With the 16 NRL clubs having entered their preliminary squads for the 2019 season, fans are already making their predictions about where each club will finish in the Telstra Premiership.
Pre-season trials are still a few months away, but with more than 100,000 votes entered in the NRL.com polls, the early predictions are for another title for the Roosters and another wooden spoon for Parramatta.
There is less predictability in the middle of the pack, with the Roosters' rivals South Sydney the second-most favoured side, ahead of 2018 grand finalists Melbourne, with the Panthers, Dragons and Sharks rounding out the top six.
The fans are tipping Newcastle to continue the improvement from last season and sneak into the finals for the first time since 2013, ahead of the Cowboys and Wests Tigers.
North Queensland are the big movers of the week following the signing of Josh McGuire from Brisbane, with their vote for winning the premiership jumping by 5% and support for them finishing somewhere in the top eight rising by 9%.
According to the fans, the Warriors, Raiders and Sea Eagles will land outside the top eight, with the Titans and Bulldogs sitting above the 16th-placed Eels.
NRL.com has been running fan polls for all 16 clubs, asking readers whether they expect each club to finish 2019 as premiers, as a top-eight side, just outside the playoffs or near the bottom of the ladder.
Using a formula of two points for every vote a club gets to win the premiership, one point for top eight, -1 for just missing the finals and -2 for bottom of the ladder, here are the rankings for the 16 clubs.
While votes for all teams err on the optimistic side, analysing the results of all 16 clubs gives us the following rankings.
| Team | Premiers | 2nd to 8th | 9th to 12th | 13th to 16th |
| 1. Roosters | 52% | 40% | 3% | 5% |
| 2. Rabbitohs | 27% | 57% | 11% | 5% |
| 3. Storm | 17% | 68% | 10% | 5% |
| 4. Panthers | 22% | 57% | 15% | 6% |
| 5. Dragons | 23% | 49% | 20% | 7% |
| 6. Sharks | 9% | 68% | 17% | 6% |
| 7. Broncos | 21% | 51% | 20% | 8% |
| 8. Knights | 8% | 55% | 28% | 10% |
| 9. Cowboys | 18% | 41% | 28% | 14% |
| 10.Wests Tigers | 10% | 43% | 30% | 16% |
| 11. Warriors | 9% | 41% | 37% | 13% |
| 12. Raiders | 7% | 29% | 46% | 19% |
| 13. Sea Eagles | 8% | 26% | 30% | 37% |
| 14. Titans | 4% | 23% | 35% | 38% |
| 15 Bulldogs | 7% | 16% | 26% | 50% |
| 16. Eels | 6% | 14% | 23% | 57% |
| As of Nov 22 |
Replies
Yep, bottom 4.
next season will have mid season dramas, halves leaving, nothing will change, we'll have no quality depth, same imbecile as coach, Timmy still running around, we are screwed.
Hope its not a 5 year plan
I’m worried about your state of mind Chief. Think you should find another team that allows you more positive vibes. Or another sport. This can’t be good for you.
Chief voted 300 times though
I just looked at the same survey . It was interesting when you clicked on the drop down tab that showed the names of the voters . The top three contributors were as followed ,
Mr Jarryd Hayne - 345 votes
Mr Bradley Arthur - 243 vote
Mr Chief - 187 votes
Every year the Premiers start as favourites for the title and the wooden spooners favourites for the spoon again.
Muttman, that's exactly right mate.
These so-called "experts" assume that we are gonna have an exact repeat of 2018. They're forgetting a few things though.
We won't be > going into 2019 with only 2-thirds of the coaching/support staff & other resources of which the top clubs have.
They assume we will have another injury toll from hell again. In 2018 we used more players in first grade than any other club.
They assume we will have the most players sin-binned during a season like we did in 2018.
They also assume that the top 4 clubs will again be absolutely blessed on the injury front. I guarantee you that if any of those top 4 clubs suffered JUST HALF THE INJURIES THAT WE HAD IN 2018, they would not only have missed out on the top 4 (obviously) but would've missed the top 8 all together.
Those top clubs suffer without their stars during SOO. Now imagine how they'd suffer when those stars are missing for substantial periods of the season.
Just a few seasons ago, the Roosters got the spoon after having 3 or 4 rep players missing for at least half a season each. Anything can happen in such a long season.
Think the unthinkable. Just like our club finishing top 4 and then spooners 12 months later despite everyone tipping us to actually go even better.
These so called experts' "predictions", are just that - predictions.
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