GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 03: Jarryd Hayne with Titans coach Neil Henry during a press conference at Gold Coast Airport on August 3, 2016 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Jason O'Brien/Getty Images)
With the 2017 regular season over and the finals upon us, it is time to look back on the regular season that has been and the moments that will be remembered for years to come.
As always leave your thoughts in the comments.
Most people have known for weeks, possibly months now that the Melbourne Storm were going to take out the 2017 NRL minor premiership with 44 points, 20 wins and 4 losses.
The Storm finished with 6 points more than second placed side the Sydney Roosters. The Storm were also tied favourites with the Penrith Panthers to win the premiership, and have held their status as favourites to win the competition.
This effort by Melbourne could be motivated by the fact that the Storm now hasn't won the premiership since they beat the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 14-4 in the 2012 Grand Final, five years ago.
Another possible motivation is the fact that it is star halfback Cooper Cronk’s last year at the club.
At the start of the 2017 NRL season, Cooper Cronk sent waves of shock throughout the rugby league world after announcing the 2017 season will be his last at the Melbourne Storm.
Fans had to come to terms that after this season Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater won’t play together for the Storm again. What has grabbed most fans attention is just where Cronk will play in the 2018 NRL season, with Cronk at the time of writing still not signed for any other club.
There have been many rumours as to where Cronk will be playing including the Wests Tigers, Rabbitohs, Sharks, Bulldogs, Panthers and even Super Rugby team the Waratahs.
Cooper Cronk will be greatly missed by Melbourne and what a moment it would be if he lifted up the Provan-Summons trophy for the last time in Storm colours this season.
As was mentioned in the 10 reasons to be excited for the finals article, the Parramatta Eels have been on fire this year, finishing the 2017 NRL regular season in 4th place with 36 points, 16 wins and 8 losses, equal with the 3rd placed Brisbane Broncos.
All of Parramatta’s big stars have been on another level this season. The halves combination of Corey Norman and Mitchell Moses have gelled quickly and seamlessly with Norman retaining his star player status and Mitchell Moses arguably gaining star player status as he prepares to play in his first NRL finals series.
Fijian Winger Semi Radarada scored a very impressive 20 tries.
The lead man for Parramatta though was Clinton Gutherson until his season ending injury in round 20. Gutherson was one of the favourites to take out the Dally M Player of the Year medal and after this season will be known as one of the NRL’s top stars.
The NRL salary cap will be $9.4 million starting in the 2018 season. This is an increase from the $7 million clubs had to work with in 2017.
Throughout the season there has been much speculation as to the amount of money the 16 clubs will be able to spend on players in the 2018 NRL season and beyond.
The increase in the salary cap has come about after the NRL’s new television deal with Fox Sports, with the launch of the 24/7 NRL channel Fox League.
This salary cap increase has resulted in clubs spending large amounts of money in securing players for 2018 which has created excitement in the NRL world.
To the delight of many fans, the NRL now has its own 24-hour a day rugby league dedicated channel.
This channel is Foxtel exclusive and is called Fox League. One key reason the NRL has invested in a24-hour rugby league channel I to compete with the 24 hour AFL channel, Fox Footy.
Fox League has retained such rugby league shows as Monday Night with Matty Johns, NRL 360 and Sterlo: On the Couch, whilst also introducing new shows League Life which includes the NRL’s first all female panel, Queenslanders Only and the Professor’s Second Year Syndrome.
Fox League also streams every regular season rugby league game live and ad free, and is predicted to be a life saver to rugby league fans this off season.
With the NRL salary cap being increased clubs have been able to go out and splash the cash on new players for the 2018 NRL season. This has caused much excitement for rugby league fans as their club could potentially buy anyone on the market and do not know what to expect yet.
This has also lead to clubs buying a large number of players.
For example, the West Tigers have signed 13 new players, along with re-signing 11. This has also resulted in teams investing large amounts of money into one player.
For example, the St George Illawarra Dragons signing Ben Hunt to a $1.2 million per season deal resulting in the overall sum of $4.8 million.
The 2017 NRL season has been the first season that Penrith Panthers young gun halfback Nathan Cleary has been a fully fledged NRL player.
At only the age of 19, Nathan Cleary has already achieved star player status in the minds of many NRL fans and is tipped to be a future New South Wales representative player. This season Cleary is the NRL’s lead point scorer with 216* and 86 goals out of 96 attempts*.
Cleary has also been able to step out of the shadow of Panther’s five-eighth Matt Moylan and even overtaking him to some as the Penrith Panthers new star player. Cleary has been able to become Penrith’s lead man and can control the outcome of plays.
Cleary is even tipped to take out the 2017 Dally M Halfback of the Year ahead of players like Cooper Cronk! Penrith fans will be hoping Cleary becomes a one club man.
Gold Coast Titans fullback has arguably gone from being the star player to the man that has sent the club into disarray.
In the 2017 season, the Titans finished 15th on the NRL ladder with 18 points, 7 wins and 17 losses. A lot of people have put this horror season down to the off-field conflict between now former Titans coach Neil Henry and Jarryd Hayne.
It is reported that Jarryd Hayne “hijacked” the Titans locker room from Neil Henry with players putting more faith in him than the coach himself. In the end, it came down to the Titans either getting rid of Hayne and Henry and with the Titans board not being able to afford Jarryd Hayne’s pay out Henry had to go.
It will be intriguing to see Hayne’s relationship with whoever becomes the Titans coach in 2018.
On the 9th of September 2017, Melbourne Storm hooker and captain Cameron Smith will officially become the NRL’s most capped player as he leads the Melbourne Storm in the qualifying final game against the Parramatta Eels.
Cameron Smith has had a career to remember, not only is he the current captain of the Melbourne Storm but is also the current captain of the Queensland Maroons and the Australia Kangaroos.
Smith has also won multiple premierships* with the Melbourne Storm and was a part of the Queensland Maroons side that won 8 Origins in a row, captaining them from 2012.
Although the Rugby League World Cup 2017 has not commenced as of yet, the international cup competition occurs once every 4-5 years and is rugby league’s biggest international cup competition.
This year’s competition will be hosted in Australia commencing on the 27th of October with the final being played on the 2nd of December at Suncorp Stadium.
Australia and New Zealand are the two favourites to win the competition, with many dark horse teams including England, Papua New Guinea, America and Lebanon.