For Better or worse............

[DoggiesBro]

Not bagging the storm but with their forward pack losing their best player and replacing him with hoffman i expect more steps back for them in 2012.

 

[watatank]

Dragons- started strong but faded away last season, next season more likely to start slow and finish strong. Will probably translate to a similar result (3-6), hoping for more though!

Souths- They will show signs of improvement but it will take more than a year for Maguire to put his systems in place. I'd say 9-12.

Roosters- Talented young side but probably too much inexperience. Might spring a couple of upsets but overall shouldn't trouble the top sides. maybe 12-16.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Manly - Top 2
Melbourne - Top 2
Whichever shit team sits alphabetically before Manly - Who cares? They're shit and will finish out of the 8.

 

[StormHi]

Not bagging the storm but with their forward pack losing their best player and replacing him with hoffman i expect more steps back for them in 2012.

Really We lost alot of our mediocre fowards and (IMO blair wasnt our best he goes missing alot and is quite lazy I am actually happier with the leadership and honest work ethic that hoffman brings over blair) and we got some amazing young boys comming in who I am positive are gonna be stars.

I really don't know why there is so much hate on Hoffman he is a proven peformer and actually had a pretty decent year this year..... Pretty excited about our team this year to be honest.

2012 Is gonna be a great season for alot of teams (I reckon Eels and the Sharkies will have the biggest improvment Top 8 berth for both of them I think)

 

[adamkungl]

Sydney Roosters - Hopefully the decent form shown in the backend of the season is followed by a drama-free offseason. Cruelled by injuries and attitude problems to key players in 2011, 2012 should see a huge improvement. Im tipping somewhere around 5th and deep into the finals. Talent to win it, even without Carney imo. Attitude....?

St George Illawarra Dragons - Depends on the new coach. Talent-wise, I don't rate them with the very top teams, I think their biggest asset for the last 3 years has been Bennett's excellent structure. I think they'll be in the shitfight for 7th and 8th spot at the end of the season.

Wests Tigers - Gibbs is a loss but Blair is excellent. If key players (Benji, Lawrence, Blair, Tuqiri, Moltzen) stay on the field there's no reason why the won't be top 4 again this year. Except for that they've been notoriously bad at backing up good years since winning the comp, 2011 being the exception. Should challenge for the premiership.

 

[Lambretta]

Adam - you're delusional - I'm going to the SFS for the beer.... oh f**k

Sydney Roosters - A very young side with a lot of potential, but not alot of depth in key positions. Our forward pack has mobility and youth, but lacks a bit of size at times. Martin Kennedy will be a welcome return and with JWH, Mose and Friend in the mix our front row will be pretty solid. Our second row will rely on as many people staying fit as possible and keeping the youngsters rotating. Our backs are pedestrian and predictable - not words you want to be using to describe your backs. However there are some young kids coming through and hopefully Mortimer will give us options in the halves. SKD & Perrett need to stay fit all year. I'm predicting we'll finish this one in pretty much the same place as last time. 8th to 12th, but building towards a MUCH better 2013.

Alphabetically earlier - South Sydney (cos sOuth is closer to sYdney than sAint) - This will hopefully be the year that South Sydney can finally fulfill their potential and break into the upper tier of the competition. Much will depend on their ability to replace Sandow with someone who can pass left instead of right. I've banged on repeatedly about Souths using Greg Inglis to his best ability and if their play makers all pass right, he has to play wide on the right. They have a great pack but with Sandow going there are going to be questions hanging over their ability to create opportunities. If they can feed Greg Inglis the ball and Greg can feed himself some healthy food instead of pies and they dont get shafted by 80% of their pack being injured for 60% of the season, they could finally make the 8. If not, then 9th place is up for grabs once again.

Wests Tigers - The Tigers are incapable of doing what anyone expects of them. Rothfield has given them the mantle of Premiership favourites, so that means that they are instantly on the slide from last season. Every year, a team that is predicted to be big winners ends up tanking hard and every year a team expected to f**k it up, ends up being in contention. With Wests talent, they have the look of a team going places, yet they've lost the wife beater and if Benji goes down with an injury or has to stand up in court and testify that a brown man called him black again then they could end up in 14th. My soppy little heart says Champions (if the Roosters arent) - my funny bone says f**k em.......forteenth.

