**Official** NRL 2009 Thread

[Simon]

Cam Smith recently signed a new contract with the Storm.

 

[howardj]

My god I'm sick of the Benji Marshall will he/won't he league/union saga.

Benji, here's a tip - nobody really minds if you leave, as you're not actually that good.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Just head back to Touch while you've still got some toe, Benji.

 

[.matt]

Dragons usually show thery are real contendors every year, only to falter where it matters.

True. We usually start crap too.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Dragons fans pissing me off at the moment.

"We sure smashed you in the trials, lol, we'll domin8 da comp dis year, look at our trial results".

Yeah you're playing full strength when everyone else is playing Toyota Cup sides, solid m8.

 

[morgieb]

1 Manly Sea Eagles
2 Cronulla Sharks
3 Canberra Raiders
4 St George Illawarra Dragons
5 Melbourne Storm
6 New Zealand Warriors
7 Newcastle Knights
8 Brisbane Broncos
9 Canterbury Bulldogs
10 North Queensland Cowboys
11 Parramatta Eels
12 South Sydney Rabbitohs
13 Gold Coast Titans
14 Sydney Roosters
15 Penrith Panthers
16 Wests Tigers

Premiers: Manly Sea Eagles
Runners Up: St George Illawarra Dragons
Prelim Finals: Canberra Raiders and Cronulla Sharks
Dally M Medal: Terry Campese
Clive Churchill Medal: Matt Orford
Leading Point Scorer: Luke Covell
Leading Try Scorer: Brett Stewart
Origin Debuts: NSW Terry Campese, Michael Jennings, Glenn Stewart, David Williams Qld - David Shillington
State of Origin - Queensland 2-1
Rookie of the Year: Donald Malone or Ben Barba
Buy of the year: Michael Ennis or Trent Barrett

Other
* Todd Carney will sign for the Wests Tigers
* Greg Bird will sign with the Canterbury Bulldogs - they respect guys who glass chicks.
* Matthew Elliott will get sacked as Panthers coach
* Craig Bellamay will quit as NSW coach after the Origin series
* NSW to play a lot of new players because of their general direness
* Melbourne to struggle a little with the depletion of their squad and fail to make the Top 4
* Canberra to exceed all expectations and make the Top 4
* Karmichael Hunt will leave Brisbane and sign with Union (either Reds or France)
* Gold Coast to struggle again with injuries
* Injuries hit Parramatta again exposing their lack of depth
* Craig Fitzgibbon & Darren Lockyer will retire from the NRL
* Nathan Friend will return to the Broncos
* Tigers & Panthers to battle it out for the spoon
* Roosters to have an injury crisis so big that it'll put the ****s back where they belong

 

[99*]

1- Manly Sea Eagles
2- Auckland Warriors
3- Melbourne Strom
4- St. George Dragons
5- Newcastle Knights
6- Sydney City Roosters
7- Canberra Raiders
8- Brisbane Broncos
9- Nth Queensland Cowboys
10- Parramatta Eels
11- Cronulla Sharks
12- Gold Coast Titans
13- Canterbury Bulldogs
14- South Sydeny Rabbitohs
15- West Sydney Tigers
16- Penrith Panthers

Grand Final: Manly vs. Newcastle
Dally M: Kurt Gidley
Origin: Queensland 3-0
Buy of the year: Issac de Gois

Yes I am a Knights fan. So homerism is there.

 

[pinchy81]

Sharks 11th? Excuse me while I laugh hysterically

 

[99*]

Sharks 11th? Excuse me while I laugh hysterically

We'll see who has the last laugh.

 

[pinchy81]

We'll see who has the last laugh.

Indeed we will

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Barrett will bomb and Seymour will be **** in the #7. Could cost you seriously.

 

[pinchy81]

Still have Blake Green who could come in at 7 therefore allowing Seymour to come back and play Five-Eighth

 

[Prince EWS]

Still have Blake Green who could come in at 7 therefore allowing Seymour to come back and play Five-Eighth

Blake Green is ridiculously bad though. Plus he's not actually a halfback either; he's a five-eighth too.

Tony Caine's probably the next best bet but he literally only came out of retirement about a month ago.

 

[Simon]

Blake Green was always a halfback coming through the ranks at Parramatta, was screwed around last year playing centres, lock and in the halves too. I still think Barrett in 6 and Seymour in 7 will do fine. Seymour is an older more experienced player now, people still judge him on his performances when he was a 19 and 20 year old which is pretty unfair.

 

[Craig]

Todd Carney is probably going to end up at the Atherton Roosters up in North Queensland if a move to French rugby does not work out (ie find a team that wants him) since they can offer a better deal then what Goulbourn can.

And unless Brisbane and West Tigers respectively, let Karmichael Hunt and Benji Marshall (which they won't) go to Japan before June 30 then they are no chance of playing in the next Japanese rugby season since they have to be living there before that date.

 

[chaminda_00]

Guest players have different requirements to full time players in Japanese rugby...

Surprised it has taken so long for the French league side to jump on the work permit thing for Australian players. I guess fitting them into the their salary cap or expense thing would be the issue. But they could make a killing from the tough work permits in England.

 

[Burgey]

Sharks 11th? Excuse me while I laugh hysterically

Well they can't win it, so they may as well finish 11th, one spot ahead of my mob.

Speaking of which, we're joint competition leaders as we speak, with Hayne scoring two tries at 5/8, which is a fair effort, coz I don't think he'll be a 5/8s arsehole.

 

[howardj]

Worst move by the Sharks to bring Barrett in. He has always struck me as lacking hunger and someone who is in a real comfort zone. Nice bloke he seems though.

Anyway, see Rowdy Shearer totalled his Porsche while speeding away from the cops on Saturday night. He's in a very bad condition - hopefully he pulls through.

QUEENSLANDER!!!

 

[Burgey]

Worst move by the Sharks to bring Barrett in. He has always struck me as lacking hunger and someone who is in a real comfort zone. Nice bloke he seems though.

Anyway, see Rowdy Shearer totalled his Porsche while speeding away from the cops on Saturday night. He's in a very bad condition - hopefully he pulls through.

QUEENSLANDER!!!

Out of danger apparently.

They should say he's involvd with the SOO team, that way the Police Minister can come out and say "Nothing will happen until August at the earliest, get on out there and support the boys. Rowdy's a great bloke".

 

[Craig]

Fraser Anderson is off to Japanese rugby with the Sharks giving him a release as off today. Apparently Anderson was offered 'three times' as much as what the Sharks were paying him. Although Lance Thompson is his manager, so whether or not this figure is true or not, remains to be seen.