NRL 2017: Broncos, Raiders, Bulldogs, Sharks.

Two of these clubs will miss the Top 8. Who will it be?

Brisbane Broncos – Prediction: 6^th

Arguably a make-or-break year for Wayne Bennett despite being the Godfather of the Red Hill franchise. Bad results early on will result in a tonne of media pressure for a club hell-bent on success. But in all honesty, with the experts writing them off, Bennett will be in his element. When I look at this Broncos squad, I think they’re in for a tough year. But you just cannot write off the Supercoach and his influence. I think they’ll adopt a real us-against-the-world mentality this year, and if they’re to do any good, they’ll need too. 

They need a big year from their outside backs; like, James Roberts becomes the season’s leading try-scorer, makes the NSW Blues, and finishes the year with a spot in the World Cup squad. It’s time he repays some of the faith Bennett’s put in him. I wouldn’t expect Benji Marshall to feature much in the top-grade, it reminds me of when Scott Prince went back there for one last season. He was in and out of the NRL team all season. 

Their obvious strength is in their forward pack, which is how they’ll win their games, but how the year for Ben Hunt unfolds will be intriguing. Already he has been labelled the most under-pressure player in the game by none other than the Eighth Immortal.

Too good of a coach to write off, look for some new faces to filter into the NRL side and inject some youth, energy and excitement into the side.

Canberra Raiders – Prediction: 5^th

The Green Machine must have a good start to the year without injured skipper Jarrod Croker. They are a side that can play with momentum and could be able to make a late charge for the finals, but the first six weeks without him could potentially decided where they finish. 

They’ve built well over the past two seasons under Ricky Stuart and now need to take the next step to push for a premiership. Hopefully they don’t read into the experts’ predictions who have them making the big dance in October. 

They’ve lost big Paul Vaughn to the Dragons but have picked up wrecking-ball Dave Taylor who returns from a stint in the south of France. Much will depend on the way the players Stuart seemed to bring the best out of in 2016 play, like BJ Leilua, Jordan Rapana and Junior Paulo.

If things go well for the Raiders, they’ll go really-well. But if they can’t find the same team spirit and form as 2016, then they might find themselves on holidays in September.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – Prediction: 11^th

One of the most under-fire clubs this season despite making the finals for the last five consecutive seasons under Des Hasler. They are a club that demands success, and after making two Grand Finals during those five years - as well as becoming one of the best run clubs in the game - they are desperate for a premiership at board level. 

Last year they were predicted to have a rough year, but after four rounds they’d won every game and were sitting on top of the table. But then their season seemed to just meander along. We saw glimpses of Moses Mbye’s ability, but their attacking style with forwards acting as play-makers appeared to have run its race. 

Des Hasler, however, is too smart, too cunning and too much of a Rugby League scientist not to conjure up a new way of playing, so I’m expecting some fresh or altered approaches. They still harbor one of the biggest and most fearsome packs in the game and if they can put last season behind them, they could surprise. 

Something drastic has to change at Belmore for me though, and I can’t see them making the eight this time round. But with Hasler in charge, it’s so hard to write them off.

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks – Prediction: 9^th

The 2016 NRL Premiers will head into the season with a cloud of doubt hanging over them after the loss of linchpin hooker Michael Ennis and fullback Ben Barba. Almost $1.5 million dollars ripped out of their salary cap is going to leave a monumental hole, and with no real replacement in the hooker position it’s easy to suggest a slide down the ladder for the Sharks. 

With some of their Grand Final players missing, they went down to an under-strength Wigan in the World Club Challenge and if history is anything to go by, they will likely struggle in the early rounds after the long trip to England. Recent Premiers in the Cowboys, Souths, and the Roosters tended to do fairly well the year after by making the finals, but it will be a big task for Cronulla.

There’s some red-hot contenders this season and whether the Sharks have the depth to cover for their losses is the main talking point. What they do have, is some talented juniors continuing to filter through their system, and Jayden Brailey is at the top of that list. If Flanagan can manage to make some tweaks to help players like Brailey adapt to the side, they could make the finals.

2016: The Sporting Review

One year, 12 months, 366 days. What an incredible year in sport. Insane, even. 

