The 2026 NRL season is set to kick-off on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, with 16 teams out to chase the Brisbane Broncos in the new campaign.
Every club will see key reasons why they can and can't perform in 2026, and Zero Tackle have pulled the key one on each side of the coin.
Brisbane Broncos
Why they can: Elite talent and great coaching
The defending premiers may have shocked the rugby league world to claim the premiership in 2025, but they come into 2026 expecting to go back-to-back.
That's not for nothing either.
Reece Walsh leads the club's elite talent, having put together one of the best eight-week runs for an individual player in the history of the game on the run to the last premiership.
Add that to Payne Haas in his final year with the club as the best forward in the game, and the Broncos have a handy base from which to build.
Adam Reynolds will again guide them around the park, while Michael Maguire is one of the more proven coaching winners in the modern game.
Why they can't: The back-to-back problem
The Broncos now have the issue of having a target on their heads. Every club aims up when they face the premiers, and now that title means they have to be on their A-game every week.
Teams love to ‘get up' for their season, like beating the premiers; it has added more pressure for them to perform. With the loss of Kobe Hetherington from their 17 and Payne Haas set to leave at year's end, it'll be hard to replicate the magic they showed during the back end of last year.
Objective: To say in one article what everyone else says, and to say what everyone else does _not_ say.
Who said that ? Was it Nietzsche ?
Well, whoever it was, he’d be proud to have written this one, Scott.