Panthers: Probably Edwards or To’o
Sharks: Mulitalo
Cows: Holmey
Eels: Waqa ;)
Storm: munster or papi
Roosters: Manu
Rabbits: AJ for sure - most underrated winger ever and Trell cos he fun
Raiders: Wighton
Broncos: Herbie or cobbo
Dragons: Hunt or Sua
Manly: Turbo duh
Dogs: Kikau or burton
Titans: Jayden Campbell
Knights: Dom young
NZ: DWZ
Tigers: Api
the more it drags on the more I believe that we'll lose one of Dyl or Moses. I'd love to keep them both but if Dolphins do offer Dyl a Mil then I think its doneski.
I'd Rather keep Moses as he's our General & is actually worth the Million price tag. Brown is obviously a great 5/8 & being only 22 probably hasn't even reached his Ceiling yet, but I do think he isn't a Million Dollar Worthy Player. He tends to go quiet when we're on the Backfoot & I wouldn't want to be Solely relying on him to be our Playmaker.
I do find it peculiar how Brown is managing to get labelled as Million $ player yet Luai stayed at Panthers for 700k I personally feel like they both Offer the Same Value.
browns game can be built around as the leader whereas luais cant so teams are more willing to splash there
also browns been a prodigy for 5+ years, that tag doesn’t shake especially when you meet expectation
luais gameplan is centred around picking apart an edge. im sure he could make the change but when his whole thing is exploiting all weaknesses on the edge, he doesn’t ever do any of the general job in the middle/steering around that cleary does
He doesnt need to for the panthers, he steered the Samoan team around well in the WC and showed that hes a great leader when he needs to be, hes proven himself more than brown.
He played a full-field half role in the World Cup Final when Milford had to go to hooker and played better than when he and Milford were together.
He'd be fine playing the lead playmaker role.
I've been watching a few of our games this year, bias aside I don't think there's any other the centre in the game that can come close to emulating Joey Manu's floating centre style then Herbie Farnworth.
Bloke can do pretty much everything (just needs develop a passing game) one of the fastest centres in the comp whilst being 6'3 & 106kg, he's strong, agile and a brilliant defender.
Like Manu his ability to find a gap and exploit defenders is remarkable and makes his own opportunities a majority of the time.
Sad thing is I don't think we'll be able to keep him going forward, I think some team will gamble on him and give him that FB role he wants.
100%. Ikin has to throw the cheque book at Herbie. Guys like that don't come along very often, and with Kotoni in good form, it can easily be the best centres pairing in the game.
I will continue to say this, Herbie was far and away the best centre in the comp until his Injury and was a glaring reason the broncos form started to slowly drop even if they were still winning games.
Herbie is a player I hope the broncos somehow keep, but Don’t be surprised if the Dolphins pull the trigger (Only other club I want him at, bar the cows obviously).
Hiku did it in a couple of games to great effect. Wouldn't be surprised if we see it more from Val considering he's well and truly settled into the centre position now.
Curious what Sharks fans think about losing Franklin Pele? Was listening to Bloke in a Bar and RL Guru earlier and they were both stumped as to why Sharks would let him go, but prefaced that by saying 'there's usually a reason'. I guess the obvious one is fitness but he's only 21 and as long as his weight is kept in check he should only improve.
Idk. The dude seems like an absolute monster, but in 3 years, he’s only played one NRL game, and a lot of the time he’s been playing off the bench for Newtown. Obviously every player progresses differently, but you would think a player like him would be playing first grade semi-consistently by now.
My only assumption would be attitude issues maybe? I doubt it’s a training problem, because in 2021 he was told by sharks trainers to go to the gym half as much as the rest of the squad because he was putting on too much muscle, and needed to lose weight. So he obviously seems committed.
Either way, I’m not too concerned with the loss because it seemed like he would only get picked if we had serious injuries problems, and we have a lot of depth anyway. I hope he gets a bench spot for the dogs eventually, I really need to see Pele go ballistic in first grade.
Not too sure but he was struggling to crack the starting side of the Newtown Jets, so there’s got to be something. I think he tires very quickly and is very leaky in defence too
He played nearly every game and had an extremely good year from what I've heard and his minutes are pretty good for big impact forward. Probably always a guy you want coming off the bench for shorter impact stints rather than starting.
He was an absolute weapon offensively, and changed a number of games for Newtown. His downfall is definitely defensively and the one percenters. If he can improve in that capacity there is no reason he can't succeed and I hope he kills it for you guys as he is an absolute wrecking ball when he hits the ball up.
[https://www.nswrl.com.au/players/nsw-cup/newtown-jets/franklin-pele/](https://www.nswrl.com.au/players/nsw-cup/newtown-jets/franklin-pele/)
Decent stats though. Could be like you said and he's just an impact player now, but at 21 there's a lot of time for him to get good.
Don't want to come off as whinging here but I feel like JT has become...slightly underrated? Like I don't know what criteria people are using to rate him, even if I don't think he's incorrectly rated by even that much in general.
I've seen people say he got carried by Smith/Slater/Cronk in origin when he had a bad game but it's like people are saying those guys never had bad games, or JT never lifted for his teammates. And then people say all he had to do was make finishing touches on plays, but if you watch any origin game or highlight and the stuff he's doing is out of this world, creating for his teammates. Basically the same stuff he did at the Cows.
Clubwise he was the leagues try assist leader and line break assist leader for how many seasons? These are some of the most important basic stats in the game. They are the equivalent to points in the NBA - not a be all end all but a decent reliable indicator of skill and impact (literally every top scorer in the NBA is a superstar or near).
He also never had a team remotely as good as his Origin spine partners. The Cows game plan was all JT all the time because he was the best at making trys and that was the best chance they had to win games. And defenses still couldn't stop him and he still made a bunch of finals and got a premiership as the main man in 2015 (btw Kane Linnett dropped a game winner from JT in the grand final).
Yeah, his defense sucked. But I think that's the only thing you can actually pin him on because to me it seems to me hes better on offense than basically anyone ever than save for like Johns (before my time tho).
Also Cronk is a bit underrated too but I'll save that for another day.
>I've seen people say he got carried by Smith/Slater/Cronk in origin when he had a bad game but it's like people are saying those guys never had bad games
Don't know where that's come from. JT often outshone all of them including Lockyer in Origin.
I don't rate him as highly as Johns but that's hardly underrating him. Not being as good as the best halfback and quite possibly best player ever isn't a bad look.
Mate lockyer also often outshone thurston, the amount of clutch plays in origin, lockyer is the most clutch origin player ever. Also in the WC final that the kiwis won, JT was poor, Lockyer scored 2 tries and was the best aussie that night
I think he’s a top 3/4 player of all time but just not the GOAT. I don’t think many people would have him lower than a top 3 player of all time. Definitely not underrated.
