The Offseason Octopus
The 2015 NRL season will get underway in Auckland, New Zealand - yup our wee country. It's obviously awesome as the NRL salutes Kiwi rugby league fans and gives back to a fan base which has given so much to the NRL. In all honesty, it's about time as Australia has long slept on the relevance of the NRL throughout New Zealand.
So while it's awesome, it's also like 'ya'll been blind for the past 5 years?' It's taken the Auckland 9's for the NRL to really take note of how much support the NRL has in New Zealand and they have acted accordingly. So while personally, I'm a bit meh about it all, it's awesome nonetheless.
It fits in perfectly for the NRL and it kind of strikes me as a 'the stars have aligned' type of situation. The season launch goes hand in hand with the Auckland 9's so they can play of the buzz of that and it's the 20th year of existence for the Warriors next season so it's only right, right? Personally, I reckon the foundation of support that the NRL has in New Zealand is based on the fact that many Kiwis don't support the Warriors. If you go out and ask around, you'll find someone who supports the Bulldogs, the Sea Eagles or the Tigers ... for every Warriors fan, you'll find someone who doesn't like them. I mean take note of the little public appearances the various NRL clubs make before the 9's, these are packed to the brim with fans trying to get a glimpse of their favourite players at a local park. Hence I feel like this is an 'about time' salute from the NRL to New Zealand fans throughout the country.
Frank Paul the wrecking ball is on the move! FPN is shifting from the Roosters to the Raiders, after the Roosters appeared to shop him around a wee bit. He'd been mentioned with a possible move to the Tigers but will move to Canberra in a very interesting move. The Raiders could benefit greatly from FPN and his aggression, work ethic and all round rugged forward play. Equally, they could be the victim of a situation where FPN simply doesn't have the same impact he did with the Roosters. At the Roosters, FPN simply did his job and what was asked of him by Trent Robinson in a forward pack that had a fair amount of talent. Can FPN stand up and make an impact with the Raiders? I'm not sure, but Ricky Stuart is on a war path so FPN serves as the signing ... well a signing, which is kind of what Raiders fans wanted.
Something else a few Raiders fans might have wanted was seeing the back of Terry Campese. It's been a long time since Campese was the DreamTeam god, appearing to conjure up points from thin air and leading the Raiders in to the mix of a semi-threatening NRL team. Unfortunately, largely thanks to injury, Campese hasn't kicked on and come anywhere near that sort of form. The Raiders have a fair crop of youngsters who can take the reigns and the Raiders will be pretty happy to off load the salary cap space that Campese ate for breakfast each morning.
Keep an eye on the fantastic Dale Finucane making a move away from the Bulldogs. He'd be the perfect type of forward for the Melbourne Storm.
The poor Brisbane Broncos aye, sign a whole bunch of quality players only for Darius Boyd to really mess things up. Boyd now has a bung achilles, one of the worst injuries as they take a fair while to heal up and he'll be guaranteed to miss most if not all of next season. This could open the door for Anthony Milford to slip in to the fullback jersey or even someone like Kodi Nikorima or Dale Copley. I doubt the old boy Justin Hodges will go back there, but it'll be interesting to see how Wayne Bennett handles this.