Monday, 18 January 2016

SIX TO GO - WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN IN 2016

The Great JT!
LEEDS RHINOS WIN THE WORLD CLUB SERIES.

Let’s start the year off on a positive note and hope that Leeds Rhinos can shrug off the loss of Sir Kev, JP, Kylie Leuluai AND Paul Aiton and knock over the NRL Premiers North Queensland Cowboys, JT et al, at what I am sure will be a bouncing Headingley on Sunday 21st February.
It won’t be easy obviously – I’m not sure that the Rhinos recruitment has been that inspired – Keith Galloway, Beau Falloon and Anthony Mullally all seem pretty run of the mill players although the unexpected addition of Brett Ferres is a huge plus – and I am sure Head Coach Brian McDermott will be relying fairly heavily on his new skipper Danny McGuire and his other experienced players to help along and ensure that young stars such as Liam Sutcliffe, Stevie Ward and Brad Singleton fill the voids left by the loss of such an outstanding group of players.

Despite the loss of so many experienced players the Rhinos will still have much more experience of this type of Challenge game than the Cowboys.
This will be the Rhinos 7th World Club Challenge match, having won the title in 2005, 2008 and 2012 whilst the Cowboys are playing in their first, following their golden point Grand Final win over Brisbane Broncos last October.

The man who did more than anyone to win that first Premiership Title, half back Jonathan Thurston (JT), probably has more of an effect on the way the Cowboys play than any other player has on any other team in the world.
2015 saw JT rule the world – not only winning the Premiership with the Cowboys, but also taking out the Golden Boot as the best player in world rugby league, the Dally M medal as the outstanding player in the NRL for a record 4th time and also the Clive Churchill medal for his man of the match performance in the Grand Final.

JT will have a huge influence on the way the Cowboys play – however, they are far from a one man team and will also look to the likes of fellow half back Michael Morgan, full back Lachlan Coote, wingers Kyle Feldt and Antonio Winterstein plus Australian Test props Matt Scott and James Tamou, outstanding hooker Jake Granville and powerhouse loose forward Jason Taumololo to do enough for them to win their first World title.
Will the new look Rhinos be strong enough to win their 4th World Club Challenge or is too early for them to cover the loss of such experienced protagonists as Sinfield and JP in such a high level game?

I hope they can but I’m just edging towards a Cowboys win to take the title back to Australia for the fourth successive year.

Bastards!!!!
HULL KR TO RETURN TO WEMBLEY…..AND WIN
Hull Kingston Rovers, my team, need an immediate return to the Wembley stage….and a first Challenge Cup Final win for 36 years in order to go some way to purging the memory of the record 50-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of treble winners Leeds Rhinos last August.

The pain of that defeat will never be 100% erased, Hull FC fans will make sure of that just as we always remind them that they have never won at Wembley.
Having waited 29 years, I was there in 1980, 1981 and 1986, since seeing my team at Wembley and having my 4 kids with me as well – the day could not have gone much worse that it did.

Rovers did so well in overcoming some tough opposition to earn their place in the Cup Final, winning at Bradford Bulls and Wigan Warriors before defeating Catalans Dragons at home in the quarter final and Warrington Wolves at Headingley in the semi-final, but they badly let themselves, and the fans, down on the day at Wembley.
It has to be said though that the Rhinos would have beaten any team with the way they played that day.

Rovers supporters both young and old are owed a quick and successful return visit.

Big Sam - back to his best??
SAM BURGESS TO BE THE FORCE HE WAS BEFORE HE WENT TO RUGBY UNION

The unexpected return to rugby league of Sam Burgess in the aftermath of England’s disastrous Rugby Union World Cup campaign has been debated endlessly by most people with an interest in either code since he jumped ship last November.
Whether you think he made the right decision or not, the fact is that he has come back to the sport that he truly loves and the one in which he is definitely a big fish and more or less idolised.

What we all need now is for the furore to calm down and for Sam to be able to concentrate on his rugby so that he becomes the force on the playing field that he was before he left to dip his toe in Rugby Union.
When he left South Sydney after their 2014 Grand Final win, Sam was at the pinnacle of his rugby league career – his stock had never been higher.

He took a risk – some will say it came off and some will say he failed – whatever your opinion it will be interesting to see the type of player he has become.
Big Sam says he thinks he will be a better player which may mean he plays the game differently than he used to – he will be a different and more rounded player and person possibly – but what also has to be taken into account is that the Rabbitohs themselves have changed much over the last 12-15 months.

The Rabbitohs struggled to back up their Premiership success in 2015 – they comfortably won the World Club Series against Super League Champions St. Helens last February and won their opening three league games but the wheels started to come off after that and they could only manage a 7th place finish in the regular season ladder and they lost out in the first round of the play offs to Cronulla Sharks.
Numerous players have left the club including Sam’s elder brother Luke along with Ben Teo, Dylan Walker, Chris McQueen, Lote Tuqiri and, maybe most importantly of all, New Zealand Test Captain Isaac Luke and their also question marks over Head Coach Michael Maguire after reports surfaced that his playing squad was starting to get a little bit tired of his, at times, overly strict regime.

Sam may be seen as something of a saviour by the Souths fans and they will be expecting big returns for the big chunk of the salary cap that he has taken up that has expedited the release of the likes of McQueen and Walker but it is also important that Sam hit’s form and is ready to provide a massive impetus for England’s attempt on the Four Nations at the end of the year.




Tim Sheens - Salford saviour??
PEACE AND QUIET ON THE SALFORD FRONT
I had hoped for a season of peace and harmony for the dedicated band of Salford Red devils fans who suffered more than any other set of Rugby League supporters in 2015.

