THIS OFF-SEASON, IT WAS ALL CHANGE IN THE NRL AS PLAYERS AND COACHES MOVED FROM CLUB TO CLUB LIKE PLAYERS ON MAD MONDAY. NOT THAT THIS HAS STOPPED ANDREW WEBSTER MAKING SOME BOLD PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE COMING YEAR.

Memo to: Graem Sims, Inside Sport editor
From: Your alleged rugby league expert
Subject: National Rugby League season preview

Graem after days of research, hours of phone calls and minutes of consideration, I recommend we ditch this year’s league preview. It’s a waste of my valuable time that’d be best served covering that beach volleyball tournie on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. You know it makes sense.

This isn’t an attempt to mid-air sidestep more work. It’s just … have you seen the NRL lately? Harder to pick than Mat Rogers’ nose.

Take last season: the Broncos lose five in a row, certainties to die in the play-offs, blow it against the Dragons in the first week … then roll Newcastle, then the Bulldogs (after being down 20-6 at half-time) and then Melbourne to win their sixth premiership. Take their captain, Darren Lockyer: after Queensland lost Origin I, they were howling for his head … two games later, he’s Player Of The Series. Three months later, he’s accepting the premiership trophy from Little Johnny. In the Tri-Nations final against New Zealand, he’s scoring the match-winner in golden-point time. He’s named the best player in the world, for crying out loud. We all saw that coming, didn’t we? And tomorrow night’s winning Powerball numbers are …

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