SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 01: Payne Haas of the Broncosreacts after a Panthers try during the 2023 NRL Grand Final match between Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium on October 01, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Welcome to 2024!
With the new year comes new opportunities. A chance to better oneself and aim for the stars.
By now we've all made our new year's resolutions. Whether it be the old chessnuts like losing weight, chasing that dream job, asking that pretty girl out, or shooting for immortality, we've all now set ours.
So too will each and every NRL club.
Not in any real capacity of course, but let's have some fun and look at what your NRL side's new year's resolution should be!
Please take these as the tongue in cheek comment that they are. I've tried to be serious, where possible, but there's still two months until the NRL season kicks off, so let's have a laugh together.
If we're being totally honest, the Broncos should be the NRL premiers right now. They allowed the greatest Grand Final comeback of all time, losing the almost unlosable.
Anything less than going one step further in 2024 is a huge let down for fans in the Queensland capital.
They have the team, despite losing two rep regulars, the coach and the experience to win it all.
Losing a Grand Final is never 'good' but it should provide this Broncos outfit with the desire and motivation to set themselves up for a return to the decider in 2024.
It's tough to improve on back to back to back premiership seasons but Ivan Cleary will somehow convince his charges that it can, and should be done.
Again the Panthers have lost a superstar in Stephen Crichton. Again they'll probably replace him with someone just as good and on half the wage.
I tried to be serious here in naming these but what could the Panthers, or their fans, possibly want more than completing a historic four straight titles?
They'll want to do it all again. I'm not going to say it can't be done.
The Sharks have missed the finals just once since their 2016 Grand Final win. Unfortunately for fans in the Shire, they've only won one finals game since that grand old day.
Under Craig Fitzgibbon they have hosted three finals games, including two at Shark Park, yet are 0 from three when it comes to wins.
That simply must change in 2024.
2024 shapes as a building, almost bridge year until Addin Fonua Blake arrives for 2025, but another season without a win at the pointy end of the season would create havoc in the minds of Sharks players and fans.
Even a scrappy one-point win in a week one Final will do wonders for the future of the club. They need to get that finals monkey off their back.
I type this with complete and genuine sincerity.
The Tigers took a series of massive steps in the past months to return to, well ... mattering.
Removing a horribly out of his depth coach, and an equally out of their depth board means that the Tigers future is once again looking bright. This for the first time in many, many years.
They're at long odds to play Finals footy in 2024 but I have no doubt this will be the season we look back upon as the year the Tigers became serious again.
The Bulldogs have undertaken massive recruitment drives for a few seasons now. They're yet to really nail that future changing name though.
Matt Burton has been good, the jury is still out on Kikau, while Addo-Carr has done his job, there have been a long list of big names arrive only to underperform.
I won't go into names as this is about looking forward rather than backward, but in Stephen Crichton they have a player who could be the player who changes everything.
I'm willing to commit now and say Crichton will be the Dogs best pick up in many years. He will help unlock Burton and make a huge difference moving forward.
There can be no doubt in the world what the Dolphins goal in 2024 is, to play finals footy!
They've signed two of the Broncos best in Herbie Farnworth and Tom Flegler, and now have a roster with both the talent and depth to make their maiden fnals appearance.
Farnworth is right up there with Stephen Crichton in terms of expected impact at his new club. Right now I have Herbie as the best centre in the game.
Last year there was no expectation for the competition new boys. 2024 is very, very different. With big names comes big expectations and the Phins will be looking to match those and be there come the second week of September.
Fans across the competition, this one included, raised their eyebrows when the Sea Eagles announced the signing of Luke Brooks.
Manly, famed for not caring what people think of them, will be out again in 2024 to prove everyone wrong.
If Brooks plays to his potential, and certain players stay fit, Manly are capable of causing some real issues at the business end of the season.
For Manly to be players in 2024 they need Brooks to play far more consistently than he has in years gone by.
Manly have a history of proving people wrong so it'll take someone braver than I am to write them off from doing it yet again.
We've all enjoyed a good laugh at the inevitable Raiders loss from seemingly nowhere. Unless of course you wear lime green in which case it turns your hair grey.
I've legit lost count of how many times the Raiders have surrendered big leads late in the second half over the years.
If they want to be taken seriously in 2024 then they have to remember how to win tight games. Consistently.
If Canberra won the games they should have won, i.e. leading by plenty, late on, then they'd be finals certainties every year and comfortably so.
