To save ourselves from the ‘it’s only Round X’ rhetoric in the early stages of the season, Oscar & Jase are posing a Big Question for every NRL club.
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
This one writes itself.
Tom Trbojevic has managed just 55 NRL games over the last five years. He’s one of the best players in the game when fit but as each season came undone for the talismanic fullback, so too did it come undone for the Manly Sea Eagles.
Tolutau Koula and Reuben Garrick provide nice depth in the position but they can’t perform Trbojevic’s role in this Manly backline. Instead, Manly need to find other ways to approach their attack without ‘Tommy Turbo’ on the field, and they’ve got the squad to do it in season 2024.
Luke Brooks comes in on the left edge and is a genuine triple threat (run, pass, kick) to the defence. I don’t have access to the vision but we know Brooks put Ben Trbojevic through for a couple in his first Manly hit out. Free from the burden of steering a team around the field, Brooks can park himself down that left edge and straighten the attack for Tom sweeping out the back.
Plugging a fit Josh Schuster outside Brooks in the backrow opens up another whole range of options for the defence to consider, too.
On the other edge, the combinations between Daly Cherry-Evans, Haumole Olakau’atu and Tolutau Koula are another developing element to the Sea Eagles attack.
Given there are expectations to play Gordon Chan Kum Tong (and/or Jamie Humphries) at times this season too, we might see a few different looks from Manly’s attack in season 2023.
Branching out from ‘Turbo Ball’ is a positive step for the Sea Eagles and we’ll get our first look at how that might look on Sunday afternoon.
South Sydney Rabbitohs
It’s a little more gimmicky than we usually roll here at RLWriters, but it’s a fair question given the way they fell off a cliff last year; are the South Sydney Rabbitohs contenders or pretenders in season 2024?
Injuries to key players was certainly a factor in 2023 but that will always be the case in the NRL – just look at the backline Jason Demetriou is rolling out for Round 1. The Bunnies are better placed to navigate injuries this time around but there are still lingering questions throughout this roster.
A stacked left edge featuring Jack Wighton (from Round 3) and Keaon Koloamatangi certainly suggests we’ll see a left-heavy offence again from South Sydney this year. How those new additions change one of the more consistent and lethal left edges in the NRL is the next question.
This action between Cody Walker and Bradman Best from last year’s Origin series is one we could see from the Bunnies this season:
The gravity of both Wighton and Koloamatangi as decoy runners also bodes well for Latrell Mitchell sweeping out the back. He’s one of the best ballplaying fullbacks in the NRL but perhaps we see Mitchell run from that jockey position a little more in 2024.
We can make an estimated guess at where Souths points will come from this season but as always, it starts in the middle. Decimated at times last year, can this Rabbitohs pack consistently lay the platform for Walker, Mitchell & Co to pile on the points?
Sydney Roosters
Every year there seems to be one particular NRL club that captures the attention of either Jase or myself, and I think Easts might be that club for me in 2024.
I’m fascinated by the roster Trent Robinson has assembled this season. There is genuine competition for positions right throughout a squad that was guilty at times last year of having too many moving parts… so who plays what role in this Roosters side?
Can Sam Walker and Luke Keary find the right balance in the halves?
We’re three seasons into this combination without getting close to seeing their ceiling. Can Walker and Keary stay on the field together long enough to finally click?
How do Victor Radley and James Tedesco share ballplaying duties around the ruck?
This action from the NRL Pre-Season trials is the Roosters at their best; flat, fast and direct. With so many genuine ballplayers around the ruck though, how do the Chooks share the load and get the mix right?
What does the first-choice forward rotation look like?
Sitili Tupouniua and Siua Wong get the nod for NRL Round 1 but it won’t surprise to see Angus Crichton and Nat Butcher spend some time there this season.
Connor Watson and Egan Butcher – both genuine first-graders in their own right – can fill the Radley role nicely but are stuck in the reserves for now. Egan in particular is one I’m watching closely. Still just 23 years old, he’s mobile for a big unit and has an underrated pass option in his toolkit:
Quality isn’t an issue in this Roosters squad but it wasn’t in recent seasons, either.
Is this the year Trent Robinson gets all those moving parts working together?
Brisbane Broncos
After a tremendous 2023 NRL campaign the Brisbane Broncos have raised expectations moving forward. Amoung other things, how well they manage the losses of Tom Flegler, Herbie Farnworth and Kurt Capewell this year will likely decide whether they meet or fall short of those new expectations.
Flegler is a massive loss. The quality and quantity of work he got through in an average 43.7 minutes per game is unlikely to be replaced by one individual. Corey Jensen, Xavier Willison, Martin Taupau and Ben Te Kura should all get their opportunities this year but Flegler’s are big shoes to fill. His 52 tackle busts and 24 offloads in particular were a crucial part of Brisbane’s lethal second-phase attack last year.
Of all the candidates, Willison’s NRL All Stars performance was certainly the most eye catching but the challenge now is to back it up week after week:
The departures of Capewell and Farnworth are also significant.
Capewell’s experience and class – particularly in defence – won’t show in the numbers but Farnworth’s do.
Per NRL.com, Farnworth registered the fourth-most post-contact metres (1,514m) of any player in 2023. His ability to bend the line and generate metres early in sets laid the platform for what became the second-best yardage pack in the competition.
How Kevvie Walters manages these losses and what changes – if any – he makes is the big question for the Broncos to kick off season 2024.