2016 captivated the imagination of sports fans around the world. Drought-breaking, underdog, and resilient tales of success echoed around the globe’s codes and competitions. The constant theme uniting them all has been the ending of historic and long-held losing streaks. There’s never been a time like it. 

Consider that in just the four major American sports alone, two teams broke a combined 154 years of title droughts (MLB – Chicago Cubs, 108 years; NBA – Cleveland Cavaliers, 46 years). 

Across the Atlantic, Leicester rode football’s most unlikely fairy tale at yes, the odds of 5000 to 1. A feat as unlikely to occur again as it ever was in the first place. 

Champions of England, Leicester City.

Closer to home, the Western Bulldogs ended a 62-year wait in the AFL, while in the NRL, Cronulla finally turned off the porch light after 49 years in the competition. Both Australian premierships doing wonders for the rusted-on and long-serving fans of the game. 

On the international scene, the Rio Olympic Games came and went without the much anticipated fuss the world thought the first South-American location would bring. Star of the show Usain Bolt completed a trio of victories in the Men’s 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m relays to claim all three gold medals for the third Olympics in a row.

Just sit back for a minute and reflect on what that represents in the context of historic places in sport. What a moment in time. While there are many champions and phenomenal achievements this year, it is impossible to not hand Bolt the title of sportsperson of the year. 

Bolt first, daylight second.

Moving back to team games, and specifically to Euro 2016 football championships. The surprising efforts of minnow nations Wales and Iceland surpassed any of the big-guns who simply didn’t fire. Wales, backed by an enduring team-spirit to honor their late manager and a group of players who thrived on their national pride, took themselves to the semi-finals after topping their group through sheer commitment and will, along with the right-foot of Gareth Bale. 

But they eventually ran into Bale’s teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who led Portugal all the way to the final. There they faced France, winning in the most bizarre fashion after Ronaldo limped off early into the game, leaving the world’s best player unable to captain his side to a victory from the field. But, taking it in their stride, Portugal threw off the one-man team perception of them, coming away with a 1-nil extra-time win. Their first major tournament win ever. 

The NRL proved once again, that it is the media’s gift that just keeps on giving, with more scandals, controversies and unpredictable events than ever before. The year began with Mitchell Pearce enjoying Australia Day with a feline friend, moved to Parramatta showing they are the most-dysfunctional club in history, and a betting scandal unfolding that put every Tom, Dick and Harry at the center of. 

It is truly hard to believe sometimes how this sport continues to roll-on through everything uppercut it gives itself. By the end of the season though, the soap-opera somehow always seems to have its football push all the negatives to the side. 

The Robbie Farah farewell, Jarryd Hayne’s return that came with the ‘This is my house’ match-winning field goal, Dane Gagai’s Origin hat-trick, Ricky’s Raiders bringing new Glory Days to Canberra along with their spine-tingling Viking Clap, Penrith’s emergence as the best young-side in the comp, Melbourne’s everlasting and assured success deep into September, and last but not least, Cronulla’s Grand Final victory.

The Sharks celebrate after Ben Barba opens the scoring in the 2016 NRL Grand Final.

In sport, they say there is no better story than a comeback story, and if Cronulla’s meteoric rise to the competition’s highest rank isn’t the comeback of the year, then I’m Miles Davis. Just Two years after going through a near club-destroying drugs scandal, Shane Flanagan and the Sharks fought off their rivals to have the best season in the club’s history. It was their time to win it, but it certainly wasn’t easy. 

They almost lost Ben Barba after a mid-year punch up against Sosaia Feki, could have been without Andrew Fifita following his run-in with public criticism, and had to win in Canberra without inspirational skipper Paul Gallen. 

But the two people that brought the Sharks the stability and steadiness they needed to go to the next level were Michael Ennis and Lyall Gorman. Ennis, the side’s hooker provided the competitiveness, confidence, and guidance the team so desperately lacked. In Gorman, the club’s CEO, the Sharks became a club that looked, acted, and smelt-like a professional organisation. 

Congratulations Cronulla, comeback of the year.  

Despite all the crazy triumphs that 2016 brought, there was nothing that brought world sport to the ground more than Leicester City’s English Premier League title win. Every week, every game, every goal, every moment, fans road Leicester’s journey from the start to the end. 

