Nrl 2013 and 2014

What a year it's been so far. Roosters have turned it around from last and are hot favourites. Souths have improved as well, but it's the Storm that are showing signs of a full recovery from the mid-season slump. Manly stronger than last year.

The difference over last year is we have four teams (instead of three) that are proving to be extremely will-drilled.

The Doggies.... Well they're not included in the above and have been patchy. Nowhere near the force they were last year but who knows what's up their sleeves....

And my Sharks... well, they keep frustrating by getting beaten by teams like Parra, and they lose games in the last 10 minutes because they protect their lead by going into their shells. Very frustrating. They will make the 8 and unlike last year win one game in the finals but that's it, they haven't proven to be better than deserving that despite having a team capable of beating the best.

How's your team going and what are you predictions for the top 8? Also, who do you think will win it this year, and why?


My top 8 are as below.

Roosters
Souths
Storm
Eagles
Dogs
Sharks
Newcastle
Cowboys

Eighth is a lottery but I like Thurston, and for his sake I hope they make it. People wrote them off a few weeks ago but their chances are good I reckon.

Very hard to pick the winner in the end, any one of the top four can do it. My head says Roosters - they're really on steam. They exploit the weaknesses of their opponents very well.

The Sharks were behind the 8ball before koff due to the asada debacle and still hanging over as you know, thought you were building up well but tbh just not strong nor consistant enough but thats path of the course below the obvious top 4.
My Eagles really arn't any stronger than last year, probably just belted down more so after last season and in general have a sound strong experienced squad mixed with youth, early form was lacking but the last 9 odd wins brought us back up, losing to the bunnies under dubious ref decisions last Friday took away the chance to grow in confidence against the top3 that we haven't beaten this season.
Do we have a chance ? I'm not confident as yet, losing a key player would be a major setback now, much the same as souths, without ingliss they are half the team as proven dropping games prior to our loss. I'm not writing us off but the bunnies and chooks certainly are candidates followed by the storm so you have chosen well Falc.
Chooks even without SBW can go forward more so than souths without ingliss as mentioned, I love us to sneak through the back door but depends where we actually do end up for the semis.
Your bottom 4 I would agree as well with a toss of the coin.
Dogs are a shell of last year but could be a thorn for anyone in the semis, team coached by des will always stand up at the business end, knights lack that x factor I'd call them gone by the end, agree re cowboys and thurston but don't travel well come semi time big test for them thats leaves your sharks, not enough game breakers for me, nulify carney attack is not as fluent but forward pack can overcome this as long as they play the 90min but against the likes of the chooks,bunnies,eagles packs tuff call.

As for the rest sweet sweet sorrows - broncos, love seeing them down fecking qlders :highly_amused:, the mighty dragons, huh :), parra, oh how I have smiled towards my brother inlaw suffering :highly_amused:, '80's never forgotten and the silvertail battles LOL......

Haha. Poor Parra. Ricky has not proven himself as a top class coach. Roosters won with him but he didn't ly that ground work.

Agree on Sharks not having enough game breakers. They have certain stats that puzzle me. They make the most metres in the comp yet they're one of the worst when scoring tries. In other words they haven't improved on last in any way. It's like they've been jinxed. Last year I was saying that all they need to do is gel and they'd be lethal but the problem seems to be much deeper than I thought. One day *sigh*

Yeah logic says roosters but I hope it's not them. I'd like an underdog to win it. Manly are no longer the team to hate for me so I wouldn't mind if they took out the premiership.

Agree about Ricky then at the chickens, a good squad ready to rumble under Murray (rip) from memory, backed up getting to another GF but freddy was near retiring went backwards. See below a good review on Stuart :

Why is Parramatta Eels coach Ricky Stuart untouchable?

AS Ricky Stuart returns to his Suncorp Stadium graveyard Friday night with one hand on the NRL wooden spoon it is hard to believe the Parramatta coach is not a dead man walking.
This is despite failing to find any improvement in a Parramatta side almost certain to become the first club since South Sydney in 2003-2004 to claim back-to-back wooden spoon.
In fact, if not for last week’s 26-22 win over the equally inept Wests Tigers, Stuart would have created unwanted rugby league history by becoming the first coach ever to lose 11 consecutive matches at two different clubs.

Talk about spreading the Midas touch.
Former coach Stephen Kearney copped the blame of Parramatta’s woes in 2012 but as we have seen this year - with five 30-plus floggings - the Eels are no better off with Stuart at the helm and are still two wins shy of the six victories they produced last year and in 2011.