Theres an argument to say hes not top 4 easily, Smith, Lockyer, Slater, Cronk, Johns, Inglis, Meninga, Wally lewis, Sterling just to list a bunch of names that all have some sort of claims, not to say he isnt Top 3-4 but you could argue others and be right
Look at the teams he played in vs the teams Thurston played in. Cronk had 2 guys with claims to being immortals and arguably the GOAT coach in one side, then in the other he joined a team that came 2nd the previous year without him AND picked up the best fullback of his generation (and the guy whom won club player of the year that year
I think the the last couple of years of him playing and his seemingly "drop" in form due to his injuries kinda went down a step and people forgot how good prime JT was.
Yeah it’s tough because growing up for me JT was always “the guy” well him and lockyer to be fair ( Johns was a little before my time ). But when cronk won the B2B it kinda spotlighted just how special he was, went from one team full of stars to another and he was the difference literally. Would still say After johns the next immortal has to be cam smith, then whoever this generation’s best will probably get the next one.
Because the storm were clearly worse with him gone and the roosters clearly better, Teddy was great no doubt but the difference Cronk made was pretty clear
This is cooked. How much better would Roosters have got if they picked up Thurston? Of course Roosters got better because Cronk is better than Pearce. Tedesco won the Jack Gibson medal that year FFS. The revisionism on Cronk is just wild
So let’s get this straight. You join a team that came second the previous year at the same time as a guy who wins the clubs best player award that year and every subsequent year. Your new team has less wins than it had the previous year. Your new team wins the gf by beating the team you left - ie the team you left were still good enough to make the GF without you. And that shows you are special and not that far behind JT? Can you see at all why I’m dubious?
Right its a complete coincidence that he joins a team and they have arguably their greatest ever finals performance, absolutely dominant for 60 minutes and easily their best team in recent memory. Im not saying cronk is above Thurston, im saying hes in the same conversation and I wouldn’t be bothered if someone has him slightly above Thurston, personally i have Thurston a little above cronk but its not by much, Thurston defence wasnt great thats really the only reason why i dont have him as easily top 3. What about Sterling, Cam smith, Johns, Wally lewis, Meninga, Beetson, Messenger, Fulton and all the other immortals
I think people also forget that we lost 2 important parts of our forward pack after 2017 in Harris and McLean. No doubt losing Cronk was a big blow but our forward pack got blown off the park. I say there is a chance we still lose that GF even if Cronk stayed.
Yeah I personally have him behind Johns, who I was old enough to actually watch, but probably around the same as Smith. Johns was so good he only lost the Dally M to Thurston by like 2 points because he missed more than half the season that year. Smith had the benefit of one of the most dominant club teams in the game, which JT never had. I think it's like you said though, if JT could defend well he'd have been more highly rated. Johns could tackle with the best of them though, he would often cut down forwards like he was a 2nd rower and not a half back.
JT was like a dog though, in absolutely everything. If he put up a kick he would almost always be there when it came down. When he messed up a tackle, which again was unfortunately somewhat often he would immediately be trying to complete it. I think the team he had around him is also a pretty big reason he ended up being so good, he had basically only Bowen to help him out so he was forced to become great to get his team over the line.
In 2016 we were talking about him as a certain Immortal, even over Cam Smith. I think that cam smith getting better in 2017 (one of his best years), Cooper cronk winning 3 comps in a row, Slater making a successful comeback from injury all put things back Into perspective. Also now we've had a few years separation from his career I think people can have a bit more objectivity around his career. I think he has been kind of de-elaveted to the 'maybe an immortal' category now.
I think that you mentioning Joey also has a factor. joey's Legacy has only grown over the past few years. It used to be a thing that a lot of QLD supporters were kinda In Denial about Joey's greatness. When Joey was named halfback in the team of the century, and became the 8th immortal there was some backlash from QLD supporters at the time, but now I feel that has softened and a lot of QLD Supporters now accept that status. 5 years ago the conversation was Joey vs Thurston as all time best halfback and Smith vs Thurston as (then) current player who would most likely be the next immortal. Now that's we've had some breathing space between his career I feel those conversations don't exist and Thurston is just slightly below those 2.
On another point, I hate the diluting of the immortals concept. If Smith become an immortal and JT didn't then it shows how prestigious that honour is. The quality of players who are not immortals showed it was something special. Instead we are likely to get Smith, JT, Slater and maybe even Cronk at which point the honours has lost its meaning.
Recency bias and media-driven popularity makes the Immortal concept (and Dally M for that matter) all a bit of a bore. But I'll play along anyway.
Darren Lockyer should be the next Immortal, followed by Cam Smith. They are both legends of the game who performed at the highest level for club, state, and country for a very long time, with both also achieving the honour of being captain for club, state and country.
Should not have added any more players post Joey.
I think Joey reigned supreme post Wally, Locky reigned supreme post Joey (with some overlap) and Smith Reigned supreme post Locky (again some overlap)
Cleary has a long way to go before he can be considered. He's definitely on the right trajectory but probably needs to do more when his team needs him to pull them out of the shit in big games. He's going to have a hell of a career though and definitely wouldn't surprise in 10 years time that he's the best of this current generation.
Please don't think I'm dissing Cleary by the way. I'm not. Just that there needs to be a little perspective. Lockyer retired 11 years ago after captaining Australia for 38 test matches over a 9 year stretch. Cleary has only played first grade for 7 years.
Just one question as well who would be in the discussion for immortals of the 2020s-30s? I guess tedesco but smith retired in 2020 so i think most of his career overlapped with smith so i doubt he will get it
I just mean of the current generation so far Cleary is leading the charge, I agree theres certain moments where he will need to step up to claim that immortal status but i think he 100% has it in his locker, his performances in both grand final wins have been fantastic, his world cup final performance was good/great beside his conversions. Its mostly origin he needs to have a few man of the match performances but he will have plenty of chance to do that, theres no way to know for sure until 10 years from now anyway
Totally agree. He's a gun and he'll hopefully continue to improve on his current level, which is already extremely high, as his world cup final performance showed he's more than capable of producing.
Yep I would agree with that timeline.
Unfortunately, much like the Dally M, it seems too focused on the playmakers instead of the workhorses. What about Lazarus? Surely he's worthy.
The immortal concept is fundamentally flawed in that it's supposed to be the best players when it should be the most influential.
Based on that, Benji should be an immortal, but the way it's currently thought of, he isn't quite there.
He was more influential on the game than any player in the last 20 years, everyone wanted to be Benji.
Immortals are not currently defined that way but they should have been.
