This is garbage. You can't say Douglas is any better than Holloway, Sinclair or Hanigan. For his brother getting coach of the year, I think it was a pretty fair call. Newcastle were cellar dwellers last year to now winning half of their games and having a better win/ loss than Easts despite their war chest of Tahs.....
I thought Zak Beer from Norths was going to win that award. I am not sure about the Manly' form turnaround. They are on a 5 game losing streak and it could be 7 losses to finish the season if they don't find their mojo quickly. I think the turnaround of the Two Blues is also more significant than the Manly turnaround.
Zak Beer is assumed to do a good job so it doesn't get noticed. Think MVP awards in leagues like the NBA, NFL etc... hot flash thing wins it in the moment whilst there are consistents you could argue deserve it every year. Zak keeps getting results and teams around the world will be very aware
Quite a few others to make up the numbers. Easts by plenty.
Favourites? Who frames the market? Maybe they missed the last game we played at Woollahra. The game was all over after 20 minutes. What has changed since then? We have lost our captain Tom Murphy for the season, and our only tall lock (Cameron Boon).
Hunter finished 9th in 21 same as 22
2021 season was cancelled - not sure you can use it as a benchmark.
Hunter knocked off a load of the better sides at home this season, it was a marked improvement
It's just great to have them back in the comp, with a lot more local support this time around,
Fair enough 2020 to 2023
Not sure about every which way. The biggest improvers in 2022 were the Two Blues. They won 2 games in 3 seasons (2019-2021). They won 7 this year. Manly had a couple of tough seasons in the 2 COVID impacted years but had been one of the best regular season teams for the decade or so before that.
