**Official** NRL 2009 Thread

[pinchy81]

I'll be in

 

[BoyBrumby]

Horrible news about Fai. No upside to a talented young bloke dying, but was a ballsy thing to try to save his bro.

Might be up for the fantasy, but will def be in to defend my tipping crown.

Do Fox Sports do an NRL dream team? I like NRL.com's, but it is the world's most annoying site.

 

[Simon]

Horrible news about Fai. No upside to a talented young bloke dying, but was a ballsy thing to try to save his bro.

Might be up for the fantasy, but will def be in to defend my tipping crown.

Do Fox Sports do an NRL dream team? I like NRL.com's, but it is the world's most annoying site.

Foxsports do one but its a wierd system, I played it last year and lost interest pretty quickly, it's not very fun to play.

 

[luffy]

I liked the Daily Telegraph one.

Was well organised and up to date.

 

[NUFAN]

I really hope the Warriors do it for Fai and win the Premiership this year, unless they end up playing the Broncos.

 

[Simon]

I liked the Daily Telegraph one.

Was well organised and up to date.

Didnt play that one, what was the format?

 

[luffy]

This is the website.

 

[Simon]

Dont really like the scoring format, prefer the fantasy games where the score will end up something that looks like teams would actually score. Even if they generally can end up 56-40 or something like that.

 

[S.P. Fleming]

After the tragedy with Fai, the Warriors will win this year. They are such a strong, tight bunch and this will bring them together and inspire them to do it for Sonny. We saw what they achieved from nowhere last year with the Ruben Wiki beard thing.

RIP Sonny Fai

 

[Craig]

Yeah so sad to lose a talented young player

 

[ripper868]

Foxsports do one but its a wierd system, I played it last year and lost interest pretty quickly, it's not very fun to play.

Thought the foxsports one was well done, liked how player form affected their value and therefore how many points you got to spends (you start with 110 i think, if a players value in your team goes up by.2 you now have 110.2 points to spend etc.)

Pretty easy to set-up as well, just enter the code and your in the league.

 

[Simon]

Yeh It wasnt all bad, I guess I just prefer the fantasy games like this where everyone has different players, the way the old VNRL was.

 

[Craig]

Have they found Sonny Fai yet?

 

[Simon]

Think its time for my season predictions, these are usually horribly way off so basically just tip the opposite and you'll do just fine.

1 Cronulla Sharks
2 Manly Sea Eagles
3 Canberra Raiders
4 Melbourne Storm
5 St George Illawarra Dragons
6 New Zealand Warriors
7 Newcastle Knights
8 Canterbury Bulldogs
9 Brisbane Broncos
10 North Queensland Cowboys
11 Parramatta Eels
12 Gold Coast Titans
13 Penrith Panthers
14 Sydney Roosters
15 South Sydney Rabbitohs
16 Wests Tigers

Premiers: Manly Sea Eagles
Runners Up: St George Illawarra Dragons
Prelim Finals: Canberra Raiders and Cronulla Sharks
Dally M Medal: Terry Campese
Clive Churchill Medal: Matt Orford
Leading Point Scorer: Terry Campese
Leading Try Scorer: Brett Stewart
Origin Debuts: NSW Terry Campese, Michael Jennings, Glenn Stewart Qld - David Shillington
State of Origin - Queensland 2-1
Rookie of the Year: Ryan Williamson, Josh Dugan or Wayde Dunley
Buy of the year: Michael Ennis or Trent Barrett

Other
* Todd Carney will sign for the Wests Tigers
* Matthew Elliott will get sacked as Panthers coach
* Craig Bellamay will quit as NSW coach after the Origin series
* Cronulla will lose less than three games before Origin 1
* Melbourne will have one of the best defences but will struggle to score points
* An injury crisis will hit the Broncos seeing them crash out of the 8
* Karmichael Hunt will leave Brisbane and sign with Union (either Reds or France)
* Cory Paterson will emerge as a star early in the season and be unlucky to miss Origin selection
* Injuries hit Parramatta again exposing their lack of depth
* The bottom four clubs all finish within three wins of each other.
* Craig Fitzgibbon will retire from the NRL
* Robbie Farah will leave the Wests Tigers
* Nathan Friend will return to the Broncos

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Buy of the year: Trent Barrett

 

[Simon]

Couldnt be worse than Kimmorley

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Couldnt be worse than Kimmorley

Kimmorley was really really good last season. They'll miss him more than you seem to think. He ran that ship like a good experienced leader, kept them steady under pressure and did the little things right. Nothing spectacular, but rarely made a mistake. Barrett however, is a running lock/five-eighth and most certainly will not be able to do that.

 

[Simon]

Seymour and Barrett are a good combination, Seymour has always played his best football when hes been in control of the team and Barrett has always played his best when his halfback has had a kicking and passing game, that allows him to run it more.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Seymour and Barrett are a good combination, Seymour has always played his best football when hes been in control of the team and Barrett has always played his best when his halfback has had a kicking and passing game, that allows him to run it more.

Seymour played his best football when he had an experienced quality player to fall back on when his control slipped. Barrett is not that player.

I'll be happy to be proved wrong, but IMO they'll be a disaster of a combination.

 

[Prince EWS]

Seymour and Barrett are a good combination, Seymour has always played his best football when hes been in control of the team and Barrett has always played his best when his halfback has had a kicking and passing game, that allows him to run it more.

Seymour has always played his best football when he's not playing halfback, actually. He was a junior five-eighth back in Brisbane and had to play halfback because of Lockyer. He did okay at times but generally he was a failure there and was released. He's been really good for Cronulla at five-eighth but was has been extremely inconsistent when they've tried him at 7, even in reserve grade. Again, he's played a couple of okay games as any five-eighth playing halfback behind a good pack will, but he's shown no real aptitude to organise or direct a team around the park.

I like Seymour and Barrett as five-eighths, but neither of them are halfbacks and the combination will be a disaster AFAIC.