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**Official** NRL 2009 Thread

Simon

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1 Cronulla Sharks - HAHAHA Next!
2 Manly Sea Eagles - Probably would have been here with a better start
3 Canberra Raiders - Oh dear
4 Melbourne Storm - Spot on
5 St George Illawarra Dragons - Slightly under rated them
6 New Zealand Warriors - Over rated them like everyone did
7 Newcastle Knights - Spot on
8 Canterbury Bulldogs - Didn't think they'd click so quickly
9 Brisbane Broncos - Probably where we should have finished
10 North Queensland Cowboys - About right
11 Parramatta Eels - slightly under rated them, wasnt far off
12 Gold Coast Titans - not even close
13 Penrith Panthers - almost right
14 Sydney Roosters - almost right
15 South Sydney Rabbitohs - bit under rated, were never gonna make the 8
16 Wests Tigers - still think they are pathetic

Premiers: Manly Sea Eagles - Probably unlikely
Runners Up: St George Illawarra Dragons - should be in the big one
Prelim Finals: Canberra Raiders and Cronulla Sharks - Oh deary me.
Dally M Medal: Terry Campese - No
Clive Churchill Medal: Matt Orford - Probably not
Leading Point Scorer: Terry Campese - Nope
Leading Try Scorer: Brett Stewart - best tryscoring strike rate maybe
Origin Debuts: NSW Terry Campese, Michael Jennings, Glenn Stewart Qld - David Shillington - All debuted
State of Origin - Queensland 2-1 - correct
Rookie of the Year: Ryan Williamson, Josh Dugan or Wayde Dunley - Dugan was robbed
Buy of the year: Michael Ennis or Trent Barrett - Ennis was gone

Other
* Todd Carney will sign for the Wests Tigers - nope, signed for Roosters
* Matthew Elliott will get sacked as Panthers coach - should have
* Craig Bellamay will quit as NSW coach after the Origin series - probably should
* Cronulla will lose less than three games before Origin 1 - lol they didn't even win 3
* Melbourne will have one of the best defences but will struggle to score points - probably right
* An injury crisis will hit the Broncos seeing them crash out of the 8 - an attitude crisis saw us crash out of the 8
* Karmichael Hunt will leave Brisbane and sign with Union (either Reds or France) - did leave
* Cory Paterson will emerge as a star early in the season and be unlucky to miss Origin selection - maybe next year, poor guy
* Injuries hit Parramatta again exposing their lack of depth - injuries ended up being good for them
* The bottom four clubs all finish within three wins of each other. - nope
* Craig Fitzgibbon will retire from the NRL - yes
* Robbie Farah will leave the Wests Tigers - nope
* Nathan Friend will return to the Broncos - nope
As usual I have NFI. Some were ok though.
 

Johnners

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Dogs deservedly on top here, but fmd the blokes in Pink are incompetent.
 
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99*

International Debutant
Ah well, not the best way to go out of the comp.

Has been a good season tbf, we have improved miles from last season. Some injuries and poor decisions have held us back from showing our full ability (although it has happened to most other sides also) but hopefully with Stone having a full off-season to work on the guys we'll see a top 4 fnish next year. Really like what Stone has done with the side so far, the side looked much more stable in defense and were less likely to panic in attack (barring some of today, Richie and Scotty for example).

In the end we were beaten by a much better side, but we did play well for most of it. I guess we played like a #7 seed would and took too many risks (De Gois and Taia playing).

Anyway, reflections:

MVP: Zeb Taia - Between Zeb, Gids and Mullo for this, but I pick Zeb simply because he provided so much for the side in attack and much of our season was based on his ability to make a break or give an off-load led to so many wins and come-backs for the side, without him we would've seen a much more limp side. His consistancy was a big factor in our final standing for the year.

Under-rated: Matt Hilder - So, so good. Tackling machine (well what lock isn't) that could step in almost anywhere if we lost someone from injury. Never went missing, ever. Hopefully he stay with us for a long time coming.

Best-Buy: Issac De Gois - The Sharks must be kicking themselves having let this guy go, not the best defender tbf but has the attacking vision that is needed with a young(ish) halfs combo.

Worst-Buy: Ben Rogers - I'd rather have white-hot irons shoved into my eye's than watch Ben play in a Knights jersey again. As 50/50 as it gets with a player and the bad is really, really bad. Not needed in the side.

Best Game: @ Dragons - Coming from behind to beat the eventual MP's at their home ground. Can't ask for more than that. Was one of the best games I've seen in the last few years.

Turning Point: Getting rid of Smith - The Roosters almost ruined our season this year. Announcing Smith as their coach for next season at a time where calm was needed, it saw us go from a possible top 4 side (I believe we were 5th at the time) to 8th in three weeks. Eventually the board took the right decision and released Smith and the team turned around to make the playoffs.

WTF Moment: Danny Wicks' pass - If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about. nothing else will look as stupid on a football field as that.

Worst Game: @ Storm - Not actually the worst performance tbh, but just the fact we lost a match we had complete control of but never put the Storm to bed and allowed them to win it in the last minute.
 

99*

International Debutant
Just going to throw out an idea, to restructure the NRL in the next 10 years or so. I say 10 years since my plan (to be best effective would need 4 new teams in the comp). I just picked four places where I think a team could be. So what would everybody think of:

NRL Restructure

ARL Division
Manly
South Sydney
Sydney City
Newcastle
Gold Coast
Wests
Paramatta
St George
Central QLD (new)
Wellington (new)

SL Division
Brisbane
North QLD
Auckland
Melbourne
Penrith
Canberra
Cronulla
Canterbury
Perth (new)
Central Coast (new)

Sides play a home and away season within their division and two sides from the other division, resulting in a 22 week regular season. (With three gap weeks for SoO)

After the regular season the top five sides from each division enter the playoffs, side with best recond gets home field.