 

[Warrior@Heart]

New Zealand Warriors: Improve, I definitely believe Bluey McClennan is more suited to the Warriors style, and hopefully with a proper centre combo and a decent hooker the team will gel early and make a play for the top 4.

Newcastle Knights: Improve, Uate-Boyd-Snowden-Mullen all in their prime, also the best coach in the game and a good recruitment not to mention good crowd support I think will easily make the 8 may just miss out on the top 4.

North Queensland Cowboys: Improve, alot of young talented players Tamou-Sims-Taumalolo-Pangai-KFFL-Lui-Linnett, Thurston for Dally M and Cowboys to finish top 4 maybe even Grand Final.

 

[flippikat]

New Zealand Warriors - Top 4 should be the aim, I'll be disappointed if we miss the top-4 and downright angry if we miss the 8. If we get a good position in the finals then the road to the Grand Final is that much easier and you'd have to like our chances in that case.

Newcastle Knights - Rebuilding. Wayne Bennett coaches teams to a top-8 place more often than not, so on the strength of that I'd pick them to scrape in and finish 7th or 8th.

North Qld Cowboys - Really don't know how these guys will go - it's always a 'lucky dip' - but I get a feeling that they're due a good season soon. Just outside the 8 for mine.

 

[Raidersrawesome]

Raiders- Better - Top 8 finish , Campo returning and hopefully a better year on the injury front and we should improve , couldnt be any worse. No Tongue at hooker either. The players to play with a bit of ticker in 2012.

Broncos - Worse- The loss of Lockyer will be huge and it may take them a season to get use to it. Thaiday will need to set up to the leader role.

Dogs- Worse , just , they have lost alot of experience and Im not sold on their halves. It'll be good to see how Graham goes inthe NRL.

Maybe 2013 when Foran joins they should improve

 

[2012....Sharks Year]

Imo injuries will play a big part in determining most teams fate as usual. i feel that Manly and Saints will fail to reach the heights of last year......Manly 4th-8th....Saints 8th-12th and Penrith 14th-16th. Improvers should be Newcastle 3rd-6th...Sharks 5th-8th and have a feeling that Gold Coast may improve to 6th-10th.

 

[Bananabender]

Saint George: They will be impressive under Steve Price's leadership but will miss Gasnier heaps. Dragon's will finish around 6th-9th.

South Sydney: Would love to see a top 8 this year..that may have been possible if Chris Sandow was still at the club but will be spending the first half of the year finding their way. Maybe a 8th-10th finish.

Sydney Roosters: Depending on where Braith Anasta will spend the season and how his young spring chickens perform around his expertise. They are pretty talented when it all comes together...maybe a 6th finish and as we know 6th can quite easily lead on to another GF appearance once in the finals.

 

[Red Bear]

Can I participate?

North Sydney - depends a fair bit on what sort of players we get from Souths but we made the finals this year, lost our best player so will be tough.

North Qld - Rely heavily on Thurston and Scott. Sims returning to fitness would be a big plus. How Tate goes 18 months on from knee reco a big key to their 3/4 line. Same old story I suspect, will show bits and pieces but wont seriously threaten for the title. Couple of injuries and they bottom right out.

Parramatta - Played better than 15th really, similar to the Sharks in I think Stuarts first year as coach. Lost a ridiculous amount of close games. Their defence was reasonable, their go forward was reasonable but lacked any class in the halves to score points. Addition of Tonga Sandow and Roberts lessens the load on Hayne a bit. They'll win those tight games and make the 8 I think.

 

[roofromoz]

Penrith - Same. I look at our starting 13 and can't see it being consistent enough at this time to be a top 8 team. However, if Cleary can have the boys firing and Walsh leads from the front and take control of games more often, then a 7th or 8th spot finish is a possibility, but I think a similar finish to this year (12th) is more likely.

Parramatta - Better. Can't do much worse than 15th, but their roster for 2012 is stronger and may push for a top 8 finish. As long as 2 of their losses are against Penrith though.

