Thread: NRL Rugby League 2022

If Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, then the NRL pre-season is surely the least wonderful.
While we're tucking into Christmas hams, going to the pub a little bit more than we should and deciding that we're really going to clean up our act in January — and we really do mean it, honest — all 16 NRL clubs are hard at work, plotting their premiership charges for 2022.

They say titles are won in the summer, when smart teams have been training down the house and — through some high-performance magic — just about everybody is in the best shape of their lives after their toughest pre-season ever.

Nobody has more ground to make up than the bottom four teams. So, in the first part of our off-season preview, let's take a look at the teams who propped up the ladder in 2021 and the biggest question they need to answer before the trials kick off early next year.





Canterbury Bulldogs

Question: Can all the new pieces fit?
Answer: Canterbury are currently embroiled in the club's longest period outside the finals in living memory — the last time they spent so long outside the playoffs was the early 1960s — but their aggressive recruitment drive could finally end the miserable time they've endured in recent years.


North Queensland Cowboys

Question: Is Jason Taumalolo still the king?
Answer: North Queensland have been in the midst of a long, stop-start rebuild for several years now, but the one thing they could rely on was Jason Taumalolo.

But a succession of broken hands kept the $10 million man off the field and rule changes have hamstrung his effectiveness to the point where he is no longer the undisputed king of the forwards as he once was.

In 2021 he averaged 155 metres per game — a respectable total for most — but, for Taumalolo, it was his worst return per game since 2015.



Brisbane Broncos

Question: What can Adam Reynolds bring off the field?
Answer: Adam Reynolds has been good at the things he's good at for so long now we know exactly what to expect from the former Rabbitoh: His kicking game will be on-song, both in general play and from the tee, and he'll run Brisbane around the park expertly.

Simply put, Reynolds helps make the players around him better, but the Broncos will be banking on the fact he can do just that for more than just 80 minutes a week.


Wests Tigers

Question: Is Luke Brooks worth it?
Answer: The daily Luke Brooks updates came thick and fast through the summer, as they often do, with Brooks again supposedly on the nose at the Tigers, as he is often claimed to be, but in the end the result stayed the same as it has for many years now with Brooks remaining at Concord.

There's a case to be made that a fresh start might be best for player and club, but what is clear is that something needs to change for Brooks and the Tigers.



Lot's mere here