Times are never dull under the ownership of Marwan Koukash but they seemed to lurch from one crisis to another last year – all of which has been well documented and doesn’t need to be re-gurgitated here.
The one positive step Koukash took was appointing legendary Australian coach Tim Sheens as his Director of Rugby.

Sheens will bring a calm and thoughtful approach to the tiller and has huge experience after being involved with many successful rugby league outfits and I though his appointment was a sign that Koukash would take a step back and let Sheens and CEO Martin Vickers get on with running the club and improving it’s sullied reputation – something for which Koukash is largely responsible.
However, it was announced in December that Koukash would be taking over as CEO from Vickers and was putting together a new commercial team to help increase and improve income streams, something that Vickers is expected to be a part of – but also in early January Koukash announced that he had received two fines from the RFL, before the season has even started!!!

Add in Bradford Bulls Chairman Marc Green having correspondence with the RFL regarding Salford’s perceived mis-use of the salary cap in 2015 leaked to the Rugby League Express last week and it is not the peaceful start to the season Salford fans would have wanted.
Neither would they have wanted to lose one of their new signings for the opening two to three months of the year. Winger Daniel Vidot was signed from Brisbane Broncos with a big reputation and the Samoa international has damaged a shoulder whilst training and has had surgery already.

Koukash has insisted that he will not get involved in the rugby side and will leave all of the decisions on that side of the business to Sheens – let’s hope that is the case because Sheens could well prove to be the best signing that he has made in his time at Salford and he needs to be given full authority to use all of the experience and knowledge he has garnered over the last 30 years as a Head Coach for Penrith Panthers, Canberra Raiders, North Queensland Cowboys, Wests Tigers, New South Wales and Australia.
I can’t see Sheens being too happy if the Doc starts giving him rugby league advice!!!

 
Going to a new home?
A NEW TEAM TO WIN THE SUPER LEAGUE GRAND FINAL
Our game is crying out for a new club to break the stranglehold of the four clubs, Leeds Rhinos, St. Helens, Bradford Bulls and Wigan Warriors, that have won the Super League Grand Final since it’s inception in the UK in 1998.

Obviously, the Bulls were relegated in 2014 so that stranglehold is reduced to just three clubs.
Only 2 clubs in addition to the four winners, Hull FC and Warrington Wolves (twice), have even contested the Grand Final in 18 years. This must change, our game needs to be less predictable.

Look at this year’s Premier League.
It is being described as one of the most exciting in years because there is, seemingly, a change of guard with Chelsea way off the pace, Manchester United and Liverpool not really being seen as title contenders and the likes of Leicester City and Tottenham challenging for the top 4 and West Ham United, Stoke City and Crystal Palace sat in 6th, 7th and 8th positions.

In the same time span in Australia 12 clubs have competed in their Grand Final with 11 clubs winning at least one Premiership in the same time span (New Zealand Warriors are the only team to have competed in a Grand Final in this time span without winning) and no club has successfully defended their title since Brisbane Broncos in 1992 and 1993. It is far more competitive and unpredictable.
So, will 2016 see a new club take home the Super League title and, if so, who will it be?

For the last few years, certainly since Tony Smith took charge, Warrington Wolves have looked the most likely club to break into the winners club but they failed at the final hurdle when losing the 2012 and 2013 Grand Finals to Leeds Rhinos and Wigan Warriors respectively.
Huddersfield Giants memorably took out the Minor Premiership in 2013 and have been in the top 4 in 5 of the last 7 seasons but they tend to bottle it in high profile knock out games and had Castleford Tigers won their final league game of the 2014 Super League season they too would have won the Minor Premiership – something that would have been a remarkable achievement as they had finished 12th the previous season.

I really hope one of these clubs can keep up the pressure on Leeds, Wigan and St. Helens although I am struggling to see one of them winning the Grand Final.
I’ll name Hull FC as a potential dark horse, and believe me that pains me, but they have recruited well, especially in the forwards, and it really depends on which half back pairing they go with and whether Lee Radford is a good enough coach to lead his team deep into the play offs.


''4 Nations next year, boss?''
ENGLAND TO WIN THE FOUR NATIONS
The season starts in February against three Australian clubs in the World Club Series and a lot of those players will be returning to these shores in November to take part in the Four Nations as England host reigning Champions New Zealand, World Champions Australia and, for the first time, European Champions Scotland.

With the talent that Steve McNamara has available to him, should he still be in charge, I firmly believe England have an outstanding opportunity to win a major title for the first time since the 1972 World Cup.
However, they will have to play a couple of levels higher than they did when winning the Test Series against New Zealand back in November.

England defended strongly and showed tremendous togetherness but struggled to break down a depleted New Zealand side who were missing a whole host of front line players that will be available to them, subject to injuries at the end of a long year of rugby league, in the Four Nations.
McNamara still confuses at times with his selections – in particular, for me, the non-selection of Michael Shenton and then the selection of John Batemen over Leroy Cudjoe in the centres plus the use of George Williams at scrum half when he had played stand off all year and was selected over club mate Matty Smith and one of the players of the year in Luke Gale and it was made abundantly clear with his third test performance that Jermaine McGilivary should have been chosen in front of Joe Burgess from the beginning of the series – something most supporters knew already – however, I do think he has the players on his side and has made the international set up much more professional and the team is also competitive for a full 80 minutes rather than 60 minutes as in previous years.

There are also a bunch of top quality players that, hopefully, will be available to England that were not for the Kiwi Test Series – players of the calibre of Sam Tomkins, Sam Burgess, George Burgess and Alex Walmsley will be in contention and there are likely to be one or two young players who make a mark in 2016 and will force themselves into the squad.
It promises to be a great end to the year and it will be fitting that Scotland’s Danny Brough will get to play in a major international series – unfortunately, not for England – now he would make a difference to your side Mr. McNamara!!!

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