St. George Illawarra - Worse. Probably only slightly as their only notable departures this season were Boyd and Gasnier, but I think they possibly may not make the 8. There will obviously be a lot of pressure heaped on Steve Price, but given he's been in the Bennett system, he should do OK.

 

[Loudstrat]

Just on the Dragons, few clubs do better finding replacements in their juniors. Chase Stanley is coming back too. I heard that his free boat was smaller than he hoped.

 

[redvscotty]

Justin Poore will be the good news story of the year.

People will forget who Fui Fui even is!

 

[Loudstrat]

Fui - if ever there was one player I want to capture in time and play forever, it's him. I will hate the day he retires, or fades away. He is f*cking awesome!

 

[MatthewA]

Bulldogs: I think we will improve enough to be a threat to the top 4. The main reason being the fact that we were so close in a lot of games last year and guys like Hodkinson, Pritchard, Eastwood, Morris and our whole forward rotation failed to find consistency for whatever reason, whether it be lack of form or injury.

The team had a new structure in 2011 that they needed to get use to and they will be far better off for the year and another pre-season with no major changes to the core of the side in 2012. Plus the addition of Des Hasler and a forward with ball skills and mongrel - something we haven't really had since 2004/2009.

Eastwood had a horror run with injury last year. Both wrists had major surgery in the pre-season and he missed the start of the year, then he injured his knee/ankle later on in the year and then played through with another wrist injury. All is fixed, though and he's training the house down. We all know how good he can be. He's just one of the players who looks to be improving big time, along with Lafai who is doing his first full pre-season. We also have far better depth with some good young blokes from NYC moving up as well as signings like Gavet and McDougall. Predicted finish: 5th.

Canberra: Campese was a huge loss to them in 2011 but a bigger loss was the fact that their forwards, who many consider the best in the league, were just average most of the time. Guys like Learoyd-Larhs, White etc just didn't step up.

I love the looks of their young prop Josh Papalli and they have a few really good blokes coming through as well. Fensom is going to go down as one of the best workhorses in history if he keeps up his form. But the forwards really need to fire, other wise Campese and the backs won't be able to do squat.

I'm not a huge fan of their backline and Dugan is getting a reputation of being more injury prone than Money Bill, which is concerning for Canberra. Ferguson is also very hot and cold and they don't have a half back that I think can actually lead them properly. Predicted finish: 10th

Cronulla: Great forward pack, Gallen is a machine. I think they will improve a hell of a lot and I say that because they finally seem to have sorted out their issues in the halves. Carney needs to fire of course, because we know their forwards will. Their back line leaves a little to be desired but Nathan Gardener should have a huge year at fullback. Great talent. Predicted finish: 9th.

 

[Jason Maher]

Saints: a new coach, some new unproven players (or players with a point to prove), a couple of champion players gone, along with a couple of unheralded but effective performers. Too many unknowns to make a realistic prediction. Anywhere from top 4 to 12th. Too much talent to prop up the table.

Penrith: new coach, new regime under Gould, but not much new talent. Civoniceva is a massive loss. I expect improvement, but not for a year or two. Bottom 4.

South Sydney: can Maguire get them out of their rut of underachievement and unfulfilled promise? Probably, but I think it will take longer than 12 months. Outside the 8. Might sneak into 7th-8th.

 

[dangerousdave]

Saints: a new coach, some new unproven players (or players with a point to prove), a couple of champion players gone, along with a couple of unheralded but effective performers. Too many unknowns to make a realistic prediction. Anywhere from top 4 to 12th. Too much talent to prop up the table.

Couldn't agree more really could be anywhere between 1st and 16th

 

[Loudstrat]

There is a train of thought that Chase Stanley could nullify Gasnier's loss. Therefore, as good as Darius was I'm wondering whether he will be as bigger loss as Costigan and Smith?

I'm also wondering whether Penrith are real underdog material, with a backline featuring Gordon, Jennings and Coote, and better discipline with the coaching changes?

I also note the absence of comment on the Gold Coast. They have to improve, surely?