Running a sporting competition like the NRL must be like running a large household – or, at times, a school for wayward boys. The moment you sit down with a job-done snifter of brandy the hot water system packs it in or the middle child drops a bombshell: he’s joining the young Liberals.
Last season, for instance, wasn’t necessarily a happy one for the NRL, bruised as it was by Parramatta’s salary cap breach, a transgression that led to the club being docked 12 points and saw its board of directors banned. By October, however, the NRL was delighted with a thrilling grand final in which the Cronulla Sharks, playing the role of fairytale princesses – albeit ones with breeze block heads and arms as inky as ancient texts – won their first, who-woulda-thought-we’d-see-the-day premiership. The folk of the Shire haven’t been happier since Bilbo’s 111th birthday party.
Instead of riding that momentum into 2017 – a momentum given a further boost by the Kangaroos’ fine showing in the end-of-season Four Nations – the NRL have had to put down their brandy balloon to deal with serious issues concerning Jarrod Mullen, James McManus, Semi Radradra and the Wests Tigers’ Tim Simona. League administrators, come February, must answer the phone with a grimace and a tremulous “Yessss?”
Simona, of course, is currently under investigation for (in 2016) allegedly breaching betting rules. Most fans, I’d venture, usually feel for NRL suits whenever off-field scandal strikes but on this occasion it’s harder to muster sympathy for them considering the enthusiastic way they have jumped into bed with the gambling industry. Gambling is good, says the NRL, except when it’s bad.
Ah, but look what I’ve gone and done. My season preview has been hijacked by scandals and shadows before it’s even started. Classic rugby league, that, taking the glass-half-empty approach when you could just as easily see the glass as being half full. Or even as much as 75% full, which was the guesstimate given by NRL CEO Todd Greenberg a few days ago. “I think there’s lots of opportunity to improve, but the real challenge is actually doing it not just talking about it,” he said, remarking that the NRL’s main challenges were related to gambling, the salary cap and ironing out kinks in the referee’s bunker. “What’s great is the game on the field. It’s nothing short of phenomenal, but … there’s more to do.”
While noting some interesting developments like the NRL’s openness to granting the players a share of the revenue the game generates, let’s leave the “more to do” aside for now and agree with Greenberg on the fact that the product on the field is outstanding and games are usually close and competitive. Moreover, today’s footballers are as athletic as they’ve ever been; big, fast, and capable of aerial acrobatics that would make the Red Baron queasy. Some may argue, quite rightly, that that doesn’t make them great footballers – those players who have an uncanny ability to both read and direct a game – but there are enough of those running about to delight us and remind us that nous remains the most decisive “skill” in the game.
A case in point, Johnathan Thurston. Looking ahead to the season, as long he remains healthy the North Queensland Cowboys remain title contenders. But as competitive and routinely excellent as he is, Thurston is nearing the end of his incredible career and we should cherish the time we have left to watch him play. That 2017 will represent his final appearances in both Queensland and Kangaroos’ jerseys suggests those teams will be awfully hard to beat in the State of Origin and the end-of-season World Cup respectively.
A post-season World Cup gives us a lot to look forward to but let’s not get ahead of ourselves right now for there’s a 110% chance that a lot of blood, sweat and clichés will be spilt before then.
If the Cowboys are a real chance this season so too are Penrith and Canberra, young and exciting sides smarting from their semi-final exists last season. Strong too will be last year’s losing grand finalists, Melbourne Storm. Craig Bellamy’s mob, not least due to the presence of Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk, continue to defy the notion that clubs have only a small open window in which to present a title challenge before it slams shut and they spend years in the wilderness rebuilding. On the other hand, some teams seem like they’re always picking up and starting again. The Eels, for one, seem like they’ve been rebuilding since 1986, back when they had a backline that read like a religious incantation.
The goings on at Parramatta will be interesting to watch in 2017. Last week, after what they described as “the most significant governance reform in the club’s 70-year history”, the club announced a new board of directors and there is hope that the factional wars are over. This won’t necessarily help improve the Eels’ woeful off-field discipline of late. Nor will it necessarily prevent any unhelpful distractions caused by star Radradra’s move to French rugby at the conclusion of the season. But if you give back Parra’s 12 points last season they would have made the finals despite all the drama going on. That says a lot about the ability of coach Brad Arthur.
What of Cronulla, the reigning premiers? Finalists, probably, but I imagine they’ll struggle to hit the heights of last season. Not only because no team has gone back-to-back since the Broncos in 1992-93 but because there was a feeling last season that they were like the veteran crew of an ailing spacecraft that looked like it was going to break-up on re-entry only for the shaking, convulsing capsule to hold itself together just long enough for the crew to emerge unscathed for a ticker-tape parade set to an Aerosmith song. The ship looks knackered now, however.
Cronulla look to be among a group of teams that will fight for the final few places in the eight; teams like a resurgent Roosters, the Brisbane Broncos, the promising Gold Coast Titans, the Rabbitohs and the Warriors. Oh the Warriors. Mercurial is the word for them. On paper they look a real shot (e.g. Messrs Tuivasa-Sheck, Foran, Johnson, Luke) but, like a much-anticipated party, they have a way of disappointing. Then again, if you keep predicting them to finally realise their potential sooner or later you’ll be proven right.
That all leaves Manly, the Bulldogs, the Tigers, St George-Illawarra and the Knights, in no particular order, making up the bottom five. The Dragons, with their Benny Hill theme tune style of attack, look to be on shaky ground, and their coach Paul McGregor starts the season as the coach under the most pressure.
But this is the NRL and anything can happen. Most entertainingly of all, it usually does.