Their success did more for football and the business that sport has become than anything else in the past decade. It gave hope, to every team, coach, player and fan out there, that sport is still a game. 

It can still be won against the odds. No matter the price-tag or the cost of an opposing line-up; hard-work, grit, determination, teamwork, togetherness, fearlessness, and a fighting spirit can still produce a miracle. And that is exactly what Leicester City’s 2016 win was, a sporting miracle. 

Could there ever have been a more wild ride as a fan than the Foxes journey?

A 132-year wait for a title conquest that was built on everything described, and an unbreakable amount of belief combined with a momentum and resilience never seen before. Foxes Never Quit. 

Sports team of the year, Leicester City Football Club.

What a twelve months, what a time to be alive.

Long live the year of the drought-breakers.

But bring on 2017!

The Final Four.

The top 4 sides of 2016.

Welcome to the final-four. A place all dream about before season’s start, a place many think they are a chance of getting to during the season, but a place only a handful are ever really a proper chance of making. The 2016 NRL Season has seen some of the mightiest fall, the formers dwindle, and the freshest creep up from obscurity. But the fabled final four for this year see’s truly the season’s best surviving. Melbourne, Canberra, Cronulla, and North Queensland all ran one through four in the regular season respectively, with day light running 5^th to 16^th. It’s only fitting that those four sides remain.

Melbourne’s season has almost been galvanised by the loss of Billy Slater. It’s as if Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk have had something to prove without him, such has been their determination since his loss. To whom; no-one knows. Indeed, it would be a curious insight to find out what drives those two phenomenal-players, who could now be considered warhorses of the Storm. A club whose leadership qualities are without peer. 

Instigated and set by Craig Bellamy over a number of formidable years, those standards have been modelled and driven by Smith, Slater and Cronk for the best part of a decade. What their intrinsic work ethics and characteristics do are raise the level of performance of those around them who may never reach such heights if they were not part of the revered Melbourne Storm culture. While Craig Bellamy might be the master of getting the most out of the ones from the bottom of the bucket, he’s adversary for Saturday night – Ricky Stuart – has crafted a club culture that has undergone wild change.

Not many teams go to Melbourne and win. 'The Graveyard' of AAMI Park. 

Long considered a team that struggled to sign players because of their location, the Canberra Raiders have fast become hot property. A few years ago they were throwing the hat, or rather their chequebook, into the ring for any available NRL star. Today, they are a club who has reinstalled its foundational values by embracing the fact no one wants to live in the nation’s capital. And in doing so they have put themselves one win away from their first Grand Final in 22 years. English no-names, first-grade rejects and players who were on the outer from a host of teams around the rugby league land, the Raiders have become an imperial force this year.

Almost re-born, or perhaps just re-morphed under Head Coach and club-legend ‘Sticky’ Stuart, the sting has been put back in the mighty Green Machine. What’s remarkable is that in a year when a reduced interchange seemingly swung the game’s favour in the way of the little man, Canberra have retained a monstrous pack with considerable success. Ten wins on the trot saw them walk into the NRL Finals and secure second place on the regular-season ladder. While they might have looked down and out, the return of their key-men – Hodgson and Austin – enabled them to bounce back with purpose. They are riding a telltale wave of confidence and will head to AAMI Park knowing they enjoy one of the best records of coming out alive from ‘The Graveyard’. Three wins from their last four clashes, Canberra will now lead a crusade to overthrow one of the league’s most dreaded opponents.

One of the best form turnarounds in years.
Hopeless in 2015, destructive in 2016. - Joseph 'BJ' Leilua

If Canberra happen to pass the storm, they may well run into another franchise that has managed to change its standing in the code, Cronulla. Incredibly, the last remaining Sydney club in the competition just a few years after it was considered most-likely for the scrapheap; either by extinction or expansion. What a difference a couple of years can make. If winning 16 games in a row doesn’t prove you’re ready to end your 49-year wait for a maiden premiership title, nothing does. Ironically, Canberra were the team who finished that freakish run of form in August with – no surprises here – a dubious video-referring dilemma marring the match.

