Raiders and Sea Eagles give us something to get excited about
A few months ago the “Big Three” were threatening to turn the rugby league premiership into a foregone conclusion — and then along came the “Big Two”. MIKE COLMAN reports.
Well thank goodness for the Raiders and Sea Eagles. They’ve actually given this NRL season something to get excited about.
Who would have thought back in March that with just three rounds remaining Canberra and Manly would be facing off in third and fourth spot on the ladder?
None of the “experts” we polled for The Courier-Mail’s 2019 Ultimate Season Guide, that’s for sure.
Live stream the 2019 NRL Telstra Premiership on KAYO SPORTS. Every game of every round live & anytime on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14 day free trial >
Of the 12 league and media identities we asked to predict their final eight, not one included the Sea Eagles and only three picked the Raiders — Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson to finish seventh (with the Cowboys sixth and Titans eighth) and Gorden Tallis and Robert Craddock who both had them scraping in at eighth spot.
In stark contrast, 10 of the 12 tipped the Roosters, Storm and Rabbitohs to finish in the top three.
Didn’t everyone?
And that’s why we have to take our hats off to Ricky Stuart and Des Hasler.
If it wasn’t for them and their players this could have become one dull old year.
A couple of months ago there was so much talk about the “Big Three” that if Peter Beattie had announced the NRL had decided to call off the rest of the season and go straight to a three-way round robin to decide the premiership it wouldn’t have caused much fuss.
And then, along came the “Big Two”.
It’s not so much that they’ve forced their way into contention, it’s the way they have done it.
They might not be the clubs that you support, but surely anyone who loves rugby league would have to appreciate the way they have gone about their business.
The Raiders have pulled in players from all over to create a side that is equal parts skill, grit and enterprise.
In Englishman John Bateman they have snared an old fashioned Pommy forward in the Malcolm Reilly-Phil Lowe mould who can play it tight or run wide, slip a pass away and never take a backward step.
The other major inclusion as I see it is Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. I’m not sure how the Storm and Warriors let this bloke go but Raiders fans will be delighted they did.
I can say without fear of contradiction that he is the best Kiwi-Cook Island-Norwegian fullback ever to play the game. If he doesn’t make ground every time he has the ball it isn’t from want of trying.
Add in the core players from the last few seasons like Josh Hodgson, Jarrod Croker, Josh Papalii and Jordan Rapana, plus the revelation that Jack Wighton has been since his move to No.6 and this team is a genuine premiership threat. Just ask the Storm.
The Sea Eagles are equally interesting but in a different way.
The mere fact that they are making a noise this late in the season is astonishing.
This time last year the club was a shambles. There were headlines about the coach fighting the owner, the captain fighting a player and an ex-player fighting just about everyone.
The very idea that Des Hasler, a man who had left Brookvale under a dark cloud in 2011 and Belmore under an even darker one in 2017, could return to Manly and have the club humming along like a hive of happy honey bees less than a season later would have been laughed at.
Yet that’s exactly what he has done, without so much as a hint of drama, discontent or questionable man management skills.
I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to seeing these two unlikely contenders duke it out on Sunday afternoon.
I’m not saying it will be a grand final dress rehearsal, but given what they have done so far this year you wouldn’t rule anything out.
And isn’t that what makes sport interesting?
Originally published as Raiders and Sea Eagles give us something to get excited about
Aussie makes UFC history with 19sec KO
It has taken just 19 seconds for drama to erupt at UFC 312 in Sydney with an Australian executing a brutal, controversial KO.
World Domination: The one title eluding Australia’s Olympic champ
Saya Sakakibara, the Olympic BMX champion, is indisputably No.1 in the world after a stunning 2024. But there’s one title she is yet to claim. Here’s how she plans on rectifying that.