It’s undoubtedly true that every successful NRL side has a strong spine - the spine players inject creativity, guidance and structure, and touch the ball more than any other player on the field.
The fullback, halfback, five-eighth and hooker control all of the action, direct traffic and are normally the best players on the park, receiving much of the credit when things go right, but equally much of the backlash when things go wrong.
In recent years, the NRL has been blessed with some of the greatest ever spine talent, with Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater, Johnathan Thurston, Jake Friend (to name a few) as well as current megastars Nathan Cleary, James Tedesco and Daly Cherry-Evans.
With 2022 set to be as fast, physical and competitive as ever, the sides with the best spines will continue to blow bottom sides out of the water.
Remembering that this is a ranking of spines rather than a ladder prediction, here is how we view each of the club's best spine options for 2022.
2. (15) Canterbury Bulldogs
Matt Dufty, Matt Burton, Kyle Flanagan, Jeremy Marshall-King
You can see pros and cons to the Bulldogs’ 2022 spine.
Pro: Matt Burton comes to Belmore in red-hot premiership form.
Con: That form was at centre.
Pro: Jeremy Marshall-King is fit, and was fairly impressive in 2021.
Con: How long until he’s injured again?
The Bulldogs have plenty of promise spine-wise but they’ve got a lot of ‘ifs’ before they succeed. If Kyle Flanagan delivers on his potential as a youngster, if JMK stays fit in 2022, if Matt Burton can translate his Panthers form to the Bulldogs system as a half, if Matt Dufty can recapture his electric best... then the Dogs’ playmakers can support their forwards and wide men enough to notch some wins.
