Club by club: Why every NRL fan should be excited for the 2021 season
The NRL season is ready to explode and these are the players set to ignite the competition. Do you agree? Check out every club’s prospects for the year ahead.
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The NRL season is just around the corner for 2021.
We’ve gone through every club and listed the reasons why every fan should be excited about the year ahead.
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1. PENRITH
Premiership odds: $5.25
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Your boys growing up. This time last year, Penrith arrived in the NRL all bad haircuts, crazy handshakes and an attitude suggesting they’d all just read ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F …’. Yet now? Well, apart from all being a year older, and having played finals footy, rising stars such as Nathan Cleary, Stephen Crichton, Billy Kikau, even Jarome Luai also boast the steel that comes with losing a grand final. For years, Penrith has been the club that seemed forever young. To go all the way however, this group must now grow old together.
2. SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Premiership odds: $5.50
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker, who we’re tipping to become the greatest combination outside the words “beer” and “free”. Better, you have to wonder if any team is more suited to the game’s latest rule revamp than these Bunnies. Indeed, when the NRL announced it was again tweaking the rule book to make for a faster, more entertaining and unpredictable contest in 2021, you reckon Wayne Bennett may have cracked a momentary, wry smile – think Dirty Harry knowing how many bullets are left in that .44 Magnum – as he considered the likes of Walker, Mitchell and Damien Cook doing their thing.
3. MELBOURNE STORM
Premiership odds: $7
GET EXCITED ABOUT:While they may have lost rugby league’s greatest player in Cameron Smith, Melbourne still boast rugby league’s greatest player now in Cameron Munster. Better, they also have the greatest coach in Craig Bellamy, the greatest defensive structure, the greatest club culture and the type of recruitment process that sees Smith being replaced by a kid who, in just 17 NRL games, has become a Queensland Origin hero – Harry Grant.
4. SYDNEY ROOSTERS
Premiership odds: $7
GET EXCITED ABOUT:Joseph Suaalii, who may be the most hyped Australian teenager since Corey Worthington wore oversized yellow sunnies. Indeed, at age 17 we were readying for three years of skipping lectures, gaining weight and drooling on ourselves at Newcastle University’s Bar on the Hill. Which as wonderful as it sounds, still doesn’t compare to Roosters recruit Suaalii – who is preparing to, first, rewrite NRL rule books then NRL record books, before eventually entering rugby league’s Millionaires’ Club. Oh, yeah, you guys also have James Tedesco, Luke Keary, Victor Radley, Angus Crichton and a couple of others who go okay.
5. CANBERRA RAIDERS
Premiership odds: $10
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Reigning Dally M medallist Jack Wighton, and the fact he may not even prove the biggest star in a side also boasting the return of English No. 9 Josh Hodgson, the continued rise of Joseph Tapine, the world’s best prop in Josh Papalii and that greatest murderer of white plastic chairs, coach Ricky Stuart. Special mention, too, for the Viking Clap, which is proving more contagious than during the Great Norse Raids.
6. PARRAMATTA EELS
Premiership odds: $15
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Okay, we know Eels fans have been getting excited every year since 1986, which is surely getting a little tiresome. But still, there’s no doubting that in 2021 the Slipperies again look a genuine title chance. So go on Blue & Gold Army, get excited about those Sivo chants, Fergy backflips, The King, Dylan Brown going solo, Nathan Brown going berko, and whatever magic Joey Johns can conjure now with his increased presence at Eels HQ.
7. GOLD COAST TITANS
Premiership odds: $15
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Big Dave Fifita. And bigger Tino Fa’asuamaleaui. A pair of twenty-somethings who wouldn’t look out of place if stood, say, shirtless in the centre of a Colosseum, these two new Titans add real grunt to rugby league’s most improved team from 2020. Elsewhere, fans should be hyped about the ongoing rise of AJ Brimson, Jamal Fogarty, new coach Justin Holbrook and the fact your surf clubs sell schooners.
