NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine’s 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league’s hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in from next Monday, March 14 following a bumper Round One!
It’s hard to believe the off-season has come and gone so quickly and we’re three days out from kick-off in the 2022 season.
Unfortunately, the biggest talking point will be the same thing we’ve dealt with for the past two years – COVID-19.
I guarantee it will be the biggest issue this year. It will be such a massive problem, I can see it already.
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But it will be a different problem to what we’ve experienced in 2020 and 2021, as we hopefully move towards returning towards what we knew as normal.
We’ve already seen Brisbane’s preparation for Round One disrupted by Adam Reynolds being forced into isolation due to COVID-19.
What’s going to happen, particularly towards the back end of the season, is the top sides will be in self-imposed bubbles.
We’ve probably reached the point where the NRL and governments would struggle to force the players back into bubbles like they have in the past, or base the competition in Queensland like we’ve also seen.
The way the world is now we’re all trying to get back to normal, but if you have COVID-19 you’re in isolation for seven days.
When it comes to the crunch the top teams just can’t take that chance. They won’t announce it to the world, but I reckon they’ll quietly go back into bubbles. They’ll go to and from training, and that will be it.
No cafes, no restaurants. Can you imagine if your star player got COVID-19 the week before a semi-final or the grand final? It would be a nightmare.
We saw Pat Cummins miss a Test match over the summer because he happened to sit next to someone at a restaurant the night before a game. Teams just won’t take that risk, because every two points is absolutely vital, every week is crucial. Even if it’s Round Three or Round Four, if you drop two points unexpectedly it can be the difference between winning the minor premiership or not, or making the top four or top eight.
I don’t know how they handle it. It’s going to be a minefield that every club will have to navigate through at some point. We know how contagious COVID-19 is, if one bloke turns up to training it can go through the whole squad.
You’ve got to remember as well that the lower grade comps have been decimated in recent years. The second-tier players have barely kicked a ball.
That’s an issue for depth for each squad. We know that when players miss a full season through injury it can take them some time to get back to peak performance. These lower grade players might have played 10 games in two years, they’ve missed a lot of game time.
On the field, I’m going to tip a Roosters v Parramatta grand final, but who wins out of that, I don’t know at this stage.
The Roosters couldn’t possibly have another year like they did last year, when they were decimated by injuries.
Parramatta have been spoken about a lot in the last couple of years, but I remember thinking at the time there was no way they were ready.
Last year they were close but couldn’t quite get it done, however I reckon this might be their year. The current team has been together for a while now, they know each other’s games inside out.
It’s definitely their big chance, but if they can’t get it done this year the premiership window might be closing, because they’ve already lost Reed Mahoney and Isaiah Papali’i for 2023.
They’ve got to make the most of it, it’s been a long time between drinks since they last won a competition. My only question is the lack of a game-breaking superstar, because I think back to 2016 and we had Ben Barba. I don’t see a Billy Slater or a Ryan Papenhuyzen in the Eels side, but the fact they’ve been together for a few years now can overcome that.
Dylan Brown will be crucial, he had a terrific year in 2020, but he wasn’t quite at his best in 2021. I saw him in a trial a couple of weeks ago and he was running the ball again, if he carries that forward he’ll be a major factor for Parramatta this year.
If it’s not now for Parramatta, I don’t know when it is.
The thing is there’s so much pressure and expectation on the club. I experienced that in 2016 at the Sharks. There’s a lot of support there, don’t get me wrong, but the expectation can get you. That’s where the coach and the support staff need to be able to keep things under control, and Parramatta’s playing group now is reasonably experienced, so that should help. They just have to worry about the job at hand.
It’s rare for a club to successfully defend a premiership, and it will be hard for Penrith to do that this year, although they’ll still be a contender and I really hope they have a good season.
But it’s all about whether or not the players are willing to make the sacrifices they made the previous year. Once you’ve won a competition it’s easy to feel comfortable in yourself. The year before you might have done that extra fitness session, or an extra weights session, or looked after an injury a little bit better.
It can just get into your head that, OK, I’ve won a competition and all it takes is one or two players to be off by one or two per cent, and that’s the difference in a competition like the NRL.
It’s so close and so tight that you need every player giving 100 per cent all the time. If one or two players just drop off by a fraction, maybe not doing their recovery properly, or eating properly, that can cause the time to slide.
No-one does it on purpose, but you’ve climbed the mountain once, it can be hard to do it again the next year.
I know in 2017 I noticed a couple of things at the Sharks and at the time I thought, gee, that wouldn’t have happened last year.
Speaking of the Sharks, I think they will push towards the top four. They’ve got a quality roster, they’ve trained well and can improve on last year.
Craig Fitzgibbon is a great signing. The most important thing for me is that you’ve got to want to play for your coach. You’ve got to want to bleed for your coach and always put your best foot forward. You don’t have to be best mates, but you’ve got respect the coach, and I think Craig already has the respect of everyone at Cronulla.
The respect he had from his playing career, and the apprenticeship he’s done as an assistant coach at the Roosters and at representative level, everyone realises he’s absolutely qualified for this job from day one and that’s key. It’s his first season as a coach but he has nothing to prove to anyone.
Without Wayne Bennett, I reckon Souths slide down the ladder a bit, they’ll still be top eight, but I don’t have them in my top four.
The teams that finished 9-10-11 last year are the teams that I can see moving into the eight this year, so that’s Sharks, Canberra and St George Illawarra.
There’s been a bit of doom and gloom around the Dragons, but I reckon they’ll be competitive. From last year’s top eight the Knights won’t be there, and maybe the Titans, although they won’t be far away.
There’s a lot of optimism about the Bulldogs pushing towards the top eight, but I can’t see it happening. They won’t get the spoon, they’ll definitely improve on 2021, but the top eight might be step too far at this stage.
For me the spoon comes down to three clubs: the Tigers, Newcastle or North Queensland.
I can’t wait for Thursday night!
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