Earlier in the year: I’m quite comfortable assuming that the Roosters won’t go three in a row. They’re still good though, probably even still good enough for a minor premiership. A projected 15+ wins and the second best squad on paper is not going to have trouble reaching a preliminary final. The Storm are the… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Sydney Roosters
From my season preview: I think this is it for the Eels. They are due for their once-a-decade (give or take) tilt at the premiership. The Taylors are not too crash hot on the Eels. There are holes in key TPR ratings: Reed Mahoney at hooker, Dylan Brown nominally at five-eighth and, to a lesser… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Parramatta Eels
The seventh placed Knights had a respectable 11-8-1 record but were unable to capitalise, exiting week one of the finals. From pre-season: …The good news is that the Knights might legitimately make the finals this year. The Knights massively outperformed in 2018, which then led to many talking heads predicting serious success in 2019. Success… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Newcastle Knights
We have finally dispatched with the bottom eight and can begin our reviews of the (allegedly) best eight teams. From pre-season: The Sharks’ 12-12 record and seventh place belied how well they played last season. Let down significantly by their goal kicking, the Sharks lost a record five games despite scoring more tries. While that’s… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Cronulla Sharks
I’m not sure I could have been more dismissive of the Titans at the start of the year: Perhaps the most significant thing to happen to the Titans last season was being surpassed by Newcastle, to be left at the bottom of the league in class Elo ratings. It might be recalled that the Knights… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Gold Coast Titans
It’s probably not worth considering what I thought of the Warriors pre-season (it was that they would be bad). The coronavirus pandemic threw everything into disarray and no club bore more of the brunt than the Warriors. Summary The change from a regular home and away season to a permanent road trip could have gone… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 New Zealand Warriors
I stopped picking where I thought teams would finish pre-season because a) it’s a ridiculous crap shoot and b) I kept picking the Tigers to finish in the bottom four and they kept finishing ninth. To finish eleventh in 2020 was poor, even by their own expectations, and mine: The Tigers were the biggest movers… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Wests Tigers
From earlier in the year: The squad itself isn’t magic but should be better than last place. New signing Isaac Luke has always been a productive player but he will presumably be second fiddle to Cameron McInnes when he returns from injury, reducing the potential volume of work Luke could be doing. Indeed, St George… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 St George Illawarra Dragons
I think the best way to start these reviews is to set the tone by recapping what I thought would happen back in February. The key paragraph for Manly in this year’s season preview was: Backing up without the element of surprise and the reversion to mean will be challenging. Reversion to mean is a… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 Manly Sea Eagles
I didn’t offer anything particularly insightful about the North Queensland Cowboys in my season preview. For me, it seemed like all the pieces were there for them to be successful but they refused to win enough games to get out of the cellar. The team was shackled by playing former greats instead of the talented… Read More A Shallow Dive into the 2020 North Queensland Cowboys
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