1. Souths to go close
Given no team has won back to back premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 and 1993 the odds would seem to be against South Sydney retaining their crown in 2015. Then again, if they’ve managed to maintain an appetite for success despite last year’s bell-ringing buffet they are as well placed as anyone could be to go back for afters. Sam Burgess is a big loss, and Ben Te’o will be missed, but Glenn Stewart is a more than handy addition, George and Tom Burgess are not getting any smaller, and the likes of Greg Inglis, Adam Reynolds and Issac Luke are as dangerous as unexploded ordinance. Pre-season signs have been very encouraging for Souths fans with the Rabbitohs winning the Nines and running through St Helens like a razor sharp bayonet, but we should get an early hint of Souths’ disposition in the first six weeks when they have a testing start to their defence including a trip to Brisbane in Round 1, and games against competition threats the Roosters, Bulldogs and Cowboys.
2. A Maroons backlash
For eight long years between 2006-2013 the Maroons subjugated NSW; tethered them, if you will, to a chain in the stubbie-strewn backyard of their big ole’ Queensland. But last year, on a Wednesday night in July, NSW slipped the chain, pissed in their beer (though being XXXX Gold, the Maroons may not have noticed) and flaunted their liberation on live TV. But the ruling class don’t cede power easily and Mal Meninga’s Maroons may yet have a sting in their tail. Regime change is coming — Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis and Billy Slater are closer to the end than the beginning— but we’re not there just yet.
NSW appear to have an edge in the forwards (and Blake Ferguson may appear in the backs if he keeps his nose clean) but they’ll have to make that count otherwise they’ll be back on the chain before they know it, forced to look on while the Maroons and FOGS whoop it up; Billy Moore screaming at the moon, Chris Close cracking walnuts between his thighs, and Allan Langer in his underpants eating ice cream straight out of the tub. NSW’s year of liberation could come to seem like a dream.
3. Your standard stuff from Channel Nine
League fans without Foxtel (either due to its cynical pricing system or an understandable unwillingness to not put any coin in Rupert Murdoch’s pockets) will again be relying on Channel Nine for their NRL fix. The good news is that Nine will show Sunday afternoon games live throughout the season (unless you live in curtain-fading country north of the Tweed, that is: such folk will have towait until daylight savings ends at which time your state rejoins modernity) a move that will save us having to watch a ton of car and fast food commercials and allow us to use the internet again on Sunday afternoons without fear of stumbling upon a score. The bad news is that the billion-dollar product will still be broadcast in standard definition, which is like looking like a million-dollar view through a rain-spattered pane of glass (unless you live in a league backwater like Victoria where, ironically, you can watch on GEM in high definition). As for Nine’s commentary, one doesn’t want to pass judgement before a squirrel has been gripped, but hopefully Phil Gould and Ray Warren will be less inclined to bicker, and Channel Nine’s blokey banter can be kept to a minimum.
4. A decline in international relations
Rugby league doesn’t exist in an NRL bubble and we got a wonderful sense of that during the 2013 World Cup and the 2014 Four Nations, tournaments which treated us to some of the most competitive and entertaining international rugby league we’ve seen in some time. ‘We must do this again some time,’ we said afterwards and we actually meant it. Yet in the coming year the Kangaroos will play just a single Test, that being the May 1 match against New Zealand in Brisbane (and look for a fully-fit Kangaroos side to avenge their Four Nations final loss). It just feels like a wasted opportunity. But what was I saying about rugby league not existing in an NRL bubble? A double header will be played on the Gold Coast in May: Papua New Guinea vs Fiji and Samoa vs Tonga. New Zealand will also play a three-Test series against England at the end of the season (with games in Hull, Wigan and at the Olympic Stadium in London), while there’s a host of league being played around the world, like a two-Test series between Belgium and the Czech Republic in October and an expanded domestic competition in Serbia.