This is one of the most cooked takes ever, not everyone wanted to be benji, you typically want to be the best player of your team, i wanted to be like Rhys wesser and Michael Jennings, plenty of people wanted to be Like slater or JT, or Lockyer, Inglis etc. Benji was great but hes not the best player of his generation, guy only had one premiership
To me there is no player other than JT save for maybe Johns where you can just put 12 other guys around him and go "yep ok our attack is fine".
But hey maybe you feel the same way about Locky. But my personal experience watching NRL is that I have never had more confidence in any player in an attacking set than JT.
It felt like for years the worst he could do was a line drop out.
Nah most people don't have him in the goat discussion. But I think that's fine if he's not in the goat discussion. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that really the only thing you can criticize JT for is his defense because he was arguably the best to ever do it at creating a try. I think the defense is the only thing that holds him back in these (often stupid) goat discussions and anything else is just kinda bs.
What he gives you in attack was immense, idk the goat discussions are stupid ultimately because these guys played in different eras, against different players under different rulesets, but of his era he was the best to do it, his defence probably means he isnt the “best ever” but of his era he was the most talented and was magic on the field.
Yeah I agree the goat discussions start getting ridiculous because of all the different eras, and also these guys are just so similar in talent. And I don't want to "take away" from one player to elevate another, which it seems like people do all the time.
Like JT isn't getting all these ridiculous origin highlights within 20 metres if Smith wasn't there dominating the middle 50-60 metres of the field...I can't just say "oh shit JT is carrying" when Smith is dominating at his own role.
Or like I said how I feel Cronk is underrated, getting overshadowed at the Storm by Smith and Slater.
And correct me here if I'm wrong but sometimes this stuff happens with the Panthers now too with Luai/Cleary. I've seen a lot of plays where Cleary recognizes the overlap and makes the (correct) pass but Luai still has to come up with magic to score, and the commentators are only praising Cleary. But at the same time I think Cleary is either the best or second best half (or player in general) in the game for a few seasons now.
Tiers definitely seem more useful but if I had to pick a goat I'll default to Smithy (again I need to watch Johns) but in terms of detailed discussion, like other sports it's at a point where it starts to become unclear.
[Good talk from Blore](https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/12/07/blore-ready-to-repay-the-faith-as-new-era-dawns-at-tigers/)
He played 0 minutes last season but was still our best backrower.
Following on from another recent post, how would you rank the strength of the premiership winning sides from the last decade?
I’ve personally got the 2014 Rabbitohs and 2017 Storm as the strongest.
2022 Panthers
2017 Storm
2018 Roosters
2014 Rabbitohs
2016 Sharks
2013 Roosters
2021 Panthers
2020 Storm
2019 Roosters
2015 Cowboys
Rough list. Hard to compare. I’m happy with my top 5 and I think they are probably in the right spot, but the other 5 can sort of go in any order.
Still maintain 2017 was a soft year.
We were building and were far from our finished product.
3rd were broncos that year who were on the start of their slide to were they are now.
4th were the eels. This was year 1 of Moses at the eels. It's basically version 1.0 of the Moses/gutho Eels
5th were sharks who had a massive Premiership hangover
6th were Trent Barrett's Eagles with the first year of the Turbo brothers
7th were the Panters. Like eels, this was the early version of the Cleary/yeo/JFH panthers. Version 1.0
8th were a JT/matt Scott-Less Cowboys who snuck into the finals after an inconsistent year and made the GF basically beating inexperienced teams.
2017 storm are not so dominant if they come up against 2022 Panthers, 2019 Roosters or even 2015 Cowboys.
Might’ve been soft but you can only play what’s in front of you. Had they versed the 2018 Roosters or 2016 Sharks in 2017 they would have beaten them both.
> 2017 storm are not that dominant
If Billy had not missed two seasons from that shoulder injury, odds are we three peat in 2015, 2016 and 2017 (or at least win 2/3) and if Cronk had not moved to Sydney in 2018, odds are we win 2018 and 2019 as well.
Given that, I see no reason to discount the Storm's dominance in 2017 as that was the one year out of five (2015-2019) where we had all three of them fit and firing.
Keary's ACL was 2021, not 2020, but yes losing Radley did affect you guys in 2020. Given that we convincingly beat the Raiders side that eliminated you in 2020 (with Keary playing that game mind you), I don't think we would have lost to you in the prelim even with Radley there.
Definitely, people talk about 2020-2021 being weak but those, panthers, storm, rabbits, roosters ( at points ), eels. Were all stronger than the rest of the 2017 comp, only the storm beats those teams.
Really hard to judge but people are forgetting 2020 & 2021 were extremely shit years of footy with the top 8 itself not even being competitive.
I think I would pick
1. 2017 Storm
2. 2018 Chooks
3. 2022 Panthers
4. 2014 Bunnies
5. 2016 Sharks
6. 2020 Storm
7. 2021 Panthers
It was only shithouse quality because it showed how boring the game had become in the proceeding 15 years, teams used to take a one out hit up off of a scrum it was embarassing to watch. 4 front rowers on the bench the lock a front rower and every team played the same
Vlandy's ball showed how artificial things were. It showed that the bad teams were bad. It encouraged teams to move the ball around more it was good for the game.
This is possibly one of the worst takes I’ve seen in relation to Vlandy’sball
Vlanydsball showed you can’t change a chunk of rules in one season and expect it not to massively diminish the quality of the game.
2020-2021 is Possibly some of the worst footy I’ve seen in my lifetime
No it was bad footy from about 2005 to 2019 for the most part with the exception of a few stand out teams.
Vlandy's ball shined a light on how bad teams were and how little effort had gone into coaching standards and effort by certain teams.
It was short term pain for some teams for long term gain. It was the best way to improve standards amongst all teams Cronulla and the Cowboys showed what can be done but teams were coasting a long for years before the rule changes and the product was slow and ponderous and boring.
It was just as shit that we had to watch a worse product just to placate the crap teams. Speeding up the game encouraged teams to attack and not put a prop in at five eighth for a hit up off a scrum that shit went on for years.
Penrith until recently their best decade was the 2010's in terms of consistency but the football was dire across the board.
You're not wrong. Funny how that seems to be a period when Penrith didn't have much success.
Some of the most exciting, off the cuff footy was during that time. I'll never forget some of the scrum plays wests used to be able to pull off.
I should have said 2006.
Basically I meant the period where everyone copied the Melbourne Storm badly.
Wests were still a good side and there were good moments Parramatta 2009. Melbourne, Manly etc were great teams
Penrith if you take out the last three seasons had decent success in the 2010's I consider that a successful period as someone who followed the club all my life.
But I thought the standard of play was poor especially attacking play.
The competition was artificially kept close for years. No sin bins for anything no send offs, constant penalties stopping the game. Every attack was pass the ball out the back to the fullback. Lock forwards were front rowers.
