foxsports.com.au.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cSo if we can deliver that, and I can communicate and steer the boys around defensively, that will go a long way to building good habits and allow us to play that Cowboys style of footy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSince arriving up here, he\u2019s really challenged everyone to go to his level, compete the way he does,\u201d Cowboys star Tom Dearden said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been very vocal in driving standards \u2026 I can\u2019t praise him enough for what he\u2019s brought.\u201d<\/p>\n
The signing of Mahoney was a step in signalling a tactics change by coach Todd Payten.<\/p>\n
The season in which Payten won Coach of the Year, the Cowboys made a prelim final on the back of their restricting defence. <\/p>\n
According to fullback Scott Drinkwater, it appears the aim is to focus on nailing what worked back in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re focusing more on being a gritty, grinding team who defends well and plays the game the right way by doing all the small effort areas well which can turn into big moments. That\u2019s where we are trying to get to,\u201d Drinkwater revealed to Fox League. <\/p>\n
Mahoney might not challenge for individual honours such as a Dally M Medal, but his impact on the Cowboys will go deeper than what the stat sheet reads. <\/p>\n
Verdict – BUY<\/p>\n
Reed Mahoney is fitting in nicely at the Cowboys.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
WILL THE BRONCOS FEEL A PREMIERSHIP HANGOVER?<\/p>\n
There have been a couple of early hurdles in 2026 as the Broncos prepare to defend their title.<\/p>\n
Firstly, the Payne Haas bombshell. <\/p>\n
Haas will no doubt be hungry to leave the Broncos on a high and win back-to-back competitons, but you have to wonder what effect his looming exit will have on the playing group.<\/p>\n
Secondly, can the Broncos bounce back from a World Club Challenge loss?<\/p>\n
History suggests that yes you can. The Panthers did it twice. <\/p>\n
Simply put, while the start of 2026 hasn\u2019t been ideal, it\u2019s not going to derail this side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not overly concerned about them,\u201d journalist Brent Read said on NRL360.<\/p>\n
\u201cPayne is the sort of guy that now he has made this decision, will be focused on winning a competition because he\u2019s that driven.<\/p>\n
\u201dYou saw Reece Walsh in that WCC. In the second half, he inspired a comeback… I\u2019m not I\u2019m not overly concerned about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree I think the Broncos will be fine. I\u2019m a bit worried about players moving and all the rest but I actually think they\u2019re still gonna have a very good season,\u201d NRL 360 host Braith Anasta added.<\/p>\n
Verdict – SELL<\/p>\n
Lomax court sparks fiery debate | 05:45<\/p>\n
ARE THE EELS OVERHYPED?<\/p>\n
Parramatta left their fans wanting more when last season ended, playing a brand of footy which was easy to enjoy in the back-end.<\/p>\n
Their poor start to the year and a frustrating Mitch Moses injury meant that the Eels were out of finals contention early, but they were able to finish with a flurry and collect a few big scalps late, including wins over the Broncos, Roosters and Warriors.<\/p>\n
So, after a shaky start, the first year of the Jason Ryles era was considered somewhat of a success and certainly a step in the right direction. <\/p>\n
The question is now, can they carry that form over to this season?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to think they won\u2019t given the amount of quality in the side, especially in their spine. <\/p>\n
Moses and recruit Jonah Pezet form a lethal halves combo, Isaiah Iongi is one of the best young fullbacks in the world while hooker Ryley Smith is another young talent who played above his years last season.<\/p>\n
After slow starts, their forwards came on significantly in the second half of the season and a few of the big boys were impressive during the trials. <\/p>\n
The hype is justified at this stage as they have the talent to make a serious finals push. <\/p>\n
Verdict – SELL<\/p>\n
