It’s the time of year when everything seems perfect. The new season is three months away and each team is picking out their reasons as to why they’ll be playing finals football come September.
But the grim reality is that for some teams, it’s not all that simple.
Only one team comes into the new season without pressure in the Penrith Panthers, who are coming off a premiership.
For every other side the 2022 equation is less than simple as they chase the winning ingredient to add to their team’s formula.
Here is what your team wants from Santa in 2021.
Brisbane Broncos
Kotoni Staggs to play more than three games
The Broncos might be seemingly squarely focused on their new big names joining the club - led by Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell who both played in the 2021 grand final - but they should have Kotoni Staggs at the top of their priorities to keep fit.
Staggs had a shocker in 2021, missing the first half of the season through an ACL injury which he sustained at the back end of 2020.
That was then backed up by another injury just three games after he returned.
While Kevin Walters made a somewhat absurd claim around Brisbane being a finals team with Staggs, there is no question they looked better with him on the park, and that he will be crucial to Reynolds and Capewell firing.
Staggs is the Broncos best player carrying over from 2021, and the club need him fit.
Canberra Raiders
Jamal Fogarty to be the difference-maker
The Raiders fell apart the longer 2021 went. For a team who were so widely tipped to be amongst the top five or six teams in the competition, their eventual miss of the finals was somewhat disastrous for the Green Machine.
George Williams leaving didn’t help, and it certainly didn’t improve the form of Jack Wighton, but it can’t be squarely blamed given they never looked a million dollars with him anyway.
2022 presents a new opportunity though, and Jamal Fogarty - who has joined from the Gold Coast Titans - feels the key man.
His role is crucial on so many levels, including running the kicking game for Wighton in an attempt to allow him to play his natural game, and find the form which led him to the 2019 Dally M Medal.
Canterbury Bulldogs
New combinations to click - immediately
There has been plenty of attention paid to the incredible recruitment drive over at the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The Belmore-based club have signed a staggering number of players for 2022, and while a dummy half wasn’t among them, it’s a very different looking side to the one which battled its way through 2021.
Phil Gould and Trent Barrett have gone nuts, but now it’s time for it to work on field.
There is a general feeling that it might take a while for it all to click, but it’s time the Bulldogs can’t afford. 2022 feels like finals or bust.
Cronulla Sharks
Nicho Hynes’ transition to the halves being perfect
Nicho Hynes broke out as one of the best fullbacks in the game during 2021 at the Storm in place of Ryan Papenhuyzen, who spent more than two months on the sidelines during the season with a concussion suffered in a nasty high tackle during magic round.
Hynes now joins the Cronulla Sharks in 2022 alongside teammate Dale Finucane, and will play in the halves with Will Kennedy holding a mortgage on the number one jumper.
Hynes played some footy in the halves for the Storm during 2020 and 2021, but now needs to do it on a consistent basis.
Only time will tell whether he has it in him to do just that or not.
Gold Coast Titans
A dummy half
The Titans have built very nicely for the 2022 season, but one part of their squad seems to have been overlooked.
With the departure of the experienced Mitch Rein, it leaves only Erin Clark and the arriving Aaron Booth to fill the dummy half void.
The number nine position is undoubtedly one of the most important in the competition, and it’s hard to see the Titans reaching their full potential unless either Clark or Booth have an enormous breakout year.
Manly Sea Eagles
Tom Trbojevic’s health
Tom Trbojevic may be the single most important player in the competition to his team.
Manly look like a different team with and without him, and while there is plenty of other talent in the team, there was no dispute regarding Trbojevic taking out all the major awards last season.
If he is fit, Manly stand a chance of repeating their run from 2021. If not, you only shudder to think of the fall away.
Melbourne Storm
To stem the exiting player tide
The Storm must be wondering what has hit them this off-season.
After years of building a culture and reputation for buying the right talent and then managing to retain them in Craig Bellamy’s incredibly successful system, it has all been destroyed in one off-season.
From Nicho Hynes and Dale Finucane linking up with the Sharks, to representative players Brandon Smith and Felise Kaufusi both shifting away in 2023, combined with off-field issues, the Storm could be in for a drop off in 2022… Although some will mention that has been said plenty of times before without success.
Newcastle Knights
A breakout year for young halves
Simi Sasagi - remember the name.
While the Knights are seemingly in a position of simply trying to work out whether Adam Clune with experience, or young Phoenix Crossland will be the halves partner for Jake Clifford in 2022 following Mitchell Pearce’s departure, Sasagi’s name continually gets overlooked.
