I’m fairly bullish of our chances of making the top 8. We’ve finished 9th 4 times since 2011 and IMO this is our strongest squad and best coach we’ve had since then. We appear to be the most settled we’ve been off field and by all reports have one of the ‘easier’ draws as opposed to fairly horrible ones the past 2 years.
This year the sides that have been perennial top 4 sides have lost a bit of talent which will bring them back to the pack. Roosters Cronk/Latrell, Rabbits Burgess X2/ Sutton, Sharks Gallen/Prior etc. For the first time in a while I don’t feel there’s a clear cut top few sides and expect it to be a fairly close comp with the ladder changing regularly.
For us we have a great start to the year playing 6 sides that finished bottom 8 in the first 7 games. I realize it’s 1 game at a time but we should be aiming for 5 wins in this chunk before a tough 5 games against 2019 semi finalists.
In no order and not considering the draw I’ll put these sides in my 8:
Roosters
Rabbits
Storm
Sea Eagles
Tigers
Raiders
Broncos
Cowboys
This is only a turn over of 2 sides missing the 8, traditionally 3 sides turn over with 1 top 4 missing.
I couldn’t drop any top 4 sides so excluded the Eels (5th) purely because they’ve crashed and burned after the last 2 times they’ve had good seasons. I feel they are still a mentally weak side who got the benefit of the easiest draw last year along with the emotion of the new stadium which will surely die down this year.
For us I’ll have us 6th/7th. I feel we’re a genuine class player away from challenging for the Top 4
