*Official* NRL 2013 Season thread

[NUFAN]

Can't wait for the season to start. Initially I figured your team Ausage were big chances to claim te spoon, I'm a bit excited about the options in the pack and there are some toug exciting backs.

Tipping Lewis Brown to have a big year.

 

[Ausage]

Can't wait for the season to start. Initially I figured your team Ausage were big chances to claim te spoon, I'm a bit excited about the options in the pack and there are some toug exciting backs.

Tipping Lewis Brown to have a big year.

I was really keen before Roberts got injured. A few Panther fans made the call that he was the fastest they'd ever seen in a Panthers jersey. Without him (he's back in w8-10) we're lacking a bit of power out wide. Mansour is great, I like Whare but he's solid rather than spectacular, Naiquama is ok and Tighe/Simmons range between average and bad. I'd prefer Brown in the pack and below that we'd be relying on someone unproven to step up (Daniela, Pangai, Moylan etc). Despite the amount of **** our halves get it's our backs that are our weakest link without Jennings and Gordon imo. Agree that our pack is pretty great (assuming it stays healthy). Looking forward to Segeyaro progressing in a big way and hoping to see what all the fuss is about Kyle ODonnell.

We've signed an extraordinary amount of players. Happened over a long period of time so it doesn't really hit you until you look at it all at once.

 

[uvelocity]

**** spoon for mine w/o doubt

 

[Mister Wright]

Yeah big fan of Sterlo. Voss, Gould and Sterlo is the commentary dreamteam.

I know Gould is generally pretty bad, but he's only really awful when he's paired with Rabs. With Voss he tends to talk less garbage and focus more on analysing the game which is what he's good at.



Agreed. Really sad for any young bloke to want to end it like that.

I'm pretty sure we're going to get a fair bit of Hadley again this season, which sucks the big one.

 

[Spikey]

a disgrace to the nation

 

[vic_orthdox]

So, talk that the Sharks players are being offered big discounts to give ASADA as much info as they can. Two years down to six months.

 

[Spikey]

glad it ain't my club

 

[Mister Wright]

Sounds like the sharks need a good image change, perhaps even a new location.

The Perth Sharks sounds pretty good.

 

[howardj]

This could break the Sharks

- already without a major sponsor
- lose 14 players for the year
- legal action taken by those 14 players against the club

 

[howardj]

Benny Ikin with his own show

#painfulviewing

 

[Ausage]

Yeah this could be very dark for the Sharks. They always seem to get through rocky periods like this but you have to wonder how many times they can cheat death. This will hurt them big time.

The real worry is that Essendon and Cronulla are the tip of the iceberg.

 

[howardj]

At least at this point it appears incompetence was at play as distinct from systematic cheating (i.e. the peptides in question were legal up until 2011, but were placed on the banned list in 2012, something that the Sharks were oblivious to). Hopefully other clubs were more diligent, and we don't end up with a five team comp in 2013.

Man, you'd pissed off if you were an affected player. As an employee of the club, you rely on the medical staff to be across what's banned and what's not.

Assuming that's how it all played out

 

[Ausage]

At least at this point it appears incompetence was at play as distinct from systematic cheating (i.e. the peptides in question were legal up until 2011, but were placed on the banned list in 2012, something that the Sharks were oblivious to). Hopefully other clubs were more diligent, and we don't end up with a five team comp in 2013.

Man, you'd pissed off if you were an affected player. As an employee of the club, you rely on the medical staff to be across what's banned and what's not.

Assuming that's how it all played out

That might actually be worse for the Sharks as a club. There is talk of legal action being taken by the players with some of them being big names (about as big as they get, hint hint) and if the club was incompetent they'd be very exposed. Millions of dollars in compensation on the back of lost sponsorships and any other fines they might incur would be dire for a club as poor as the Sharks.

What I don't understand is why they're being prosecuted for offenses in 2010 when the substances were only put on the banned list in 2011.

 

[howardj]

I'd take incompetence by a rogue sports scientist over systematic cheating

Neither good though

Poor Sharks - had them pencilled for top four this year

 

[NUFAN]

This could break the Sharks

- already without a major sponsor
- lose 14 players for the year
- legal action taken by those 14 players against the club

They won't be losing 14 players for the year as the 14 implicated are not all still at Cronulla.

 

[morgieb]

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

Premiers: North Queensland Cowboys
Runners Up: Melbourne Storm
State of Origin: NSW 2-1
One Player to Make Origin Debut: Aaron Woods
Top Point Scorer: Michael Gordon
Top Tryscorer: Ashley Graham
Dally M: Johnathon Thurston
Best Buy: Luke Lewis
Worst Buy: Braith Anasta
Coaches to Not Coach in 2014: Steve Price

Other predictions:

Brisbane will win more games then they lose despite missing the 8.
Newcastle, Cronulla and Melbourne to lose less than four games by Rd 13.
Roosters to be in the top 6 by Rd 13, Bulldogs and Canberra to be out of the 8 around Rd 13.
Penrith to win less than two games by Rd 13.
Parra to sign at least two big names before 2014.
1st-9th to have a mere six point gap by the end of the season.

 

[Burgey]

If all these players at the Sharks were on PEDs, will the NRL do what they did to Melbourne and the DogTurds and take away Cronulla's...

Never mind.

 

[uvelocity]

 

[Coronis]

This will be very interesting

 

[howardj]

The porch light has been smacked by the carbon tax ftr