Perhaps 2024 is the year they do.
There isn't a single rugby league fan out there, not wearing purple, who isn't waiting for the fall of the Melbourne Storm.
It's been, seemingly forever, since the Storm had a down season. Surely 2024 is the year? Right?
Their stars are aging, the conveyor belt of future superstars seems to have stalled and the clouds are gathering.
This is the Melbourne Storm! They'll probably unearth the next generational talent and sweep the competition to lift the trophy.
This is the closest they've looked to being there for the taking in many, many years. Excuse the pun but seems like the perfect storm for Melbourne to once again rise and laugh in our faces.
2023 was a fluke for the Knights. An incredible run of form saw them capture an unlikely finals appearance.
That is a statement each and every Newcastle player, and fan has plastered on their wall. They seem to thrive on proving everyone wrong.
Ponga's Dally M run carried his side to the second week of the finals. Truthfully they were far from a one man side but when that one man wins the game's highest individual award, it's natural to assume he played a big part.
Newcastle players were quick to point to negative comments made in the media. It seemed to fuel them. Whatever works.
They'll be aiming to do it again in 2024, albeit with a higher level of expectation.
Des Hasler's arrive should surely guarantee a return to finals footy for the Titans, right?
If any other club other than the Titans had this roster, and coaching staff, you'd be racing to put money on a finals appearance in 2023.
It's too early in their time in the NRL to talk curses but someone, somewhere said something to someone else and landed the Titans in strife.
Be it a ridiculous injury curse or a string of losing games out of nowhere, the Titans will find a way to frustrate their fanbase.
Surely 2024 is the year the curse is lifted and the finals drought comes to an end.
How many years now since the Eels last won the title? 20? 40? 50? 100? I'm sure every Parra fan can tell you.
The Eels endured a horror 2023 season. I won't to into it but the fact they didn't play finals was a downright disaster.
This side should be challenging for the Premiership. They have an all NSW front row, rep halves, a rep fullback and dangerous outside players.
As a Sharks fan I can tell you, the Premiership jokes will continue to pile up. Nothing short of a Premiership will truly satisfy the blue and gold fanbase.
Sometimes the best resolutions are simply forgetting the year prior in an attempt to get back on track.
2022 saw the Cowboys host a Prelim and come within minutes of a Grand Final appearance. 2023 saw them miss finals on the back of a horror of results.
The squad is largely the same as it has been over the past two years, so there's no reason they can't return to their 2022 form and results.
You can take lessons from last year but largely it needs to be consigned to history and swiftly forgotten.
The Warriors shocked the world in 2023 by finishing in the top four. At one stage they were the second favourite to collect the wooden spoon.
No one saw their top four finish coming. In 2024 they enter the season with the expectation of doing it all again.
The Warriors are many things but consistent is not, historically, one of those things. They'll have to find that consistency to truly cash in on their current set up.
Anything less than a return to finals footy will be a huge let down for fans of the Wahs. Rightly so too.
I wanted to put "avoid the spoon" here but it felt like a cop out. That said, the Dragons need a win .. somewhere.
Whether that be a big name signing, the unearthing of a young star, a marquee win, a new sponsor. Something!
Shane Flanagan has been appointed to turn around the horror show that has been the Dragons. I believe he will but it will take time.
They missed out on a number of big names and enter 2024 with very low expectations. Something has to go right for the Red V in 2024. Whatever that may be.
Souths were the big underperformers in 2023. How they missed finals footy is still beyond me.
The Bunnies will enter 2024 with massive chips on both shoulders. They boast a roster that should have matched their recent run of Prelim finals appearances, at the very least.
Rugby league fans have short memories and a fair portion of the fan base seems to have rushed to write the Bunnies off.
Cody Walker, Damian Cook and Latrell Mitchell will be chomping at the bit to remind everyone of who they are. I would be shocked in the Bunnies don't start the season positively.
Despite a late run and a finals round one win last year, I doubt you'll find many who are willing to say the Roosters matches expectations in 2023.
They entered as the team favoured to most likely match the Panthers, but instead needed an all time late-season run just to qualify for the finals.
This side has the talent to be like the Roosters sides of old in that they become certainties to be there at the business end of the season.
Most sides would be happy with a top eight finish and finals win but the Roosters aren't most sides. They'll want to re-establish the aura of years gone by.