This one was recorded prior to the Dally M awards and the grand final hope you enjoyed the vid let me know down below how your predictions went and Parramatta Eels doco out tomorrow get excited!!!
What really killed off the chooks this year was that putrid shocker of an origin period where we had the worst fixture run out of any team in that period, being Parra and Penrith twice, Melbourne, Canberra away and Cronulla. Plus the early season losses to Newy (typical us to lose round 1), the dogs after a Gus Gould baking and the dragons on Anzac Day did not help our causes at all
Overall not too bad. In general your worst predictions all involved QLD teams (Manly was also off by a bit but predicting a season for them is impossible due to their fragility) which might be worth thinking about for future predictions (NSW bias). It was always going to be a hard season to predict given the changes to the six again rules were going to make it less advantageous for fitter and generally faster sides, who previously would abuse poor refereeing to completely smother defending sides kick return momentum and then punish the unfit sides in attack with fast playmakers or outside backs. The Cowboys, Eels (whilst they only moved 2 positions the big difference is that they recovered post origin quicker than previous seasons) and Broncos were three teams that all benefitted significantly due to the rule change (I'd say Manly were a team that were really hurt by the change irrespective of injuries). Teams without serviceable playmaker combinations all were found wanting this season regardless of whether they had a strong forward pack or not with the Titans and Knights suffering the most from this.
You said the wingers for Souths didn't go well this year, but you didn't mention Johnson, who played a few games and scored a couple of tries, 27 I think.
I spent the entire year pointing out just how inconsistent the Eels were and am now completely shocked they're in the grand finals, the Panthers on the other hand didn't surprise me at all...
After the game finished, the NRL even admitted that the Cowboys were cheated out of the Grand Final. If the referees had actually picked up on that blatant forward pass, I think that the Cowboys would have actually won both the Semi Final and the Grand Final. As for my beloved Broncos, they shot themselves in the foot in the last month of the regular season but if they can get their coaching woes behind them then I think that we might end up seeing a Broncos/Cowboys Grand Final next year.
Cooper Johns would be the perfect half-back for Newcastle since his family has a legacy. He's a perfect controlling half who does the jobs, kicks well and could defintley let clifford explode and reach the same highs earlier this year.