Play-off system

Wildcard Round: Teams 4-5 play a wild-card game with the winner advancing to the second round. (2 games)

Qualifying Round: 1-(4-5) and 2-3 with the winners advancing. (4 games)

Divisional Round: Division Championships. (2 games)

Championship Round: NRL Championship (neutral venue). (1 game)

Total of 9 games over four weeks.

Example:

ARL
1- St. George (20-4)
2- Gold Coast (17-7)
3- Manly (16-8)
4- Newcastle (14-10)
5- Parramatta (13-11)

WC: NEW vs PAR = PAR

QR: STG vs PAR = STG and GLD vs MAN = MAN

DR: STG vs MAN = STG (ARL Champions)

SL
1- Canterbury (19-5)
2- Melbourne (18-6)
3- Brisbane (14-10)
4- Penrith (14-10)
5- North QLD (12-12)

WC: PEN vs NQL = PEN

QR: CAN vs PEN = PEN and MEL vs BRS = BRS

DR: BRS vs PEN = BRS (SL Champions)


CR: STG vs BRS = BRS (NRL Champions)


Based off the NFL system tbh, but I can't see much wrong with it. For those wondering why I'd have the Bears (Central Coast) in the SL, it's to give the ARL div a thrid non-NSW side.
 

Craig

World Traveller
I wanted Gold Coast to win, and I had a good time. Even though drinks werw $7 a pop. What a rip off. What is this? A ground for rich *****?
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I wanted Gold Coast to win, and I had a good time. Even though drinks werw $7 a pop. What a rip off. What is this? A ground for rich *****?
Yeah, lack of atm facilities and the overpiced food and beverages is ridiculous. What a great game though. Really good to see two attacking teams in full flight. The atmosphere was tremendous. Titans fans were very quiet at the end of the game though, very much unlike they were at the start of the game...:)
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
So 99* a 20 game season?

I don't particularly like this idea if/when the two best teams are from the same division.

Also in this 20 team comp, why not just make it a 19 round comp (or add 3 teams to play twice to make it 22) and have the top 8 as is.
 

Spinksy

Banned
So the Bulldogs have a week off, If Parramatta wins the Eagles are gone, but if Parra loses we're knocked-out of the race and the eagle stay. If Parra wins the matches are:

Eels vs Titans
Broncos vs Dragons

With the Storm and the Bulldogs having a week off. However, if the Dragons win then the matches are:

Broncos vs Sea Eagles
Storm vs Titans

With the Bulldogs and the Dragons getting a week off. Thoughts? Well, being a Parra fan I'd hope to hell we win against the dragons but I really can't see that happening anytime soon.
 

Craig

World Traveller
And Melbourne's game will be played at Etihad Stadium where Billy Slater has 11 tries in his last 4 matches there.
 

99*

International Debutant
So 99* a 20 game season?

I don't particularly like this idea if/when the two best teams are from the same division.

Also in this 20 team comp, why not just make it a 19 round comp (or add 3 teams to play twice to make it 22) and have the top 8 as is.
Would be a 22 game season, 18 for the 9 division games plus four for the non-division games.

There's really no way to say the two best sides would be in the same division, since they would be playing different sides most of the season. The only way you could tell is if the top two sides from both divisions played each other for their non-div opponents which would happen rarely.

It was hard for me to pick a play-off system that was best. I don't really want a top eight unless there is a full 38 game (H&A against every team) season, since there is not a full reflection on who the 'best' is. Under a division system the playoffs would see the best sides from each division play until their's one from each and they play for the Championship.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Would be a 22 game season, 18 for the 9 division games plus four for the non-division games.

There's really no way to say the two best sides would be in the same division, since they would be playing different sides most of the season. The only way you could tell is if the top two sides from both divisions played each other for their non-div opponents which would happen rarely.

It was hard for me to pick a play-off system that was best. I don't really want a top eight unless there is a full 38 game (H&A against every team) season, since there is not a full reflection on who the 'best' is. Under a division system the playoffs would see the best sides from each division play until their's one from each and they play for the Championship.
Oh okay I didn't realize you meant home and away against both teams from the other division, I would much prefer the 4 games to be 4 different teams as it wouldn't be fair if one team had 4 games against the 2 top sides and another team had 4 against the bottom 2 sides.

Basically I think your idea could work for a different sport, but I don't see the point in the NRL changing so much.

It would be annoying having current teams who are such good rivals such as Eels vs Dogs not playing against each other all year.
 

Simon

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Yeh think the Dragons can come over the top of them. I'm surprised Parramatta have hit back this way after last week though.
 

Ausage

Cricketer Of The Year
Reckon that Grothe intercept will be the blow the knocks the wind out of the Dragons. They have had more than their fair share of chances tbf.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Parramatta 25 - 12 St George

Bulldogs and Storm have next week off whilst the Knights and Sea Eagles are out.

Next week it will be:


Eels v Titans (Friday, SFS)
Broncos v Dragons (Saturday, Suncorp Stadium)

Then the following week it will be:

Bulldogs v Eels/Titans
Storm v Broncos/Dragons

Anybody want to have have a punt on will win the GF? On current form it is looking out of Bulldogs, Storm, and Eels. Thinking about going to the Broncos match, will be a sell-out.
 
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