While Head Coach Shane Flanagan was left ‘confused’ after that night, his meticulous approach to the Sharks’ preparation and performance since returning from a 12-month ban at the end of 2014 has left no-stone unturned. With recruiting that could be considered a masterstroke, Flanagan’s ability to jump on the right-buy at the right-time has been spot-on. If he didn’t hold a plumber’s license, you could swear the bloke was a real estate agent. But while an estate agent might have to flog a dead-horse, there is no-doubting the look and foundations of the Cronulla first-grade line-up. What you see is what you get. The whole squad has come together like a house-on-fire. If this is the Sharks side that looked like they were going to go up in flames a few years ago, they are now on the verge of securing a vital memento that would douse the doubters forever. You seriously get the feeling Paul Gallen is going to be up for the game of his career this weekend. You can just smell it in the air. 

Michael Ennis has been instrumental to the Sharks' success. 

But if the Sharks are going to make their own history, they’ll have to deal with the current premiers first. And if there if there is one guy you wouldn’t want to run into at this time of the year, it’s Johnathan Thurston. What class. What toughness. What magic. What a competitor. This guy is legitimately involved in every Cowboys play. Whether its chasing a runaway try, putting the stamp on one of their own, or diving on a loose ball that no-one else will. The Cowboys look to be the best positioned team to win back-to-back titles since Brisbane in 1993. A heroic win over their biggest rivals on home turf on Friday just gone will have them brimming with motivation to continue their run.

Having lost virtually none of their Grand Final winning side from 2015, the Cowboys have managed to retain the form that took them to their own maiden NRL Premiership. But will it prove too hard to go all the way again? 

None have done it, or even really come close in over 20 years. They will also return to the scene of one of rugby league's greatest conspiracies, Allianz Stadium (Sydney Football Stadium).

The ground that once; no twice, no sorry – three times, saw them ‘robbed’ of progressing deep into the NRL Finals because of hapless officiating by the games men-in-pink. 

The infamous ‘Hand of Foz’ in 2012, the ‘Seventh-tackle try’ against Cronulla in 2013, and the forward-pass ruling against the Roosters in 2014 after coming back from 30-nil down to almost snatch one of the game’s greatest-ever comebacks. 

It’s been 11 years since the North Queensland Cowboys won of that turf and it’s clear one side will be making history on Friday night when they take on the Sharks in what has to be one of the most-anticipated NRL preliminary finals in recent memory.

Johnathan Thurston coming to grips with being 'robbed' for the 3rd time.

Four teams currently remain, but only two can survive. Who will it be?

Sharks, Cowboys, Storm, or Raiders? 

Bring. It. On. 

Cronulla on track to end 50-year wait

A remarkable resilience and turn-around in the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Football Club's fortunes has them on-track to end their half-a-century wait for a maiden Rugby League premiership.

The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks of 2016.

The Sharks currently sit on top of the Telstra NRL Premiership Ladder for the first time in 16 years and with two-points already secured from this weekend’s bye round, they look set to stay there for the short-term future. But with the side Coach Shane Flanagan keeps putting out each week and the squad at his disposal, it’s hard to see them falling far from the position they currently occupy.

While Sharks’ fans who have ridden-out the tumultuous period over the last few years and been through the historical humps and bumps of the club will no doubt be enjoying the view at the top, they could be set for a season end like never before.

Critical to the Shark’s chances at claiming the sport’s ultimate prize this year will be the way they come through the State of Origin period. With three of their side’s best players – Paul Gallen, James Maloney and Andrew Fifita – set to start the series for New South Wales, the Sharks face a nervous wait over the next couple of months to see if the trio comes through unscathed.

While no doubt the influence of representative footy will spur the group on to come back ready to achieve something special for their NRL side, the risk of a significant injury to any of the three has the ability to de-rail the Shark’s journey.

The key to Cronulla’s success in season 2016 has been the side’s mix of youth and experience. Un-earthed during last year’s season, youngsters Jack Bird, Valentine Holmes and Sosaia Feki have provided the much-needed exuberance and flair to the one of the NRL’s toughest sides.

While the Sharks have always had the grit and the grind with their hard-nosed forward pack operating under Paul Gallen’s leadership, they’ve been able to add the glamour to their side with their emerging superstar-backline.