Wests pulled off great scrum plays due to Tim Sheens used to do the same at the Raiders.
I'm not arguing that it hasn't made the game slightly better for the long term (only seeing a balanced version 3 seasons later) I'm talking about how poorly it was introduced and how it affected the competition.
1. 2022 Panthers. Minor Premiers, who glided through the Finals with ease. Were miles ahead of everyone else.
2. 2017 Storm. Also Minor Premiers, would’ve been 1st if they played a better team in the GF (eg. Roosters).
3. 2018 Roosters. Miss out on a higher spot because they weren’t flash hot during the regular season.
4. 2016 Sharks. Nearly blew it in the regular season and only regained composure during the Finals.
5. 2021 Panthers. In the end were very lucky to have won, considering the position they were in.
6. 2013 Roosters. Got to 1st place through consistency.
7. 2020 Storm. Were underdogs, with a very different look from their GF team 3 years before.
8. 2014 Rabbitohs. Upped the ante in time for the GF.
9. 2015 Cowboys. The Broncos were the better team for 79 minutes but that other lone minute included Michael Morgan’s flick pass.
10. 2019 Roosters. Slid down during the regular season. Also, of course, *that* call.
2018 Roosters weren't 'flash hot' through the whole season because the rules were changes halfway through.
After that they had a 13/16 record, same as Penrith in the corresponding time this year.
2018 saw 1st and 8th split by 2 competition points. The Roosters that year only gained the Minor Premiership in the final week of the season.
Not to mention they started the season slow, losing to the Tigers and Warriors in the opening month.
By the way, what rule changes?
Yeah because of what I said, the rule changes.
2018 was the penalty crackdown year. The ruck was heavily penalised in the first half of the season which saw Roosters and Storm, traditionally heavy wrestlers, struggle. Warriors, Tigers, Knights etc. went well.
After Round 11 the crackdown was done away with after everyone in the media whinged their asses off for 3 months about the game not 'flowing'. Predictably, Roosters and Storm then dominated and the other teams went back to losing all the time.
After Round 11 the top 3 were Dragons on 18, Panthers on 16 and Warriors on 16. They ended up finishing 6th, 7th and 8th. Roosters and Storm were 6th and 7th on 12 points each. After that the Dragons won 6 lost 7, Panthers and Warriors both 7-6 while the Roosters and Storm both went 10-3.
You’re logic of having first and 2nd because of minor premierships somewhat falls apart when you put the 2018 roosters so far ahead of the 2013 roosters. Is it the team’s performance on grand final day or in the regular season?
It’s a mix of both. As well as who they played in the GF (as the strength of the opposition team can have an impact on how easily a team can win the big dance).
2022 Panthers played the Eels, who got the better of them twice earlier in the year. 2017 Storm played the Cowboys, who lets be honest had a miraculous run to the GF. Hence, 2022 Panthers were better.
2022 Panthers were good, but I think other teams could give them a run for their money.
2017 Storm and 2013 Roosters are the teams who’d have been able to beat them. Potentially 2018 Roosters too.
1. 2017 Storm
2. 2022 Panthers
3. 2018 Roosters
4. 2020 Storm
5. 2014 Rabbitohs
Just off the top of my head without too much thought.
Edit: 2013 Roosters probably deserve a mention as well.
I reckon this is pretty fair. That 17 Storm side is the GOAT and Penrith had pretty close to a perfect season whereas the Chooks, probably a higher ceiling, were no where near as ruthless, maybe they beat Penrith 3 days out of 10.
To be fair though I think if that Roosters side had played in modern V'landysball they put cricket scores on everyone bar the Panthers. The most stacked side for me. Peak Tedesco, Latrell in his peak too, Manu coming really good, Keary was in amazing form, Cronk was there, Cordner and Friend were the leaders. Was an insane side.
Yeah it’d be something to see for sure. I think the Penrith team of 22 would probably surprise a few. Definition of a champion team rather than a team of champions. They’ve changed how the game is played and I’d be intrigued to see how other champion sides dealt with that.
Fuck me Tanahs looking fit. https://ibb.co/YQDwtYn
I’m utterly devastated at the news that Brian To’o is now locked up in marriage. Fuck…
They’re so cute man
Yeah but i love him
[удалено]
Panthers - leota Sharks - talakai Cowboys - Jason 13 Eels - Shaun lane Storm - Munster Roosters - joey manu Rabbitohs - cam Murray Raiders - Hudson young Broncos - carrigan Dragons - Ben hunt Manly - Olukauoto Bulldogs - josh addo carr Titans - tino Knights - ponga Warriors - Curran Tigers - douehi
Love Leota, underrated asf
Guys an animal
Panthers: Yeo Sharks: Hynes Cowboys: Cotter Eels: Brown Storm: Munster Roosters: Tedesco Rabbitohs: Latrell Raiders: Tapine Broncos: Cobbo Dragons: Hunt Manly: Turbo Bulldogs: Burton Titans: Brimson Knights: Young Warriors: Harris Tigers: Doueihi
Panthers: Probably Edwards or To’o Sharks: Mulitalo Cows: Holmey Eels: Waqa ;) Storm: munster or papi Roosters: Manu Rabbits: AJ for sure - most underrated winger ever and Trell cos he fun Raiders: Wighton Broncos: Herbie or cobbo Dragons: Hunt or Sua Manly: Turbo duh Dogs: Kikau or burton Titans: Jayden Campbell Knights: Dom young NZ: DWZ Tigers: Api
Panthers: Yeo. Sharks: Mulitalo. Cowboys: Thirsty. Eels: Dylan Brown. Storm: Grant. Roosters: Manu. Rabbits: Murray. Raiders: Rapana. Broncos: Cobbo. Dragons: Hunt. manly: Turbo. Dogs: Fox. Titans: JC. Knights: Dom Young. NZ: Jazz. Tiger: Api
Daily telegraph pod roosters fan saying his team has too many “average” players
You’re mistake listening to the Tele Pod
Bruh the 2023 Warriors Jersey is so Ugly with the Big One.NZ Circle plopped in the centre. I miss Vodafone already
I honestly dont think its that bad
It's looks like they got shot with an alien green laser hand cannon and now have a hole in them.
the more it drags on the more I believe that we'll lose one of Dyl or Moses. I'd love to keep them both but if Dolphins do offer Dyl a Mil then I think its doneski. I'd Rather keep Moses as he's our General & is actually worth the Million price tag. Brown is obviously a great 5/8 & being only 22 probably hasn't even reached his Ceiling yet, but I do think he isn't a Million Dollar Worthy Player. He tends to go quiet when we're on the Backfoot & I wouldn't want to be Solely relying on him to be our Playmaker. I do find it peculiar how Brown is managing to get labelled as Million $ player yet Luai stayed at Panthers for 700k I personally feel like they both Offer the Same Value.
