{"id":419566,"date":"2026-01-17T18:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419566\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:00:49","slug":"what-each-nrl-team-needs-to-get-sorted-in-limited-pre-season-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419566\/","title":{"rendered":"What each NRL team needs to get sorted in limited pre-season window"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The NRL\u2019s pre-season is just a few weeks away. Round one kicks off at the end of next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By rugby league soap opera standards, it\u2019s been a pretty uneventful off-season \u2013 no major off-field atrocities, a few players signing deals here and there and of course, the obligatory brouhaha about the NRL\u2019s latest attempts to tweak, modify and improve the rule book, but just don\u2019t call them rule changes because that\u2019s not their go.<\/p>\n

The focus is dangerously close to what\u2019s going to happen on the field.<\/p>\n

Get that sweet 12-months-free-roadside-assistance kind of care. Book at one of our 275 locations nationwide, online or call 13 13 28. T&Cs apply.<\/a><\/p>\n

Trials kick off on February 7 with the four Las Vegas teams \u2013 the Cowboys, Bulldogs, Dragons and Knights \u2013 getting the jump on the rest of the competition.<\/p>\n

Brisbane are not bothering with the time-honoured traditions of the NRL\u2019s Witzer (whatever that is) Pre-Season Challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have scheduled a couple of second-tier trials with their affiliate clubs Sunshine Coast and Souths Logan while the main squad jets off to England for the World Club Challenge on February 19 against Hull KR at MKM Stadium.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what each club is looking to get out of the pre-season.<\/p>\n

Broncos: The WCC trophy and the swagger that it brings. Brisbane are back to being the team that rival fans hate and opposing coaches envy. Their roster is stacked and Michael Maguire has broken their premiership drought \u2013 world domination will bring back that unmistakable aura that the club emanated during the 15-year golden era leading into 2006 when they won six premierships.<\/p>\n

Bulldogs: Some sign that Lachie Galvin can be an NRL playmaker. No one doubts his ability as a game-breaking five-eighth, it\u2019s the organisational responsibilities that come with the No.7 jersey that are the cause of Cameron Ciraldo\u2019s night terrors.<\/p>\n

Cowboys: Tackling and lots of it. Todd Payten\u2019s chances of surviving the season hinge on his team getting off to a strong start and after coughing up 28.5 points per game in 2025, they will finish among the also-rans again if their defence does not improve in a major way.<\/p>\n

\"TOWNSVILLE,<\/p>\n

Cowboys coach Todd Payten. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Dragons: Dan Atkinson looking comfortable as the go-to guy. It\u2019s all well and good to shine when you have Nicho Hynes or Braydon Trindall as your halves partner when you\u2019re an unknown at the Sharks but now he has been charged with the ominous task of getting St George Illawarra on the straight and narrow.<\/p>\n

Knights: Another team that has plenty of attacking aces but no obvious game manager. New coach Justin Holbrook will try out Fletcher Sharpe and Sandon Smith alongside marquee recruit Dylan Brown in a bid to see who can form the halves combination which can also unlock Kalyn Ponga\u2019s brilliance from the back.<\/p>\n

Dolphins: With Jeremy Marshall-King and Max Plath sidelined for the start of the season, Kristian Woolf needs to sort out who\u2019ll wear the No.9 jersey. Kurt Donoghoe looms as the likely frontrunner with a makeshift hooker like Kodi Nikorima or new recruit Brad Schneider switching from the halves also an option.<\/p>\n

Titans: For Josh Hannay, he\u2019ll just want to see something resembling effort. He\u2019s shaken up the roster in the off-season by moving on David Fifita and Brian Kelly on top of the previous exits of retired veteran Kieran Foran and Wallabies returnee Carter Gordon. Now he needs to see some energy from a club which phoned in a fair few games when it came to effort last season.<\/p>\n

Raiders: A tale of two Ethans for Ricky Stuart. With Jamal Fogarty now at Manly, the veteran coach is entrusting his playmaking duties on talented prospect Ethan Sanders and last season\u2019s breakout star Ethan Strange. How quickly this pair can strike up a combination will go a long way to deciding whether the Green Machine can motor their way to the top of the ladder again following their unexpected 2025 surge.<\/p>\n

Storm: Depth is the key for Craig Bellamy. For the first time in a long time, Melbourne do not have the best coverage across the park in their roster following the departures of Ryan Papenhuyzen, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Jonah Pezet and\u00a0 Grant Anderson, along with the season-long absence of Eliesa Katoa. Bellamy being Bellamy, he\u2019ll find a few diamonds in the rough.<\/p>\n

Panthers: A clean bill of health is pretty much all that matters for Ivan Cleary. At no stage last year did they have all their stars fit and firing and after a sluggish start to the season, the four-time premiers were chasing their tails with the prolonged period of catch-up footy very much catching up with them by the time the finals rolled around.<\/p>\n

Warriors: Luke Metcalf\u2019s return from his ACL tear is not due until at least a month into the season so Andrew Webster will be tossing the No.7 jersey around between his usual suspects. Tanah Boyd, Chanel Harris-Tavita and\u00a0 Te Maire Martin are the frontrunners to slot into the halves but Webster could roll the dice on a younger option like Jye Linnane or switch Sam Healey from hooker.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Luke Brooks. (Photo by Brendon Thorne\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sea Eagles: The Jamal Fogarty-Luke Brooks halves partnership has a very makeshift feel to it. Young gun Joey Walsh is waiting in the wings and Anthony Seibold has floated the idea of trying Tom Trbojevic in the halves. Fogarty and Brooks will get first crack at the post-Daly Cherry-Evans era but you get the feeling they won\u2019t last long if Manly carry over last year\u2019s mediocre form.<\/p>\n

Tigers: Can they get through their trials without a boardroom bloodbath? Could the suits in the front office just let them get on with the business of chasing the Steeden around a playing field without reducing the club to a laughing stock? It\u2019d be nice for Benji Marshall to be able to coach his side with that \u201cluxury\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roosters: How does DCE look in red, white and blue? And will he complement Sam Walker in the halves or detract from their little general. There\u2019s a too many cooks in the kitchen flavour to this pairing and the fans will be up in arms if Hugo Savala struggles for game time as a bench utility or in a different role.<\/p>\n

Rabbitohs: There are plenty of question marks over the durability of their two key attacking weapons in Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell. They don\u2019t need to overdo it in the trials but they need to look ready for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

Sharks: Craig Fitzgibbon needs to find a spark for this side \u2013 they will take a very familiar looking team into Round 1 apart from Cameron McInnes and Ronaldo Mulitalo nursing their torn ACLs. They haven\u2019t been active in free agency so they need someone like giant young forward Tuku Hau Tapuha to provide a game-breaking point of difference.<\/p>\n

Eels: Jonah Pezet has spent three seasons going in and out of Melbourne\u2019s line-up, getting just 18 chances at NRL level to show that he is worthy of the hype that has surrounded him since he was a teenager. He has a golden chance to forge his reputation during his one-season stint at Parra, particularly stepping out alongside Mitchell Moses, the best halfback in the game for most of last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size The NRL\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,952,761,762,158,220999,159,85],"class_list":["post-419566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-featured","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nrl-pre-season","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}