Complimenting the balance to the side has been the re-discovery of form by 26-year-old ex-Bulldogs star, Ben Barba. The flashy custodian has managed to return to the style of the play that saw him win a Dally M Medal at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2012.

While Barba’s freakish breakout year playing under Des Hasler was one of the best rookie entries to the game in a long time, he had been unable to emulate those performances for both the Brisbane Broncos – who he played for in 2014 – and the Sharks in 2015.

With the enigmatic fullback now back to approaching his best, Cronulla’s chances of taking out this year’s competition will increase with every two points that gets added to their tally as the weeks’ go by.

The biggest battle for the side to progress through, and past September, won’t come from the few top-clubs that continue to dominate the rest of the pack, but from the pressure they place on themselves.

Having already beaten the Melbourne Storm, Brisbane Broncos, and gone down in a tight one to the Cowboys with an understrength side in round one; Cronulla have already proven they have what it takes to beat the best in the business.

In their 50^th season of first-grade Rugby League, the Sharks have an opportunity to re-write their own script and change the club’s history forever. On the verge of breaking one of Australian sport’s longest running-droughts, the club that looked destined to fall to the commercialisation of the game and shipped off to a far-flung relocated region just a few short years ago, now appears ready to take their destiny into their own hands.

A passion and pride that has always burnt brightly in the Shire could be set for ignition into a fully-lit march towards ANZ Stadium and the first weekend in October. With a deep web of rusted-on, hard-core fans across the game, opposition sides should be weary of the club that last year charted a plane to their elimination final in Townsville with the marketing tag of ‘Sharks on a Plane’.

Indeed, a title designed just to humour, no one will be laughing if the Sharks manage to overcome the parochial-odds tag the rest of the game’s fans continue to lamented them with. Jack Gibson’s famous quote: ‘Waiting for the Sharks to win a premiership is like leaving the porch lamp on for Harold Holt’ usually sums up the consensus that outsiders give the Sharks of ever lifting the trophy.

But hang on, didn’t a sporting side just win a competition at the astronomical odds of 5000-1?

Didn’t they just lift a trophy that bookmakers said ‘Elvis was more likely to be found alive’ than them doing so?

Didn’t their run build from the belief of the players, the spirit of the fans; and finish with a winner’s tag that no-one, absolutely no-one, ever thought was possible?

That team showed a togetherness, determination, and sense of teamwork that Cronulla could be beginning to emulate.

The skies the limit, nothing’s impossible.

Clear your porches.

Buy of the year is Ennis, not Austin



A leader amongst a group once lost in the headlights, Michael Ennis.

Blake Austin has produced some stunning individual performances for the Canberra Raiders this season and rightfully, they have earnt him plenty of praise amongst league commentators as ‘buy of the year’. His efforts have contributed to some fantastic Raiders wins and seen him endorsed for representative selection with New South Wales, but while Austin has stood out in the lime-green, from a perspective of who added more value to a team, it’s hard to go past Cronulla custodian Michael Ennis.

Ennis’ contribution has been much bigger than Austin’s exploits on the field. His presence has had an effect on the mind frame of the team. His actions are directly influencing others. Arguably one of the most consistent hooker’s this year, Ennis competes on every play. He doesn’t just do his job or go through the motions; there is a real emotional sting in the way he competes. It means something to him. And you can see that rubbing off on the rest of the Sharks team.

“No longer is Gallen the sole engine-train trying to pull the carriages of Cronulla out of the valley of mediocracy”

His position as a leader within the group has allowed Paul Gallen to finally focus on his own game. No longer is Gallen the sole engine-train trying to pull the carriages of Cronulla out of the valley of mediocracy. In Ennis they have a general, someone at the front and center of almost every play setting the tone for the rest of the team, much like former Newcastle hooker Danny Buderus. Buderus ripped in for Newcastle, giving his all on every play. He was a consistent player and you could count on him turning up every week. Sure, Ennis might give away a penalty or two, but that’s the cost of getting on top of the opposition. He walks the line, flirts with the boundaries in order to get that slight advantage and edge. Whether it be mental slight or gaining a tactical benefit; it’s all part of Ennis’ strategy.  

