2008 NRL Round Up

Well I better write up my usual season review before it’s too late. First I want to congratulate the Manly Sea Eagles for winning the premiership. It was well earned and in no better way than through an absolute thrashing of Melbourne in the Grand Final. I guess they got their sweet revenge after all.

I’ll just do my usual drive-by summary of the top 8 teams:

Storm – In the final for the third year running, but they have only converted
that to one premiership which must be disappointing to them. Extremely strong team, but they showed nothing of the domination they had in 2007. Can they make it again next year? Seems to be it might be the start of the decline, due to that brilliant salary cap of course.

Sea Eagles – They have clearly spent the past couple of years building strong foundations, and that has eventually paid off which is good to see. They’ll be around for a while yet if management continue to build on the strength of the team. You have to feel sorry for Matt Orford when it comes to representative duties. He is one of the most underrated players in league at the moment.

Sharks – Choked. Yet again.

Roosters – Looks like all those purchases paid off and got them a top 4 spot, but buying players can only get you so far.

Broncos – A regular sight in the top 8, they were always going to struggle with Lockyer’s fitness in question, and they did.

Raiders – This team was a surprise to most, as at the beginning of the year they were heavy favourites to take the wooden spoon. I guess after exceeding expectations by making it this far, who cares about winning right?

Dragons – Probably the biggest underachievers in the competition in recent times, they hoped bringing Sailor back would change their fortune. It didn’t.

Warriors – By far the surprise stand out of the final series, first taking down number 1 Melbourne in a thriller and then beating the Roosters which was probably the best part of the whole season. Unfortunately they couldn’t continue their fairytale run but it was good while it lasted.

Aside from the results, what an eventful year it has been, with all the player movement (especially one person in particular), all the off the field drama with players, coaches, media and NRL CEOs. I have already written something about this (which I have finally got around to posting here, note that it was written before the SBW saga). Suffice to say that maybe the walkout was a good thing to happen to the game only if some changes come about. At this point in time I think it’s fair to say that there has been nothing done but defence of the current system which clearly isn’t working.

I know I have been harping on this issue for some time now (like many others) so I’ll leave it at that.

That’s a wrap.