This is my blog from my site and is not copied i have written this blog myself

This early into the New Year it’s hard for anyone to accurately pick which NRL team will come out on top for the 2009 season, but we can certainly look at how the line ups look and how they’re likely to play with new team members and, in some cases, new coaches.

Of course the Manly Sea Eagles took out the premiership in the 2008 season, but will they be up for a repeat performance and be able to grab the premiership in 2009? Having lost a couple of key players, will the new team line up be up for the challenge of back-to-back premiership wins? Chances are, they’ll still come out fighting, but only time will tell how well the new line up fares.

The Melbourne Storm side appears on paper to be a strong contender for the premiership title, but the names on paper are never the same as the personalities and game skills on the field.

The Cronulla Sharks have been without a premiership win for the last 40 years, but while most people seem to have given up on this tenacious team, there’s still some bite in them yet. Strategy can often be a better game tactic than size in some instances and with a shorter line up they’re going to need all the strategy they can find if they want to win games.

Although many NRL fans seem to discount the Sydney Roosters as contenders for this year, this is one tough team that looks much more promising now their line up has settled in after last year’s initial issues. They may be a team to watch in the coming months.

Another team that may bear some close watching will be St George Illawarra Dragons. They have some great new signings and a new coach, which means new game tactics and possibly even a stronger line up that could see some promising matches ahead.

The New Zealand Warriors once again show a strong side line up and pre-season training reveals some strengths in future game play tactics that bear close watching as the year progresses.

Will the Brisbane Broncos be working together well enough as a team this season to cut it for the final 8? While the pre-season trials look decent enough, is just decent going to be enough to keep them in it this year?

The Bulldogs were set back with a lot of injury problems last year, but they seem to have secured a really strong side for the 2009 season, with the signing of some great players like Michael Ennis and David Staff, but it will still come down to the new team working together well. Let’s hope the Bulldogs can do a little better this season than the wooden spoon they earned for last season’s effort!

While the South Sydney Rabbitohs aren’t looking very organised and are probably going to struggle a bit with their current line up,

While we might have looked at where the top eight and perhaps even the bottom two teams might sit for the 2009 season, we didn’t look at why some of the others might not do so well this year. With many teams set back with injuries from the pre-season and some rather experimental line-ups in other teams that don’t play to key player’s strengths, perhaps some teams will break free of the pack and surprise us.

So how do the rest of the NRL teams shape up before the 2009 season gets under way?

Here’s how the coming season looks from our end.

The North Queensland Cowboys could possibly be the surprise team to watch for 2009. Last year saw them set back with lots of injury problems and a change of coaches, but my guess is that the team should have settled under the new regime and look to be training and playing well in pre-season. Let’s see how they come out of the gates after the first few rounds.

There’s been a lot of early support from die-hard fans for the Newcastle Knights and there’s no doubt they look strong during pre-season training and matches. There’s some speculation as to whether they’ll have some key players back from pre-season injuries though in time to make a splash in early games.

This year’s Parramatta Eels line up is looking strong so far, with an impressive win over the Panthers in pre-season trials, but even though they look good so far, there are a few tougher teams with flashy line-ups and some tough strategies that they’ll need to watch for in the early weeks of this season.

If the Gold Coast Titans can manage to come out fighting during the first three games of this season they could possibly squeeze their way up near the 8 early on. They’re facing off with the Knights, the Dragons and the Bulldogs for the first three games of the season so there’s a chance. If they do well with these early games the boost in confidence still might not be enough for them to play down the three very tough teams they face in rounds 4, 5 and 6, so any big wins early in the season will probably be short lived.

While the Canberra Raiders look strong enough, fast enough and skilled enough with their current line up in practices, they just don’t translate on game day. Here’s hoping they fare a little better this season.

Unfortunately for the Wests Tigers, they have some tough early games for the 2009 season against strong teams. With plenty of players still struggling with injuries fro just the pre-season round, there’s some speculation as to how they’ll shape up if some key players don’t recover in time.

Even though I predicted the Penrith Panthers to take out the wooden spoon for the 2009 season in the last post, I’m starting to wonder whether or not the Rabbitohs as a team are looking a little messier than I originally thought.

Even so, I’m still going with the Panthers for the spoon.