NEXT Monday I make the trek (for the very first time) to Las Vegas for the opening round of the NRL. Yes I know, everyone I tell says the same thing to me, \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019ve never been to Vegas!\u201d then straight after, \u201coh you\u2019ll love it! It\u2019s the best place on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
I suppose I\u2019ll be the judge of that but I am excited to be heading to the city that never sleeps, to coincidently watch the game that never sleeps, the NRL!<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also round 1 of the season proper. So this is my chance to get my 2026 predictions down on paper to see just how close I get come round 27 later this year. With that here we go\u2026<\/p>\n
Top 8.\u00a0
1. Roosters
2. Broncos
3. Panthers
4. Bulldogs
5. Storm
6. Rabbitohs
7. Raiders
8. Eels<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve left out Cronulla and the Warriors from last year\u2019s top 8, while elevating the Rabbits and the Eels.<\/p>\n
Premiers? Roosters. I just feel they are poised, and the arrivals of DCE and Reece Robson will be pivotal in their pursuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t gone with my old club the Panthers as I think the \u2018home ground\u2019 situation which sees them playing out of Parramatta is just too high of an obstacle to overcome.<\/p>\n
2027 will be a different story.<\/p>\n
Give them the trophy now for when they\u2019re back at Penny Park!<\/p>\n
And I didn\u2019t go the Broncos as I feel the Hakeem Haas show might just be too big of a distraction for the reigning premiers.<\/p>\n
Grand Final? Roosters v Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are looking ominous heading into the 2026 season and I think they\u2019ll go close to winning the whole thing.<\/p>\n
Wooden Spoon? I think out of the two teams kicking off the season in Vegas, the Knights or the Cowboys.<\/p>\n
Who will win the Dally M? I\u2019m predicting Tom Trbojevic to have an out of the box season after being named the skipper of the Sea-Eagles.<\/p>\n
Origin result? NSW 2-1. Let\u2019s go you Blues!<\/p>\n
Coach under the most pressure? They all are! And the first to lose 4 or 5 straight becomes that man. But I think Todd Payten is under the pump most.<\/p>\n
Bold Prediction? I think the PNG franchise which comes into the comp in 2028 will announce a MAJOR signing this season, a marquee man who will be the first NRL player on $2 million. I also think that Souths livelier Jye Gray is a smoke to win the Dally M!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its exciting times ahead for all rugby league lovers as the 2026 season inches closer. As for me, I\u2019ll tell you all about my Vegas \u2019sojourn\u2019 in my next column.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Viva Las Vegas Baby!\u00a0<\/p>\n
MG (random Westie) OAM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEXT Monday I make the trek (for the very first time) to Las Vegas for the opening round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-488525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488525","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=488525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}