His overall NRL record is now 120 wins, 120 losses and 1 draw from 241 games.
But since 2009 Stuart-coached football teams have won just 14 of their past 61 games.
To stop the slide and buy time from a dysfunctional board, Stuart plans to sack half the roster and start again.

But his biggest name signing next year is Bronco Corey Norman, who is now struggling in Queensland Cup, while the likes of Gareth Hock, Josh Papalii and Israel Folau all agreed to joint the Eels but subsequently changed their minds.
Two years ago he was labelled NSW’s messiah, but he never delivered a trophy and returned back to the NRL where his coaching record now stands at just one finals appearance in his last seven seasons.

In four years at Cronulla, Stuart got the Sharks to the finals just once, flogged by Melbourne in the 2008 preliminary final.
A decade ago Stuart was considered a coaching genius.

He took the Sydney Roosters to the premiership in his debut season after inheriting a star-studded team that had made six successive finals and were runners-up under Graham Murray two years earlier.

He won a 2005 Origin series with NSW but it all fell apart when sacked as Kangaroos Test coach for presiding over Australia’s shock 2008 World Cup final loss here at Lang Park.
It was the first time since 1972 Australia had not won the World Cup, but it was his verbal abuse of referee Ashley Klein that made his job untenable.

It proved what Queensland fans have long known, that Stuart is the biggest whinger in the game.
That reputation only grew with an expletive-laden spray of referees on the Gold Coast in round six and after a repeat outburst in round 15 his coaching career fines total almost $100,000.

The game’s deepest thinker might have deep pockets but success has been shallow pickings in Queensland, his last trip to Suncorp ending in tears thanks to Cooper Cronk’s miracle field goal in the 2012 Origin decider.
It was the seventh straight loss Stuart had suffered coaching in Brisbane, his last victory coming as Test coach in 2007.

He might have missed the Origin pain with NSW four weeks ago, but on Friday night the Broncos can hand Stuart his own eight straight Lang Park defeats.

RICKY'S RECORD

Roosters

02 Premiers

03 Lost grand final to Penrith

04 Lost grand final to Bulldogs

05 11 wins, 13 losses (46%, finished 9th)

06 8 wins, 16 losses (33%, 14th)

Sharks

07 10 wins, 14 losses (42%, 11th)

08 Prelim finalists

09 5 wins, 19 losses (21%, 15th)

Eels

13 4 wins, 16 losses (20%, currently 16th)

NRL career: 120 wins, 120 losses, 1 draw (50%)

NSW

05, 11-12 4 wins, 5 losses (44%)

AUSTRALIA

06-08 10 wins, 1 loss (08 World Cup final)

1 finals appearance last 7 years

Your sharks improved on the go forward but not enough try scorers - just saying for eg Manly have in the forwards Stuart either setting up or scoring now and then, watmough, Cherry Evans, Foran, Lyon, Matai, B Stuart all try scorers off the top of my head whereas your sharks can't name more than Carney if you know what I mean.
Come on Falc - don't let me down we love people hating us stick with it, gives us mucho pleasure LOL......

Haha Maurie, I mostly enjoy watching good, competitive games, but if you so wish I can start hating. Sorry, I can't ya's more than Slater & Co.

Poor Ricky... A great player, no doubt, but those stats as a coach are damning.

Sharks have decent finishers but have problems working in harmony when it comes to strike. Carney has been a great asset. Without him I doubt we'd have one half the games we have so far.

I lost any respect for Stewart ( not that I particularly liked him anyway) after the World Cup. The way he carried on was something you expect to see at primary school.
I can't believe he still has a job, and those stats show just inept he is as a coach. He must have pics of someone high up or something, because as shown over the last few seasons, any other coach would have been gone by now.

Some players should just call it quits after their playing careers - stuart is definately one, agree defective that behaviour was embarrassing.
The $$ parra have paid is another baffling call but thats parra nothing makes sense since their golden years and most of their probs have come from players of that era - go figure.

Far out, Cowboys just catapulted up into the eighth from 12th position. They will stay there if Manly can beat Canberra, which is expected.

and that it did - manly locked up a top 4 place, mind you didn't like 22 put over us and I think thats our prob.
oh parra its just getting worse !

The Sharks are hard to beat when they're on their game - which is rare lol. Very happy that we won, it proves we do have the firepower. Games like last week against the Saints also prove we can be really crap as well. The worry tonight was both teams scored 4 tries apiece. Sharks scored all theirs in the first half, Chookies all in the 2nd. I hate it when our intensity drops like that.

Hey Maurie, your beloved, overgrown chooks, better win at least one of their last two games otherwise they may lose 4th place to the Sharkettes.