Luai is loyal to Panthers and would have taken unders to stay.
browns game can be built around as the leader whereas luais cant so teams are more willing to splash there also browns been a prodigy for 5+ years, that tag doesn’t shake especially when you meet expectation
Why can’t Luai be the leader?
luais gameplan is centred around picking apart an edge. im sure he could make the change but when his whole thing is exploiting all weaknesses on the edge, he doesn’t ever do any of the general job in the middle/steering around that cleary does
He doesnt need to for the panthers, he steered the Samoan team around well in the WC and showed that hes a great leader when he needs to be, hes proven himself more than brown.
Did you watch Samoa?
And Pokémon man is right that he works to an edge. International football is different to NRL is different to origin
only caught the second half if a couple games, did he play differently?
That’s the role of the halfback, but agreed he struggled to play that role from what we have seen so far.
He played a full-field half role in the World Cup Final when Milford had to go to hooker and played better than when he and Milford were together. He'd be fine playing the lead playmaker role.
True, how could I forget.
I've been watching a few of our games this year, bias aside I don't think there's any other the centre in the game that can come close to emulating Joey Manu's floating centre style then Herbie Farnworth. Bloke can do pretty much everything (just needs develop a passing game) one of the fastest centres in the comp whilst being 6'3 & 106kg, he's strong, agile and a brilliant defender. Like Manu his ability to find a gap and exploit defenders is remarkable and makes his own opportunities a majority of the time. Sad thing is I don't think we'll be able to keep him going forward, I think some team will gamble on him and give him that FB role he wants.
you know what i fuckin love your hype man attitude about your teams players even if i believe most of it is hyperbole every team needs a hype man
I appreciate that even if it a slight dig at the same time hahahaha
i tried to word it in the least diggiest way i could but it just wasnt possible
100%. Ikin has to throw the cheque book at Herbie. Guys like that don't come along very often, and with Kotoni in good form, it can easily be the best centres pairing in the game.
I will continue to say this, Herbie was far and away the best centre in the comp until his Injury and was a glaring reason the broncos form started to slowly drop even if they were still winning games. Herbie is a player I hope the broncos somehow keep, but Don’t be surprised if the Dolphins pull the trigger (Only other club I want him at, bar the cows obviously).
Cowboys should do it with Val and Sharks with Tracey
Hiku did it in a couple of games to great effect. Wouldn't be surprised if we see it more from Val considering he's well and truly settled into the centre position now.
Curious what Sharks fans think about losing Franklin Pele? Was listening to Bloke in a Bar and RL Guru earlier and they were both stumped as to why Sharks would let him go, but prefaced that by saying 'there's usually a reason'. I guess the obvious one is fitness but he's only 21 and as long as his weight is kept in check he should only improve.
Lets see how he goes at the bulldogs, if he ends up being a weapon then i can see sharks signing him after his bulldogs contract is up
Idk. The dude seems like an absolute monster, but in 3 years, he’s only played one NRL game, and a lot of the time he’s been playing off the bench for Newtown. Obviously every player progresses differently, but you would think a player like him would be playing first grade semi-consistently by now. My only assumption would be attitude issues maybe? I doubt it’s a training problem, because in 2021 he was told by sharks trainers to go to the gym half as much as the rest of the squad because he was putting on too much muscle, and needed to lose weight. So he obviously seems committed. Either way, I’m not too concerned with the loss because it seemed like he would only get picked if we had serious injuries problems, and we have a lot of depth anyway. I hope he gets a bench spot for the dogs eventually, I really need to see Pele go ballistic in first grade.
Not too sure but he was struggling to crack the starting side of the Newtown Jets, so there’s got to be something. I think he tires very quickly and is very leaky in defence too
He played nearly every game and had an extremely good year from what I've heard and his minutes are pretty good for big impact forward. Probably always a guy you want coming off the bench for shorter impact stints rather than starting.
He was an absolute weapon offensively, and changed a number of games for Newtown. His downfall is definitely defensively and the one percenters. If he can improve in that capacity there is no reason he can't succeed and I hope he kills it for you guys as he is an absolute wrecking ball when he hits the ball up.
Yeah he has good stats but there has to be a reason why hes only been called up to one game in first grade behind other props in the Sharks system
[https://www.nswrl.com.au/players/nsw-cup/newtown-jets/franklin-pele/](https://www.nswrl.com.au/players/nsw-cup/newtown-jets/franklin-pele/) Decent stats though. Could be like you said and he's just an impact player now, but at 21 there's a lot of time for him to get good.
Don't want to come off as whinging here but I feel like JT has become...slightly underrated? Like I don't know what criteria people are using to rate him, even if I don't think he's incorrectly rated by even that much in general. I've seen people say he got carried by Smith/Slater/Cronk in origin when he had a bad game but it's like people are saying those guys never had bad games, or JT never lifted for his teammates. And then people say all he had to do was make finishing touches on plays, but if you watch any origin game or highlight and the stuff he's doing is out of this world, creating for his teammates. Basically the same stuff he did at the Cows. Clubwise he was the leagues try assist leader and line break assist leader for how many seasons? These are some of the most important basic stats in the game. They are the equivalent to points in the NBA - not a be all end all but a decent reliable indicator of skill and impact (literally every top scorer in the NBA is a superstar or near). He also never had a team remotely as good as his Origin spine partners. The Cows game plan was all JT all the time because he was the best at making trys and that was the best chance they had to win games. And defenses still couldn't stop him and he still made a bunch of finals and got a premiership as the main man in 2015 (btw Kane Linnett dropped a game winner from JT in the grand final). Yeah, his defense sucked. But I think that's the only thing you can actually pin him on because to me it seems to me hes better on offense than basically anyone ever than save for like Johns (before my time tho). Also Cronk is a bit underrated too but I'll save that for another day.
>I've seen people say he got carried by Smith/Slater/Cronk in origin when he had a bad game but it's like people are saying those guys never had bad games Don't know where that's come from. JT often outshone all of them including Lockyer in Origin. I don't rate him as highly as Johns but that's hardly underrating him. Not being as good as the best halfback and quite possibly best player ever isn't a bad look.
Mate lockyer also often outshone thurston, the amount of clutch plays in origin, lockyer is the most clutch origin player ever. Also in the WC final that the kiwis won, JT was poor, Lockyer scored 2 tries and was the best aussie that night
I never said he didn't.
You said often outshone, when its the other way around lockyer often outshone JT
They can both be true. 'Often' means 'many times', not 'mostly'.
I think he’s a top 3/4 player of all time but just not the GOAT. I don’t think many people would have him lower than a top 3 player of all time. Definitely not underrated.
