tigers
14. Titans
15. Dragons
16. Dolphins
17. Warriors