Rugby league, it’s as unpredictable as it gets. It’s hard to predict when a club will fall, like North Queensland and Parramatta dropping from finals football to the bottom four. It’s hard to predict when a club will rise, like South Sydney climbing from 12th to 3rd in just one year. But ahead of the 2019 season - there’s three teams that simply can’t make the top eight.
Parramatta
Parramatta have been extremely quiet in the player market, an incredibly bad sign for a team coming off a dead last finish in 2018. Recruit Blake Ferguson will be bigger than fans expect, the metre eating winger plugging the hole left by Semi Radradra’s exit last year.
However, the Eels have one of the weaker forward packs in the entire competition, with Nathan Brown the only true leader in the forward pack. Their halves are being publicly shopped around after a shocking season, they lack creativity in the hooking role while uncertainty remains around the fullback role.
Getting Jarryd Hayne off the books is sure to help the club avoid the limelight, but they will miss his strike out wide, with the former Dally M winner showing glimpses of his ability late in the season.
Manly
Manly have similar issues. The salary cap issues have restricted their salary cap heading in the coming season, and their squad is overall one of the weaker ones in the NRL.
With their money tied up in Daly Cherry-Evans, the Trbojevic brothers and Marty Taupau - quality players no doubt - there’s little room for quality across the rest of the park. Dylan Walker has copped multiple injuries in his time with the club, as has Api Koroisau.
Their forward pack is a weak point for the club, as is their backline. Manly’s leading try scorer in 2018 was Shaun Lane, a back rower. That should say enough about the side.
Des Hasler left Canterbury a mess with his back-ended contracts, and with the Sea Eagles already in salary cap strife, how his tenure plays out could be troublesome.
They’ve released strike centre Brian Kelly to the Gold Coast, leaving Moses Suli, a player with a notoriously bad attitude towards training, to partner Walker in the backline. But it’s the lack of quality front-rowers that makes Manly a certainly to miss the top eight again in 2019.
Canterbury
Finally, the Canterbury Bulldogs. If you take out the final handful of games for the Bulldogs, their 2018 season was dreadful. Their salary cap dramas have seen them forced to release Moses Mbye mid-season and let go of the Morris brothers.
They managed to nab Dylan Napa, but only when their best prop, David Klemmer, walked out on the club for a multi-million deal with Newcastle. The Bulldogs have lost their star mojo, and it’s hard to see them making an impact with the recruits they’ve acquired.
Jack Cogger was barely spotted in the NRL for Newcastle, despite Mitchell Pearce and Connor Watson missing extended periods with injury. Nick Meaney only managed a couple of first grade games, stuck behind Kalyn Ponga. Christian Crichton is error prone, while Corey Harawira-Naera is a solid back-rower, but it’s a position Canterbury didn’t need to fill.
Lachlan Lewis burst onto the scene, but how he handles a full NRL season is yet to be scene, while Kieran Foran has grown prone to injury since departing Manly.
Not to mention they’re currently trying to offload their starting hooker and gamble on a utility, Jeremy Marshall-King, to fill the number nine role. Despite having little experience in the hooking role.
It’s going to be a long year for Manly, Canterbury and Parramatta fans, with salary cap dramas and poor recruitment to haunt the clubs in 2019 - and possibly longer.
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