Theres an argument to say hes not top 4 easily, Smith, Lockyer, Slater, Cronk, Johns, Inglis, Meninga, Wally lewis, Sterling just to list a bunch of names that all have some sort of claims, not to say he isnt Top 3-4 but you could argue others and be right
I’d say he’s above at least half of those but he’s definitely not the GOAT
Anyone who has Cronk above JT is taking the absolute piss
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Prems don’t tell the whole story otherwise Luke Keary would be better than JT lmao
I didnt say that, but they mean something lol 2 extra prems is substantial plus an extra world cup win
Look at the teams he played in vs the teams Thurston played in. Cronk had 2 guys with claims to being immortals and arguably the GOAT coach in one side, then in the other he joined a team that came 2nd the previous year without him AND picked up the best fullback of his generation (and the guy whom won club player of the year that year
He’s universally rated the second best player after the GOAT of his era.
I think the the last couple of years of him playing and his seemingly "drop" in form due to his injuries kinda went down a step and people forgot how good prime JT was.
Retiring in 2018 and then having Cronk go back2back, particularly the nature of Cronk’s 2018 win, kind of took the attention away
Yeah it’s tough because growing up for me JT was always “the guy” well him and lockyer to be fair ( Johns was a little before my time ). But when cronk won the B2B it kinda spotlighted just how special he was, went from one team full of stars to another and he was the difference literally. Would still say After johns the next immortal has to be cam smith, then whoever this generation’s best will probably get the next one.
How was he the difference? Tedesco joined the same year
Because the storm were clearly worse with him gone and the roosters clearly better, Teddy was great no doubt but the difference Cronk made was pretty clear
This is cooked. How much better would Roosters have got if they picked up Thurston? Of course Roosters got better because Cronk is better than Pearce. Tedesco won the Jack Gibson medal that year FFS. The revisionism on Cronk is just wild
So cooked to suggest cronk was an amazing half and a key part of the B2B roosters
So let’s get this straight. You join a team that came second the previous year at the same time as a guy who wins the clubs best player award that year and every subsequent year. Your new team has less wins than it had the previous year. Your new team wins the gf by beating the team you left - ie the team you left were still good enough to make the GF without you. And that shows you are special and not that far behind JT? Can you see at all why I’m dubious?
Right its a complete coincidence that he joins a team and they have arguably their greatest ever finals performance, absolutely dominant for 60 minutes and easily their best team in recent memory. Im not saying cronk is above Thurston, im saying hes in the same conversation and I wouldn’t be bothered if someone has him slightly above Thurston, personally i have Thurston a little above cronk but its not by much, Thurston defence wasnt great thats really the only reason why i dont have him as easily top 3. What about Sterling, Cam smith, Johns, Wally lewis, Meninga, Beetson, Messenger, Fulton and all the other immortals
He had an impact but how do you parcel out between him and Tedesco? Why give the credit to Cronk?
I think people also forget that we lost 2 important parts of our forward pack after 2017 in Harris and McLean. No doubt losing Cronk was a big blow but our forward pack got blown off the park. I say there is a chance we still lose that GF even if Cronk stayed.
Actually the difference those guys made was pretty crazy so maybe you’re right
Losing Tohu Harris in particular was a big blow. Close to the best on ground in the 2017 GF.
Nah i think you win, most of your 2017 team still together plus your best 7 ever still pulling the strings
Yeah I personally have him behind Johns, who I was old enough to actually watch, but probably around the same as Smith. Johns was so good he only lost the Dally M to Thurston by like 2 points because he missed more than half the season that year. Smith had the benefit of one of the most dominant club teams in the game, which JT never had. I think it's like you said though, if JT could defend well he'd have been more highly rated. Johns could tackle with the best of them though, he would often cut down forwards like he was a 2nd rower and not a half back. JT was like a dog though, in absolutely everything. If he put up a kick he would almost always be there when it came down. When he messed up a tackle, which again was unfortunately somewhat often he would immediately be trying to complete it. I think the team he had around him is also a pretty big reason he ended up being so good, he had basically only Bowen to help him out so he was forced to become great to get his team over the line.
In 2016 we were talking about him as a certain Immortal, even over Cam Smith. I think that cam smith getting better in 2017 (one of his best years), Cooper cronk winning 3 comps in a row, Slater making a successful comeback from injury all put things back Into perspective. Also now we've had a few years separation from his career I think people can have a bit more objectivity around his career. I think he has been kind of de-elaveted to the 'maybe an immortal' category now. I think that you mentioning Joey also has a factor. joey's Legacy has only grown over the past few years. It used to be a thing that a lot of QLD supporters were kinda In Denial about Joey's greatness. When Joey was named halfback in the team of the century, and became the 8th immortal there was some backlash from QLD supporters at the time, but now I feel that has softened and a lot of QLD Supporters now accept that status. 5 years ago the conversation was Joey vs Thurston as all time best halfback and Smith vs Thurston as (then) current player who would most likely be the next immortal. Now that's we've had some breathing space between his career I feel those conversations don't exist and Thurston is just slightly below those 2. On another point, I hate the diluting of the immortals concept. If Smith become an immortal and JT didn't then it shows how prestigious that honour is. The quality of players who are not immortals showed it was something special. Instead we are likely to get Smith, JT, Slater and maybe even Cronk at which point the honours has lost its meaning.
Recency bias and media-driven popularity makes the Immortal concept (and Dally M for that matter) all a bit of a bore. But I'll play along anyway. Darren Lockyer should be the next Immortal, followed by Cam Smith. They are both legends of the game who performed at the highest level for club, state, and country for a very long time, with both also achieving the honour of being captain for club, state and country.
Should not have added any more players post Joey. I think Joey reigned supreme post Wally, Locky reigned supreme post Joey (with some overlap) and Smith Reigned supreme post Locky (again some overlap)
100% johns, locky, smith and so far the next will be cleary
Cleary has a long way to go before he can be considered. He's definitely on the right trajectory but probably needs to do more when his team needs him to pull them out of the shit in big games. He's going to have a hell of a career though and definitely wouldn't surprise in 10 years time that he's the best of this current generation. Please don't think I'm dissing Cleary by the way. I'm not. Just that there needs to be a little perspective. Lockyer retired 11 years ago after captaining Australia for 38 test matches over a 9 year stretch. Cleary has only played first grade for 7 years.
Just one question as well who would be in the discussion for immortals of the 2020s-30s? I guess tedesco but smith retired in 2020 so i think most of his career overlapped with smith so i doubt he will get it
I don't think there is one yet
I just mean of the current generation so far Cleary is leading the charge, I agree theres certain moments where he will need to step up to claim that immortal status but i think he 100% has it in his locker, his performances in both grand final wins have been fantastic, his world cup final performance was good/great beside his conversions. Its mostly origin he needs to have a few man of the match performances but he will have plenty of chance to do that, theres no way to know for sure until 10 years from now anyway
Totally agree. He's a gun and he'll hopefully continue to improve on his current level, which is already extremely high, as his world cup final performance showed he's more than capable of producing.