8. MANLY SEA EAGLES
Premiership odds: $23
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Tommy Turbo, whose ongoing bad luck must surely have been used up completely when twinging his hamstring in the bathroom, on Manly Corso, wherever, doesn’t matter, because when this No. 1 is fit and firing, the Sea Eagles become a genuine finals threat. Also Manly fans, your team is headed to Mudgee in Round 6, which means you, too, should go west and sample, in no particular order, the Oriental Hotel, Lowe Family winery, Butcher Shop cafe and Pieter van Gent white port with a twist of lime. You’re welcome.
9. NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Premiership odds: $23
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Everything your side gets by signing Tyson Frizell, that NSW Origin tough who not only once played on with a ruptured testicle, but then returned early from surgery sporting a jockstrap and cup. Truly, to understand this bloke’s arrival in Newcastle, picture John Wayne riding into town on a horse. Elsewhere, new Englishman Bailey Hodgson looks to be something, Kalyn Ponga, as usual, could be anything and Mitchell Pearce will bounce back from adversity because that’s what the bloke does.
10. NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Premiership odds: $29
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Having one more year to immerse yourself in all the glory that is Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Among the most gifted players of the modern era, RTS has one final shot at chasing premiership glory with a side offering not only X-factor, but exterminators – thanks largely to the signing of Addin Fonua-Blake and Ben Murdoch-Masila. Apart from the Hyphenated Headhunters, the Warriors also have a new coach in Nathan Brown, too. But still, this year is all about the RTS Farewell Tour. Soak him up people.
11. NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
Premiership odds: $29
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Wearing singlets to July home games has to be fairly awesome, right? Same deal, Todd Payten’s new playbook. Given what this bloke did for the Warriors during arguably the most turbulent season in NRL history, it will be more than a little interesting to see how he overhauls a Cowboys side boating the likes of Val Holmes, Jason Taumalolo, Michael Morgan, Scott Drinkwater and the Hammer, aka Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.
12. CRONULLA SHARKS
Premiership odds: $34
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Shaun Johnson, and when back from injury, finding the same form that took him to sixth in 2020 Dally M Medal betting. Outstanding for the Sharkies last year, Johnson again needs to be the spark for a club that also has a strong batch of Generation Next youngsters coming through, with backrower Teig Wilton arguably the pick of them.
13. CANTERBURY BULLDOGS
Premiership odds: $41
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Anything that happens around Jack Hetherington, this newest Bulldogs enforcer who, apart from being a genuine talent, is also something of a conductor for that beautiful violence footy fans have loved ever since chasing referees from Birchgrove Oval with fence palings. Truly, stuff just happens around this fella. Elsewhere, there is also plenty of hope surrounding new coach Trent Barrett, fresh from a stint with Penrith, new halfback Kyle Flanagan, fresh from the Roosters, plus fellow signings Nick Cotric and Corey Allan.
14. WESTS TIGERS
Premiership odds: $41
GET EXCITED ABOUT: Jimmy the Jet in space, Joe Ofahengaue in traffic and ageless trainer Ronnie Palmer once again tossing about the contents from his “Box of Energy”. Does the Balmain Charmer still have said mystery box? Let’s hope so. If only to sprinkle on new recruits such as livewire fullback Daine Laurie or 20-year-old block of flats Stefano Utoikamanu. After years of paying plenty to guys who deliver little, the Tigers are undeniably building in the right direction.
15. BRISBANE BRONCOS
Premiership odds: $51
GET EXCITED ABOUT: The fact it can’t get worse. That, and Kevvie Walters. Given nobody understands Broncos success quite like this old No. 6, Queenslanders must surely be excited by the idea of Walters rebuilding the club on the same values, work ethic, even larrikin streak that once saw him win five premierships here. Sure, it may not happen immediately. But find us a Broncos fan anywhere who isn’t ready to celebrate the beginning of a club revival.
16. ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Premiership odds: $51
GET EXCITED ABOUT: The Molong Marvel. While 2021 is already shaping as a tough one for Dragons fans, there is no doubting rookie winger Cody Ramsey is a kid with Next Big Thing potential. Despite enduring a mixed pre-season, he was still that player around whom things happen. Better, he travels faster than bad news through a bush town, making him a real contender to create highlights in a season where each one will be dearly needed.
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