IS THE POST-VEGAS SCHEDULE FAIR?<\/p>\n
The NRL rely on advanced AI software to determine the time and place of each and every one of the competition\u2019s 204 regular season games.<\/p>\n
For the most part, it\u2019s considered pretty fair, but let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s going to be at least one or two issues.<\/p>\n
Scheduling post-Vegas is one of those. <\/p>\n
In 2024 – the first year of the NRL\u2019s foray into Vegas – the four teams that went over, the Broncos, Rabbitohs, Roosters and Sea Eagles, were all drawn to play another one of the Vegas teams in the following round. <\/p>\n
For instance, Broncos\/Roosters and Souths\/Sea Eagles were the two Las Vegas matches that year. In Round 2, the Broncos played Souths and the Roosters battled Manly. <\/p>\n
Seems fair, but for whatever reason, the NRL changed tact the following year.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the Raiders, Warriors, Sharks and Panthers were the second wave of Vegas teams but instead of games against each other in Round 2, poor old Cronulla had to travel to Townsville to play the Cowboys. <\/p>\n
The Warriors and Raiders were rewarded with home games that week, but Canberra then faced a horror draw which included away games in Sydney (R3), Townsville (R4) and Darwin (R6). <\/p>\n
This year, the Cowboys have to travel to Sydney in Round 2 to play the Tigers off a bye at Leichhardt Oval while the Knights are away (Manly), the Dragons are at home and the Bulldogs have a bye.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a minor issue as these Vegas teams will have the following week off to recover from the hectic overseas trip and no matter how the draw is determined, it\u2019s understood that it\u2019s never going to be perfect, but perhaps some grace in the schedule should be given to all of the travelling teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might be tougher to pick a wooden spoon winner this season than it is to pick the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[944,2095,1724,64,63,689,4532,73371,4430,11096,4516,2057,34680,31736,45948,763,254125,26120,254121,64029,254118,4518,4556,2623,254126,2022,254123,4464,761,762,2627,673,2613,4495,254122,2041,764,2067,3583,158,677,254115,254120,38793,11368,166096,159,30384,4574,254124,254119,254116,85,39234,670,104059,776,4535,82591,3586,2614,12000,11103,254117,19054],"class_list":{"0":"post-506090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-canberra-raiders","15":"tag-coach-ricky-stuart","16":"tag-daly-cherry-evans","17":"tag-daniel-nuttall","18":"tag-ethan-sanders","19":"tag-europe","20":"tag-eyes-set","21":"tag-finals-contention","22":"tag-finals-push","23":"tag-fox-league","24":"tag-grand-final-winner","25":"tag-green-machine","26":"tag-heartbreaking-finals-loss","27":"tag-home-games","28":"tag-horror-draw","29":"tag-jamal-fogarty","30":"tag-jason-ryles","31":"tag-las-vegas","32":"tag-lethal-halves-combo","33":"tag-london","34":"tag-magical-regular-season","35":"tag-mitch-moses","36":"tag-national-rugby-league","37":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","38":"tag-nevada","39":"tag-new-south-wales","40":"tag-new-zealand-warriors","41":"tag-newcastle-knights","42":"tag-noise-heading","43":"tag-north-america","44":"tag-north-queensland-cowboys","45":"tag-northern-america","46":"tag-northern-europe","47":"tag-nrl","48":"tag-oceania","49":"tag-off-season-comments","50":"tag-passionate-fan-base","51":"tag-phil-gould","52":"tag-regular-season","53":"tag-regular-season-games","54":"tag-rugby-league","55":"tag-rugby-league-news","56":"tag-ryley-smith","57":"tag-scheduling-post-vegas","58":"tag-season-changes","59":"tag-spoon-chance","60":"tag-sports","61":"tag-stat-sheet","62":"tag-sydney","63":"tag-tackling-machine","64":"tag-tom-dearden","65":"tag-tom-trbojevic","66":"tag-travelling-teams","67":"tag-united-kingdom","68":"tag-united-states-of-america","69":"tag-western-asia","70":"tag-wooden-spoon","71":"tag-wooden-spoon-winner","72":"tag-young-talent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506090","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=506090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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