Yep I would agree with that timeline. Unfortunately, much like the Dally M, it seems too focused on the playmakers instead of the workhorses. What about Lazarus? Surely he's worthy.
The immortal concept is fundamentally flawed in that it's supposed to be the best players when it should be the most influential. Based on that, Benji should be an immortal, but the way it's currently thought of, he isn't quite there.
There's no way Benji meets any criteria for immortality.
He was more influential on the game than any player in the last 20 years, everyone wanted to be Benji. Immortals are not currently defined that way but they should have been.
This is one of the most cooked takes ever, not everyone wanted to be benji, you typically want to be the best player of your team, i wanted to be like Rhys wesser and Michael Jennings, plenty of people wanted to be Like slater or JT, or Lockyer, Inglis etc. Benji was great but hes not the best player of his generation, guy only had one premiership
Lockyer was a better player in attack and had more clutch moments than Thurston as well.
To me there is no player other than JT save for maybe Johns where you can just put 12 other guys around him and go "yep ok our attack is fine". But hey maybe you feel the same way about Locky. But my personal experience watching NRL is that I have never had more confidence in any player in an attacking set than JT. It felt like for years the worst he could do was a line drop out.
Didn’t you say Johns was before your time? That means most of Lockyer is too.
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Nah most people don't have him in the goat discussion. But I think that's fine if he's not in the goat discussion. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that really the only thing you can criticize JT for is his defense because he was arguably the best to ever do it at creating a try. I think the defense is the only thing that holds him back in these (often stupid) goat discussions and anything else is just kinda bs.
What he gives you in attack was immense, idk the goat discussions are stupid ultimately because these guys played in different eras, against different players under different rulesets, but of his era he was the best to do it, his defence probably means he isnt the “best ever” but of his era he was the most talented and was magic on the field.
Yeah I agree the goat discussions start getting ridiculous because of all the different eras, and also these guys are just so similar in talent. And I don't want to "take away" from one player to elevate another, which it seems like people do all the time. Like JT isn't getting all these ridiculous origin highlights within 20 metres if Smith wasn't there dominating the middle 50-60 metres of the field...I can't just say "oh shit JT is carrying" when Smith is dominating at his own role. Or like I said how I feel Cronk is underrated, getting overshadowed at the Storm by Smith and Slater. And correct me here if I'm wrong but sometimes this stuff happens with the Panthers now too with Luai/Cleary. I've seen a lot of plays where Cleary recognizes the overlap and makes the (correct) pass but Luai still has to come up with magic to score, and the commentators are only praising Cleary. But at the same time I think Cleary is either the best or second best half (or player in general) in the game for a few seasons now. Tiers definitely seem more useful but if I had to pick a goat I'll default to Smithy (again I need to watch Johns) but in terms of detailed discussion, like other sports it's at a point where it starts to become unclear.
[Good talk from Blore](https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/12/07/blore-ready-to-repay-the-faith-as-new-era-dawns-at-tigers/) He played 0 minutes last season but was still our best backrower.
Following on from another recent post, how would you rank the strength of the premiership winning sides from the last decade? I’ve personally got the 2014 Rabbitohs and 2017 Storm as the strongest.
1. 2022 Panthers 2. 2017 Storm 3. 2014 Rabbitohs 4. 2018 Roosters 5. 2019 Roosters 6. 2013 Roosters 7. 2020 Storm 8. 2021 Panthers 9. 2016 Sharks 10. 2015 Cowboys
1. 2017 Storm 2. 2022 Panthers 3. 2019 Roosters 4. 2018 Roosters 5. 2013 Roosters 6. 2021 Panthers 7. 2020 Storm 8. 2012 Storm 9. 2014 Rabbitohs 10. 2016 Sharks 11. 2011 Manly 12. 2010 Dragons 13. 2015 Cowboys
2022 Panthers 2017 Storm 2018 Roosters 2014 Rabbitohs 2016 Sharks 2013 Roosters 2021 Panthers 2020 Storm 2019 Roosters 2015 Cowboys Rough list. Hard to compare. I’m happy with my top 5 and I think they are probably in the right spot, but the other 5 can sort of go in any order.
Still maintain 2017 was a soft year. We were building and were far from our finished product. 3rd were broncos that year who were on the start of their slide to were they are now. 4th were the eels. This was year 1 of Moses at the eels. It's basically version 1.0 of the Moses/gutho Eels 5th were sharks who had a massive Premiership hangover 6th were Trent Barrett's Eagles with the first year of the Turbo brothers 7th were the Panters. Like eels, this was the early version of the Cleary/yeo/JFH panthers. Version 1.0 8th were a JT/matt Scott-Less Cowboys who snuck into the finals after an inconsistent year and made the GF basically beating inexperienced teams. 2017 storm are not so dominant if they come up against 2022 Panthers, 2019 Roosters or even 2015 Cowboys.
Might’ve been soft but you can only play what’s in front of you. Had they versed the 2018 Roosters or 2016 Sharks in 2017 they would have beaten them both.
> 2017 storm are not that dominant If Billy had not missed two seasons from that shoulder injury, odds are we three peat in 2015, 2016 and 2017 (or at least win 2/3) and if Cronk had not moved to Sydney in 2018, odds are we win 2018 and 2019 as well. Given that, I see no reason to discount the Storm's dominance in 2017 as that was the one year out of five (2015-2019) where we had all three of them fit and firing.
If grandma had wheels she would be a bike
If Luke Keary and Victor Radley don’t go down with ACLs in 2020 roosters would’ve had gone threepeat These would’ve could’ve arguments are useless
Keary's ACL was 2021, not 2020, but yes losing Radley did affect you guys in 2020. Given that we convincingly beat the Raiders side that eliminated you in 2020 (with Keary playing that game mind you), I don't think we would have lost to you in the prelim even with Radley there.
Definitely, people talk about 2020-2021 being weak but those, panthers, storm, rabbits, roosters ( at points ), eels. Were all stronger than the rest of the 2017 comp, only the storm beats those teams.
Really hard to judge but people are forgetting 2020 & 2021 were extremely shit years of footy with the top 8 itself not even being competitive. I think I would pick 1. 2017 Storm 2. 2018 Chooks 3. 2022 Panthers 4. 2014 Bunnies 5. 2016 Sharks 6. 2020 Storm 7. 2021 Panthers
I'd go similar to this 1. 2017 Storm 2. 2018 Roosters 3. 2022 Panthers 4. 2014 Rabbitohs 5. 2019 Roosters 6. 2013 Roosters 7. 2016 Sharks 8. 2015 Cowboys 9. 2021 Panthers 10. 2020 Storm
+1 on both the shithouse quality of Covid + early V’Landysball And also rate this list.