At the Bulldogs Ennis was captain and held a greater responsibility if they won or lost. That pushing of the boundaries that he indulges in was something more ineffective than it was an advantage. At the Sharks and free of that captaincy weight, he too, like Gallen, can focus on himself. He doesn’t have to worry about pleading with the refs.

For a club on the rebuild, Ennis was and has been perfect. He is disciplined, confident, determined and sticks to the plan. He trusts the process. He knows Rugby League is a simple game and what has to be done to achieve success. He is not someone who looks at the past; he moves on and looks ahead very quickly. Perfect, for a club coming out of the most tumultuous years of its history.

He also takes enormous pride in mentoring younger players, sharing his experience with those coming into first-grade football. He helped Josh Reynolds develop from a talented prospect to a rigorous and committed origin-winning five-eighth. While it may not have been the tactical skills he helped Reynolds with, it was the demands of week-to-week football.

There’s no secret to why the Sharks are on the edge of the ever-valued top four. They’ve played hard, found raw and exciting talents in Jack Bird and Valentine Holmes, players like Luke Lewis and Chris Heighington have been the backbone of the side and benefitted from Ennis’ leadership. Ennis come into the club as a fresh face and free of the past. His attitude would have said let’s put it all behind us and get on with it.

You can look at buy of the year as what you got out of a player against their financial cost, maybe they were a ‘revelation’ for their side; or you can look at it as what a club most needed in order to become a better side. Cronulla needed a Michael Ennis to move them forward, and they surprisingly landed his signature in later 2014. What a significant boost his made to a club that was officially on the ropes just 12 months ago. His mature approach far outweighs the ‘loose-cannon’ that was Todd Carney.

Signed with Cronulla until the end of the 2016 season, Ennis will be a valuable figure and asset for the Sharks to have at their club. With so much talent in their junior stocks, his contribution will be invaluable. A guiding father figure for those youngsters ready to take the next step, for themselves and for the Sharks, Ennis is a must resign for the club beyond his current contract, even if it be as a replacement hooker. Cronulla’s best opportunity in years is upon them as the head into this year’s finals series and Michael Ennis is at the absolute forefront of that charge. Can the curse of the porch-lamp finally be broken?

The predicaments of Pearce & Paul

Gallen and Pearce during Wednesday night's humiliation against Queensland. Both player's futures in the Origin jersey are clouded.

The New South Wales captain, Paul Gallen, and halfback of 2015, Mitchell Pearce, both find themselves in curious predicaments following Wednesday night’s loss to Queensland. Gallen is nearing the end of a polarizing career that has spanned almost 15 years at the top level of Rugby League. Pearce is in the middle of his career, at the claimed prime position of the average ten year window Rugby League players are said to have in the game. Both players have recognitions and awards for what they have done on the football field but they are facing intriguing situations that will have path-determining effects on their future in Rugby League.   

The might of the Queensland State of Origin team over the last decade has had a significant influence on both Paul Gallen and Mitchell Pearce. They have continually had to turn up and be defeated and at times humiliated by the power of the future-immortals led Maroons side. I

n what must be a soul-deflating couple of months each winter, Gallen has played in nine origin series’ since 2006. He has won only once. Without disrespecting Gallen, that is an incredibly sad record to hold. He must have felt so much pain over that length of time, year after year coming away with nothing. It appears Gallen developed through this time a feeling that everyone was against him, with Queensland often getting the rub-of-the-green on contentious game-defining decisions that would break the motivation and soul of the New South Wales side.

Playing with Cronulla, who are often considered to be a shambolic club that haven’t won anything, ever, and that realistically, not too many people care about, has not helped this feeling of being ripped off, under the pump, written off and soul-sucking sense of losing, or not getting anywhere. Gallen is, or used to be, one of the most penalized players in the competition. He would always seem to give away a penalty just as his team was making progress in a game, and just about every time he would argue the penalty with the referee. He is often seen in pleading arguments with the men in the middle, rarely does he accept he gave away a penalty at a key part of the game. At times, it appears it’s everyone else’s fault, but Paul Gallen’s.

