Already, after just two rounds, many have decided who can and cannot make the top 8, but also who can and cannot win this year’s Premiership.
Round 1 and 2 have certainly delivered a mixed bag of results – some I certainly wasn’t expecting.
I thought the Warriors’ win over the Sea Eagles would help them get out of the struggle street mentality they seemed to have been caught up in, but it was the Broncos’ loss to the Raiders that might have caught many by surprise.
Coach Ricky Stuart has proven over a number years he is a master at getting his Raiders to spring an ambush on visitors to his home ground, and didn’t they ambush the Broncos! In fact, the scoreline probably flattered the Broncos.
I’ll be very surprised if the Broncos don’t make the top 4 this year, but heck, they need to get their act together, and quickly.
They are blessed with more than most teams in the NRL, with a handful of players who can quite simply own the game. However, there seemed some uncertainty among those Broncos players at Canberra on Saturday.
The result that might have put the biggest smile on many faces was the West Tigers’ demolition of the Eels, and I think that 32-6 flogging flattered the Eels – they were never in it for one minute.
Tigers coach Benji Marshall has a hard-working group of players who certainly do not lack talent, and against the Eels they demonstrated they will be a handful for any team this year.
Personally, I was very pleased for Benji – I think he is the breath of coaching fresh air the game needed.
Structure, plays a big part in the game plans of NRL teams, but occasionally a team can beat the trend and allow players to play what they see in front of them.
While I’m sure he had a plan he’d laid out to his team, it was clear Benji’s roster also played with a freedom seldom seen in today’s game.
They didn’t play with the sameness of most.
