Like most rugby league fans I am looking forward to the 2024 season kicking off in just over four weeks’ time.
There’s been a bit happening in the off-season with player movements and rumours of unrest out Penrith way involving the club’s triple premiership star Jerome Luai, who is moving to the Wests Tigers at the end of 2024.
Luai has been a hot topic for some months now and if the Panthers can’t keep it “in-house” I reckon it has the potential to create some unwelcome disharmony as the club shoots for four-in-a-row.
Luckily Ivan Cleary is a super coach and he’ll do whatever he takes to ensure Penrith keep their minds of the job but Luai does have a history of rubbing people up the wrong way.
Any team with Nathan Cleary running the show though has to be taken seriously.
Nathan plays such a monumental role for the Panthers, he’s their chief playmaker, their goal kicker, the kid just doesn’t miss.
He wasn’t the attacking star a few years ago that he is now, but he can hold his own with any No.7 in the game.
As I see it, the biggest danger to Penrith’s four-peat is, are still hungry enough?.
Hunger on the field can play an extraordinary role. There’s been a number of teams over the years who were great performers one year but couldn’t back it up the next.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
First-up we’ve got the NRL’s bold experiment, or gamble depending on which way you look at it, of taking four of its teams to Las Vegas, Nevada, in a bid to showcase its game and hopefully win over some US fans in the process.
Their cause was helped considerably when legendry NFL quarterback Tom Brady’s showed up at a Brisbane luncheon attended by a few thousand people recently and threw a bullet-like spiral pass which hit Brisbane Broncos star Reece Walsh on the chest.
The clip of that pass, and Walsh’s catch, went viral in the USA.
It’s a longshot for mine, but NRL boss Peter V’landy’s has proven track record and is a clever negotiator.
Maybe he has one of those surprises up his sleeve.
Until you test the waters, and see what happens, who knows?
So, on Sunday March 3, rugby league history will be made with the first two games of the 2024 NRL season, are played on US soil.
Manly will get the ball rolling against South Sydney in the first game of 2024 to be followed by the heavyweight clash of last year’s beaten Grand Finals Brisbane Broncos taking on the Sydney Roosters.
Both games will be played at LA’s Allegiant Stadium which I am told holds 65,000 fans.
They are the only two games schedule that weekend so the ratings will be big.
Let’s hope, for NRL’s sake, that a few players, including Reece Walsh and Latrell Mitchell, get their visas sorted out, because they are the players who will excite American fans.
As usual those who run the game have decided the game would be better if they scrapped the penalty if a line-drop out goes into touch on the full with play to resume from a tap restart at the 10 metre line.
When I played, there was none of this cute stuff, I just belted the ball back as far as I could down field.
There’s no doubt Selwyn Cobbo was an excitement machine last season.
So is it a risky move by Brisbane coach Kevvie Walters shifting the youngster from his comfort zone into a new, tougher position this season?
Cobbo scored 20 tries from the wing last season.
Kevvie though seems pretty confident Cobbo, who don’t forget is still only 21, is the right player to fill the gap following the departure to the Dolphins of class act, Herbie Farnworth.
Personally, I wouldn’t bet against Cobbo proving a sensation in the centres once he gets his positional bearings.
He’s a big kid who just loves to play football.
He’s fast, he’s strong and can produce that special magic only a handful of players can.
He also plays without much fear, like fullback Reece Walsh who will be doing his best to set him up with the ball at every opportunity.
Enjoy the new season fans.