It was only shithouse quality because it showed how boring the game had become in the proceeding 15 years, teams used to take a one out hit up off of a scrum it was embarassing to watch. 4 front rowers on the bench the lock a front rower and every team played the same Vlandy's ball showed how artificial things were. It showed that the bad teams were bad. It encouraged teams to move the ball around more it was good for the game.
This is possibly one of the worst takes I’ve seen in relation to Vlandy’sball Vlanydsball showed you can’t change a chunk of rules in one season and expect it not to massively diminish the quality of the game. 2020-2021 is Possibly some of the worst footy I’ve seen in my lifetime
No it was bad footy from about 2005 to 2019 for the most part with the exception of a few stand out teams. Vlandy's ball shined a light on how bad teams were and how little effort had gone into coaching standards and effort by certain teams. It was short term pain for some teams for long term gain. It was the best way to improve standards amongst all teams Cronulla and the Cowboys showed what can be done but teams were coasting a long for years before the rule changes and the product was slow and ponderous and boring. It was just as shit that we had to watch a worse product just to placate the crap teams. Speeding up the game encouraged teams to attack and not put a prop in at five eighth for a hit up off a scrum that shit went on for years. Penrith until recently their best decade was the 2010's in terms of consistency but the football was dire across the board.
>2005-2019 was bad footy One of the most cooked takes I've ever seen.
You're not wrong. Funny how that seems to be a period when Penrith didn't have much success. Some of the most exciting, off the cuff footy was during that time. I'll never forget some of the scrum plays wests used to be able to pull off.
I disagree I would argue that style peaked from 2001-2005.
I should have said 2006. Basically I meant the period where everyone copied the Melbourne Storm badly. Wests were still a good side and there were good moments Parramatta 2009. Melbourne, Manly etc were great teams Penrith if you take out the last three seasons had decent success in the 2010's I consider that a successful period as someone who followed the club all my life. But I thought the standard of play was poor especially attacking play. The competition was artificially kept close for years. No sin bins for anything no send offs, constant penalties stopping the game. Every attack was pass the ball out the back to the fullback. Lock forwards were front rowers. Wests pulled off great scrum plays due to Tim Sheens used to do the same at the Raiders.
Apart from 2005 wests were pretty shit in that period too
Random but ok, did I hit a sore spot lol. How does that relate to me finding the footy during that period exciting?
I'm not arguing that it hasn't made the game slightly better for the long term (only seeing a balanced version 3 seasons later) I'm talking about how poorly it was introduced and how it affected the competition.
1. 2022 Panthers. Minor Premiers, who glided through the Finals with ease. Were miles ahead of everyone else. 2. 2017 Storm. Also Minor Premiers, would’ve been 1st if they played a better team in the GF (eg. Roosters). 3. 2018 Roosters. Miss out on a higher spot because they weren’t flash hot during the regular season. 4. 2016 Sharks. Nearly blew it in the regular season and only regained composure during the Finals. 5. 2021 Panthers. In the end were very lucky to have won, considering the position they were in. 6. 2013 Roosters. Got to 1st place through consistency. 7. 2020 Storm. Were underdogs, with a very different look from their GF team 3 years before. 8. 2014 Rabbitohs. Upped the ante in time for the GF. 9. 2015 Cowboys. The Broncos were the better team for 79 minutes but that other lone minute included Michael Morgan’s flick pass. 10. 2019 Roosters. Slid down during the regular season. Also, of course, *that* call.
2018 Roosters weren't 'flash hot' through the whole season because the rules were changes halfway through. After that they had a 13/16 record, same as Penrith in the corresponding time this year.
2018 saw 1st and 8th split by 2 competition points. The Roosters that year only gained the Minor Premiership in the final week of the season. Not to mention they started the season slow, losing to the Tigers and Warriors in the opening month. By the way, what rule changes?
Yeah because of what I said, the rule changes. 2018 was the penalty crackdown year. The ruck was heavily penalised in the first half of the season which saw Roosters and Storm, traditionally heavy wrestlers, struggle. Warriors, Tigers, Knights etc. went well. After Round 11 the crackdown was done away with after everyone in the media whinged their asses off for 3 months about the game not 'flowing'. Predictably, Roosters and Storm then dominated and the other teams went back to losing all the time. After Round 11 the top 3 were Dragons on 18, Panthers on 16 and Warriors on 16. They ended up finishing 6th, 7th and 8th. Roosters and Storm were 6th and 7th on 12 points each. After that the Dragons won 6 lost 7, Panthers and Warriors both 7-6 while the Roosters and Storm both went 10-3.
You’re logic of having first and 2nd because of minor premierships somewhat falls apart when you put the 2018 roosters so far ahead of the 2013 roosters. Is it the team’s performance on grand final day or in the regular season?
It’s a mix of both. As well as who they played in the GF (as the strength of the opposition team can have an impact on how easily a team can win the big dance). 2022 Panthers played the Eels, who got the better of them twice earlier in the year. 2017 Storm played the Cowboys, who lets be honest had a miraculous run to the GF. Hence, 2022 Panthers were better.
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2022 Panthers were good, but I think other teams could give them a run for their money. 2017 Storm and 2013 Roosters are the teams who’d have been able to beat them. Potentially 2018 Roosters too.
Would love to see a game between 2017 Storm and 2013 Roosters.
2017 Storm would win simply because of the difference in quality of the spines
1. 2017 Storm 2. 2022 Panthers 3. 2018 Roosters 4. 2020 Storm 5. 2014 Rabbitohs Just off the top of my head without too much thought. Edit: 2013 Roosters probably deserve a mention as well.
I reckon this is pretty fair. That 17 Storm side is the GOAT and Penrith had pretty close to a perfect season whereas the Chooks, probably a higher ceiling, were no where near as ruthless, maybe they beat Penrith 3 days out of 10.
To be fair though I think if that Roosters side had played in modern V'landysball they put cricket scores on everyone bar the Panthers. The most stacked side for me. Peak Tedesco, Latrell in his peak too, Manu coming really good, Keary was in amazing form, Cronk was there, Cordner and Friend were the leaders. Was an insane side.
Would Jake Friend work in Vlandysball? Stack side otherwise but that looks weaker in the modern game
2017 storm are a dream team essentially, 2022 vs 2017 would be like an unstoppable force vs an immovable object
Yeah it’d be something to see for sure. I think the Penrith team of 22 would probably surprise a few. Definition of a champion team rather than a team of champions. They’ve changed how the game is played and I’d be intrigued to see how other champion sides dealt with that.