Andrew Johns has reportedly also touted Tex Hoy for a move into the halves.
But it’s Sasagi who could reverse the fortunes of the Knights, who somehow made the finals despite having one of the competition’s worst attacking records in 2021.
New Zealand Warriors
A return to Auckland
This one might be the easiest to work out.
The Warriors won’t have played a single home game for almost 24 months by the time the 2022 season rolls around.
They want to play in front of their home fans again, and COVID situation allowing, should be more than able to do so during the second half of the season as currently advertised on the fixtures.
North Queensland Cowboys
Clarity on Jason Taumalolo’s role
Todd Payten seemed to have very little idea on how to use Jason Taumalolo in 2021.
He was played at lock, the second-row and at prop in between devastating hand injuries which curtailed and ruined his season.
But Payten’s inability to use him in his best role on a consistent basis - playing big minutes at lock - was baffling.
Payten needs to work it out, and Taumalolo needs consistency if the Cowboys are to stear away from the bottom four in 2022 and hit their potential.
Parramatta Eels
Some form in September
The Eels have been, to put it bluntly, short of the full package over the last few years.
2021 marked the third time in a row Brad Arthur’s side have been bundled out of the finals in the second week.
While they always seem to show signs, and even did so in the match they eventually lost against Penrith this year, the record isn’t good enough.
With players departing at the end of 2022 and their premiership window flickering, this may be the last chance for the blue and gold to break their long-term drought for some time.
Penrith Panthers
Nathan Cleary’s shoulder to make a full recovery
Nathan Cleary, a little like his New South Wales teammate Tom Trbojevic over at the Manly Sea Eagles, is incredibly important to his team.
The second-placed Dally M Medal candidate, as well as the leader of the premiership team in 2021, is an exceptional half.
He battled shoulder injury through the second half of 2022, and there is no guarantee he will be at 100 per cent after surgery.
Boy do the Panthers (and Blues for that matter) need him there though.
South Sydney Rabbitohs
A win in Victoria
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are yet to win their first game in Victoria, despite playing a grand total of 15 games in the state since the Storm first entered the competition in the late 1990s.
The most painful of those losses may well have been the first week finals clash in 2017 when they fell by a single point in what was a hugely entertaining contest. They struggled to recover from the physicality of it though and bowed out of the finals in Week 3.
Regardless of the time, day, part of the season or relative positions of the two teams, the men from Redfern have been unable to win in Victoria.
They’ll get their 16th chance in Round 2.
St George Illawarra Dragons
Brigade of young guns to find first-grade time
Anthony Griffin’s recruitment strategy has been an odd one for 2022. From Moses Mbye to Aaron Woods, many of the moves haven’t quite made sense.
That is mainly down to the club having the future ready and able to play first-grade, with Tyrrel Sloan, Talatau Amone and Jayden Sullivan all vying for NRL spots in 2022.
Sloan will likely get his at fullback, but only one of Amone and Sullivan is likely to be picked for the next two years alongside Ben Hunt. That almost seemed to cost the club Sullivan, although he eventually re-signed.
Mbye’s utility role could yet cost Amone or Sullivan a spot on the bench, but it’s time for Griffin to let rip with the future.
Sydney Roosters
A healthy playing roster
If there was ever a worse injury crisis than the one the Roosters went through during the 2021 season, I’d like to hear about it.
Simply put, it was something bordering on a miracle they made the finals, let alone were competing for a top-four berth right down to the final weeks of the season.
Luke Keary’s return from long-term injury will be the crucial one for the tri-colours, but they will be hoping to stay fit and push for the premiership on the back of it in the new year.
Wests Tigers
Tyrone Peachey and Jackson Hastings to be game-changers
There can be no question the Tigers needed to shake things up for 2022. They have done that off the field by bringing in former premiership-winning coach Tim Sheens, but with Luke Brooks still in the halves and a small recruitment list, you have to wonder what will change for a club widely tipped to win the wooden spoon.
Simply put, that small list of signings has to make itself known. The role of Tyrone Peachey and Jackson Hastings will be critical.
If they click and tick with the rest of the team, the Tigers could yet avoid the bottom four, but if they don’t, a spoon seems almost inevitable.
The Dolphins
Signings - and lots of them
A quick one to finish off, but the Dolphins have made just four top 30 signings after almost two months of negotiations.
It’s starting to get more than just a little bit worrying, and the club need a slew of signings early in the New Year.
