A lot can change in rugby league, quickly!
That will be the hope of the bottom few teams in the competition right now.
We've seen quick rises, and quick falls, across the space of a few weeks, or an off-season.
An influx of recruits, a new coach, stars returning from injuries. Sometimes it's even a youngster who catches fire at the right time.
Today we're going to look at the bottom five teams in the NRL and rank the brightness of their futures.
The below rankings take into account success next season and beyond. For instance one club may do better next season yet long-term they don't success as much as another. It's all weighted.
Ultimately this is just for fun and we'd love to hear your thoughts.
Here are the bottom five NRL teams as of Round 21 taken from the current NRL ladder, but for the pursposes of this, ranked in the order of least likely to most likely of a fast recovery.
5. Wests Tigers
I hold genuine fears for the future of the Wests Tigers.
They've been in the headlines the past three weeks, for all the wrong reasons.
Their star half Jarome Luai is out the door next year and his partner Adam Doueihi looks destined to join him.
Jake Averillo, as talented as hs is, is their only notable recruit for 2027. He looks set to return to the halves next year. That in itself will take time.
They have re-signed Jahream Bula, Terrell May and Sione Fainu. Three huge pieces of the long-term puzzle.
To say the jury is still out on Benji Marshall is an understatement. The pressure on him will not ease unless he delivers finals footy.
I want to preach hope here but unless the Fainu brothers all catch fire, I just can't see it.
For next season, I suspect:
5 Wests
4 Parra
3 Gold Coast
2 St George
1 Brisbane
For future years, I have no idea. Predicting the future is hard.
Dan, when you were prdicting who would end up where on the ladder, where did you have Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra ?
See what I mean ?
ps Dan, please – on my behalf – give Scott Pryde a dig in the ribs and ask him to tell his IT guy to have a look at the code and figure out why these comment boxes have a horrible time limit for entering one’s comment.
I typed in my thoughts above, paused to check the content, and poof ! it just disappeared, so I had to type it all again. Not the first time this has happened !