He is now in some form of limbo as he has not yet signed an NRL contract with Cronulla for next season. Wanting a one year deal for the 2016 season, Gallen was at the center of controversy once again before game three after his club coach, Shane Flanagan revealed Gallen wouldn’t be playing Origin next year. While Gallen would have loved to have made this public after a NSW series win, he was thrown under the bus by his coach and had to dispel Flanagan’s comments as wishes rather than fact.

Whether Gallen does play origin next year or not, his commitment in a long and loyal 15 years at Cronulla has earned him a contract at the Sharks but in signing him for just one year, are Cronulla risking future player development and future salary cap maneuvers. If you’re going to sign someone for one year, wouldn’t it be with the hope they could actually help you win a premiership? While Gallen can obviously genuinely do this, the Sharks just don’t have the roster to make this a reality.

But with some of the most talented juniors in the country on their books and titles at youth level, maybe it is time for the Sharks and Gallen to go their separate ways. A transition from Gallen’s leadership and a fresh start may just be what the Sharks need after some tumultuous years.  Whether it is next year or the one after, it’s going to happen eventually.

Gallen has stated before he would love to play overseas in the English Super League and with the door now open for big money deals in the Northern Hemisphere competition via a marquee player signing exemption from the salary cap, the Cronulla and NSW skipper would be ideally suited to guiding a club in Nothern England. A hard, passionate and determined player, Gallen would thrive in the growing Super league.

Pearce, has probably just reached the end of his representative career at origin level. He made his debut at the age of 19, returned for a stint two years after, and then played for three years straight before being dropped for last year’s series. Strangely, he was given another chance by NSW coach Laurie Daley this year despite the only Blues series win coming without Pearce in the side. With huge pressure on the Roosters halfback to finally deliver, or at least play a hand in, a Blues series victory this year, it was always going to be a tough ride for the now 26-year-old son of Rugby League legend, Wayne Pearce. After going missing when the Blues needed someone to step up in game one, Pearce put in a solid performance in game two and many began to think this could finally be the time he would get the egg of his back. But with the Blues steamrolled on Wednesday night, and Pearce having little to no impact, it will surely be the last time the halfback is seen on a State of Origin field. Unbelievably, is has no become clear that Pearce directed a barrage of banter at legendary halfback Jonathan Thurston during the first two games. For a bloke who was questionably given another chance in that arena, Pearce clearly didn’t understand the concept of going quietly about your business and letting your actions and results speak for themselves.

But that doesn’t mean the end for Mitchell Pearce, who is a premiership winner after being part of the 2013 Sydney Roosters side. It was in this year that Pearce recovered strongly from his origin loss and ultimately dumping. He was part of a club that was transformed under rookie coach Trent Robinson, led by a revival both on and off the field that saw the players coming together through strict dietary, personal and social sacrifices. Many of these inspired by the elite athlete and unique individual that is Sonny Bill Williams. There is no doubt the influence of Williams would have helped Pearce reach the highest achievement in the game.

Pearce should return to club football, and focus on nothing but that for the rest of his career. Manly players have has wonderfully successful careers at club level and missed out on being a representative star. One halfback that Pearce could consider echoing is former Titans halfback, Scott Prince. Prince was a premiership winner at the Tigers, but never went on to feature in representative teams. Despite this, he played 300 games, was captain of two clubs and won a Clive Churchill medal. On top of this, he was one of the most humble and likeable players in the game.

Pearce will no doubt continue his playing career with the Sydney Roosters for many years to come, and will quite possibly achieve more success at club level, but for now it looks like he won’t be found in a representative side. But this presents enormous opportunity for Pearce to show what he is truly made of, and chance for a determined fightback. But barring leading the Roosters into a Grand Final, it’s difficult to see him playing State of Origin again.

Gallen faces some tough personal decisions on his playing future, and with the Cronulla Sharks his career club, it’s hard to see him accepting an NRL contract with any other club. He will either be given and accept a deal at the sharks or shift abroad. His future with the NSW side will also be at the forefront of his future in the NRL, if he had of won the series on Wednesday night, he probably would have stepped away from Origin and dedicated himself to the Sharks for a final year. But no one likes to go out a loser and if he plays in the NRL next year, it’s likely he’d have another crack with the Blues. That is, if the coach decides to select the ageing forward.

As always in Rugby League, only time will tell.