5. The second coming of Andrew Fifita
By the end of 2013 Cronulla prop Andrew Fifita was arguably the best forward in the game and to see him on the burst was to be reminded of that kid you used to play against when you were in the under 10s —the kid with the five o’clock shadow who was twice as big as everyone else, who drove himself and his girlfriend to the game, and who could, and often did, carry five or six kids over the line as they clung to him like barnacles on the hull of a liner. But between injury, contract disputes and personal issues Fifita endured a sorry 2014 and he all but disappeared off our radars. But, in good news for Cronulla and NSW, Fifita is fit and looking to get back to where he was in 2013. If he does he’ll make both those teams decidedly more dangerous.
6. Life in the old dogs yet
While youth will always beguile us, we can expect old timers like Willie Mason, Jeremy Smith, Jamie Lyon, and Brent Kite, to demand our attention this season, and hopefully for all the right reasons, not because they’ve become a train wreck so mangled and pitiful that we can’t tear our eyes away from them. Another such player is Benji Marshall who was once the brightest star in the NRL’s constellation. After a failed dalliance with rugby union Marshall signed with the Dragons after the start of 2014 and he played catch-up with his fitness and sharpness. But he improved as the 2014 went on and he now has a full pre-season behind him. His performance at the Nines was extremely encouraging and Dragons fans will be hoping his propensity to deliver rocks and diamonds will, as it used to do, lean more heavily to the latter. He’ll never be what he was, but he what he becomes may be no less enjoyable to watch.
7. A wrestling with the rules
Late in January the NRL Rules Committee voted for ruck changes to limit wrestling. This season, if the referees stick to the brief, the call of held will come faster and defenders will be obliged to release a tackler at the same time rather than make like a banana and peel-off one by one to their attempt to delay the play the ball to such a point their defensive line has had time to dig a trench and erect razor wire. The idea, of course, is that this interpretation of an existing rule will limit the kind of wrestling we’ve been enduring for a decade now, and in that, it’s a change most fans will welcome. But what will the ramifications be once the season settles into a groove? Will it lead to even more boring one out running as the attacking team looks to take advantage of a defensive line struggling to get back the 10m? (Wouldn’t a 5m rule work better with the new interpretation?) Will it advantage attacking teams with monster forwards or will teams with more mobile forwards be better placed, particularly in getting a defensive line set? The only thing we know for sure is that as sure as water runs down hill, some coach will devise a way to make the interpretation work in their favour.
8. The falling of the axe
It’s a cruel business, professional sport. For every champion that stands on a dais, every endless stream of confetti, and every token politician that some how photo bombs their head into the edge of a frame, there’s a headless corpse on the ground. The axe will surely fall this season but whose head will it take? How much patience will the Raiders have, for instance, if Ricky Stuart’s team becomes the competition’s whipping boy? What about Geoff Toovey? It’s crazy to consider it given what he’s already achieved at Manly but he’s already had to fight off rumours of dressing room unrest and what happens if his team begins the fade out they’ve been heroically delaying for many seasons? What about the game’s CEOs? Are they all safe, even those with their own fiefdom like the Dragons’ Peter Doust? Worst of all it would be a miracle if we get through the season without a player or two (or more) bringing themselves and the game into disrepute. We can but hope their inevitable crimes and misdemeanours harm nobody but themselves.
9. Discontent from the stands
It’s been a busy pre-season in terms of horse trading and only in the past week have the futures of a number of off-contract stars been settled. There’s no perfect way to do these things but it’s a shame we’re in a position where players announce they are leaving their current clubs before a ball has been kicked in their final season. As it is Kieran Foran and Trent Merrin, to name two players, will play out the season with Manly and St George lllawarra respectively before moving on to the Eels and Penrith. No doubt there will be fans of both Manly and the Dragons who would like them punished and to be made to play NSW Cup for the term of their natural life. But to demand loyalty from players in the current game is an anachronistic idea. Fans will just have to trust that players like Foran and Merrin are professional enough to give their all for the club whose jersey they are wearing at the time.
10. Bring the excitement
Cynicism and pessimism is easy, and like any other professional sport, the game we love is hardly perfect or free from criticism. But, at this stage of a season, when it’s laid out before us all shiny and new and still in it’s plastic wrapping, it’s time to shift to the edge of our seats. I for one eagerly await another year of bone-rattling collisions, breathtaking sleight of hand, and astonishingly athletic passages of play. As Thomas Keneally once said, “blow that whistle, ref”…
