The new rugby league season is almost here, and no NRL season is complete without our 2021 NRL Season Preview.
2021 will hopefully see rugby league go back to a sort-of normal with crowds, mid-season Origin, and the occasional rugby league player doing something silly. (More Thurston street sweeper than criminal) Broncos fans may be hoping for an old normal, but rugby league hasn’t changed that much yet. Fans of incompetent governing of the game and chairmen who can’t differentiate between Pogba and Ponga will be equally disappointed.
Our preview won’t dive in too deep, we’ll leave for much better websites, our preview offer up some bold prediction, a top five of things we’re looking forward to or not, and a season prediction based on a pile of stats.
If it is a deep dive into this year’s draw – then check out our 2021 NRL Draw Analysis.
For that and not much more, enjoy our 2021 NRL Season Preview.
2021 SEASON PREVIEW – STATS BASED LADDER PREDICTION
Anyone can come up with a ladder prediction for the new season, and since we’re claiming it is so easy here is our attempt.
But rather than going through team by team with some razor sharp insights like a professional, we’ve grabbed a bunch of stats and welded them together to come up with a prediction for the 2021 end of season ladder.
So we grabbed some basic 2020 stats like 2020 ladder position, last six game form, form from when crowds were allowed back, both of those relative to the overall 2020 performance, betting odds for the season ahead, and even Supercoach value and popularity of each team’s top 13 players.
Each field was ranked in order and 16 points awarded to the best team and one point to the worst. Add them all together for the overall score and rank.
The results of our 2021 ladder is below.
FOR THE RECORD…..
The numbers have spoken, but we don’t necessarily believe them.
For all of the Titans 2021 promise, third looks too high, and one wonders if Penrith and Souths might swap around.
We also think that you could easily swap the Bulldogs and Dragons/Cowboys. Same goes for the Warriors and Knights, no offence to Newcastle/Barcelona fans.
Broncos looks about right however.
Who’ll be right by the end of the year? Who knows, and we’re reasonably confident that no one will be checking come September.
As for the stats – Penrith led most of the points per game stats and comparison with the Gold Coast pushing them in a few categories. The Broncos obviously holding the other end of the broom except their last six form of 0 points per game was only slightly worse than their overall record for 2020.
Currently Penrith’s top 13 players for Supercoach are worth the most from Parramatta and Newcastle. Wests Tigers top 13 is the least valuable. Melbourne’s top 13 are the most selected overall, and the Bulldogs are the least popular. Interestingly, Newcastle are the third least popular team despite being the third most valuable.
TOP FIVE BOLD PREDICTIONS
Wayne Bennett to seal the premiership with the Rabbitohs and then be named first head coach of the Redcliffe Dolphins.
Dragons will surge out in front of the 2021 competition before collapsing and ending up in a battle with the Broncos for last in the second half of the season.
The term Origin bolter will be first used on the Super Saturday of Round Two.
There will be an insider information scandal involving team selection and NRL Supercoach.
The first coach sacking will take place before the first State of Origin clash.
TOP FIVE POTENTIAL TEDIOUS MEH-MENTS of 2021
Buzz Rothfield / Courier Mail coverage of the NRL.
Overpriced, overrated players getting their agents to shop them around all season. And from Round One.
Sunday afternoon rugby league being dominated by Channel Nein’s insistence that Ray Warren doesn’t have to travel far on a Sunday afternoon.
The first over the top rule crackdown by referees which will ruin a round before public backlash will ensure normal service resumes.
NRL talking itself up after State of Origin in Melbourne and kidding itself about the markets in anything other than Qld and NSW.
TOP FIVE 2021 NRL JERSEYS
Jerseys are all important to the NRL, one of their main sources of income each season. Some teams celebrate by releasing seven different jerseys each year. The old ISC Superheroes round was by far the worst.
We don our fashion expert cap, or beret if you will, and decide the best and worst five NRL jerseys this season.
Full range of this year’s NRL jerseys available here.
A couple of very good heritage jerseys here, the Canberra one is so good it begs the question why they are using the home jersey instead of the heritage. The Warriors jerseys is also a bit of a nod back to their original 1995 edition and looks good to us, and the Penrith is a great mix of their 1990’s special and modern design. The Cowboys one we just like for some reason.
BOTTOM FIVE 2021 NRL JERSEYS
The new Melbourne jersey looks like it is part sailor uniform. Anzac jerseys are usually not too bad but the Manly offering with the big Dee Why RSL looks meh. The Parramatta away one looks more like an Indoor Cricket shirt worn by Geoff than NRL. The Sharks are wheeling out a heritage jersey look, and one that isn’t as good as other offering. And Fred Flintstone is wondering why the Broncos stole his outfit.
TOP FIVE THINGS BUZZ ROTHFIELD WILL HATE IN 2021
Buzz Rothfield is one of rugby league’s best known journalists and one of the sports biggest jerks. He has been described by some as the Squidward of NRL, but while he certainly does share a lot of characteristics with the Spongebob character he is massively less loveable. We also are yet to confirm whether Buzz lives in an Easter Island head style house like Squidward but wouldn’t be surprised if he does.
Here we go through the five things he is likely to hate and moan about in 2021.
NEW RULES
RUGBY LEAGUE
NRL
LIFE
HIMSELF
TOP FIVE ABSURD PREDICTIONS
Our bold prediction weren’t bold or silly enough, so here are five of the worst things that might happen in the NRL in 2021.
CHANNEL NEIN TO DO AN NRL VERSION OF MAFS
CAMERON SMITH TO START HALF TIME PEP TALK BUSINESS FOR STRUGGLING NRL CLUBS
STATE OF ORIGIN PRE MATCH ENTERTAINMENT TO OFFER UP AN HOUR LONG ROYAL RUMBLE OF ALL THE CURRENT AND FORMER NRL PLAYERS WHO WANT TO FIGHT EACH OTHER
NRL TO INCREASE TRIES TO SIX POINTS AND DECREASE CONVERSIONS TO ONE POINT TO ENSURE IT IS CLOSELY ALIGNED WITH NFL.
NRL PLAYERS TO GO SCANDAL FREE UNTIL JULY
TOP FIVE BEST BETS
Who doesn’t like a bet? And with wall to wall betting adverts during every game of the NRL we’re presuming all league fans like a bet.
So here for no good reasons except reasonable filler is our top five future betting options for the 2021 NRL season preview.
TOP TRY SCORER – CAMPBELL GRAHAM @ $20
TOP NON NSW TEAM – GOLD COAST @ $7
BRONCOS SEASON WINS – UNDER 7.5 @ $1.78
TONGA TO WIN WORLD CUP @ $13
A SOUTHS-WIGAN-NSW ORIGIN PREMIERSHIP WINNING MULTI @ $32
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