2023 NRL 2023 Season Reviews: Eels, Rabbitohs, Raiders, Roosters

Parramatta Eels Season Review [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] you are listening to the tank chank podcast we continue with the NRL 2023 season reviews next up we have the param eels their final ladder position this season was 10th the average ladder position of the eels was 11th this season hi ladder position achieved throughout the year was Sixth and their lowest ladder position was 16th the completion rate for the param eels was 16th in the competition so only one team worse than them out of the entire 17 team comp they were fifth in terms of Errors 17th for penalties conceded so they conceded the least amount of penalties across the competition average points conceded and average points scored both 24 not really surprising Rising given how they started the year they had 12 total wins and 12 total losses their biggest win was 31 points clear of the Newcastle Knights their biggest loss they got beaten by the Broncos by 44 points the margin there average winning margin for the eels was 16 average losing margin was 15 the season ending injuries for the eels they only had one and suspensions they had 24 games of suspension across the comp competition in 2023 their gains for this year they had Josh Hodson from the Raiders that didn't exactly turn out how I assume they would have wanted it to they picked up Jermaine hopg good from the Panthers he was kind of a shining light for them most of the season jro mamia from the knights Jack merchie from The Warriors and Matt Dury from the Bulldogs their losses this season were maradia cor Isaiah papali e Ray Stone Oregon cusi Reed Mahoney he Pam and Tom opach a crucial moment for the parama eels I believe this was opening the season with those close losses no team wants to lose but not being able to take a win in the first three games where it was only a four-point margin really just laid the unstable foundation for any type of run into the year the injuries to their halves the suspensions that was all pretty heavy for param would have made combinations a bit hard to start firing the media noise around Clint gutherson actually seemed to go in their favor uh it seemed to spark something in gotho and although he played extremely well and in quite a few instances was their Saving Grace the rest of the team just unable to keep up and put together anything that really was what was needed for the eels a lot of speculation during the year around some contract noise few boys resigning and overall a question mark I think for the paramat eels the positional change from last season to this season last year they made it to the Grand Final they were fourth on the NL ladder and by seasons's end had quite a few positives going for them this year they dropped to 10th in 2023 so six positions down on the ladder is not how you want to finish the season and for parata not to make the eight after appearing in the Grand Final last year I would count this season as a loss for the eels fans you had quite the side at stages I think the beginning of the season was very up and down the losses like I said really didn't help you to set that Foundation that you needed to spring board into the season and stay within the competition you did work your way up to sixth at one point though on the interl ladder so you definitely had opportunities to lock in but when the coach started the season with a lot of players on the bench that didn't get any game time whatsoever I question what that was all about I have no idea if that was a tactic for competing for your position or what the situation was there but they definitely could have used a bit more at the beginning of the year and super coach fans probably wouldn't have been happy with Brad Arthur keeping a few players on the bench overall like I said I think the eels season comes out as a loss disciplinary wise they conceded the least amount of penalties and that's a that's a very good thing to take away from the year you were able to keep up with a lot of the competition I think you beat the Panthers twice this season not many teams can really say that so always tend to step up when it comes to those games yet the other games that you should be winning somehow you don't end up taking those victories not really sure what's going on there the suspensions really hurt 24 games of suspension across a realistically a 24 round season when you take away the three buys there's really no chance of you coming back from something like that where you've got at least one player suspended every single week you're never going to form the combinations you need to at that stage fingers crossed that next season you can do a bit better have Moses bit more fit for the the entire season and Dylan Brown can stop being a and actually stay on the field himself as well Clint gutherson overall I think did extremely well I don't know why there was any speculation during the season about trying to find I think they said explosiveness out in the fullback position I think Clint gutherson does quite a number of things out the back defensively he is one of the best I see there the try saving tackles in his field position is just fantastic a good majority of the time and I really don't know what else you can ask uh of your captain and fullback the fact that he would be willing to shift out to a wing or Center position to accommodate for what the club needs is absolutely ridiculous he should be fullback that's where he's playing and that's where I believe he needs to continue what you need is the rest of the team stepping up to his level and playing with as much heart and drive as he has because he leaves absolutely everything out on the field uh the last game of the season that he played you could see that he was extremely injured uh and yet he continued to try and battle on and you don't see that with a lot of your squad so if they can actually look to their Captain who is leading from the front and mimic that or replicate that at least with their efforts you're going to be doing a lot better than you did in 2023 moving across to to the Rabbid o South Sydney Rabbitohs Season Review final ladder position for South Sydney was ninth the average ladder position was sixth the highest point on the ladder that you achieved in 2023 was actually first lowest ladder position 13th you were 15th overall in the competition for completion rate so only two teams worse than you in the comp sors you were seventh penalties conceded 13th average points conceded were 21 average points scored 23 you had 12 total wins 12 total losses the biggest win this season was 34 points over the Bulldogs your biggest loss was a 25o margin against the Cowboys the average winning margin for the South Sydney Rabbid o was 16 average losing margin 11 season ending injuries you didn't have any so there was the Latrell Mitchell injury as well as the Campbell gram injury but those were not season ending even though they were pretty long term you had nine games of suspension ion across 2023 for this season you did not gain any new players to your roster the losses for 2023 Mark Nichols and Cody nicara both jump ship across to the Dolphins Josh Mansa and Richie Kenner were released Jackson Paulo went across to the roosters your crucial moment for 2023 I believe was the round 11 victory over the Tigers now this game went for roughly an hour and the Tigers were kind of holding it up with you so given that The Wooden Spoon had you on your toes for an hour this game not really the greatest that was the end of a winning run that saw you as favorites to win the competition this year leading into this game you were flying high basically unbeatable then Latrell Mitchell goes off to origin Camp has an injury and you fall off pretty much you fall off a cliff a few other injuries at that time Campbell Graham is one of them but a lot of media noise and a drop in energy from the side that really just kind of hung out with the competition for an hour of the game and then in the last 20 minutes turned it on and ran people over leading up to this round 11 Victory I was starting to question which side in the NRL was going to be able to beat you the form that you were showing the way that you were getting the job done just the number of positives across the park for South Sydney was very impressive Rive and then I don't know if it was a media thing I don't know if there's an Administration thing there's just a lot going on at the bunnies and a lot of question marks over how things are handled there there's way too much being spoken of outside the club about what's happening within the club you had Sam Burgess kick rocks at the end of the year yeah probably most likely heading over to England to do that top lead head coaching role obviously that's a career development opportunity for him but there was a lot of speculation about why he left in the manner that he did few coaches getting the sack or walking out the door as well in the assistant coaching team and just over all a lot of question marks on what's going on in the club a lot of speculation about how Cody Walker Latrell Mitchell are being treated differently than the rest of the playing group being held to a different standard than the rest of the playing group I think the talk over Latrell Mitchell not being a fullback is and it's something that really kind of annoyed me the amount of traction that that got during the year because he has been playing this position for a number of years and earlier in the season no one was asking whether Latrell Mitchell's a fullback or not when the bunnies were winning games so very disappointing that that obviously comes out when they're not doing so well I think the Campbell Graham injury impacted you a lot more than it should have you did get quite a few youngsters coming through that got to show off their talent in the top grade and your squad got the job done from your feeder side uh at the end of the season as well over the Brisbane Tigers so quite the performance from your next ups for those on the field I would say that 2023 was a loss your positional change from last last season you were seventh so you made the finals you played a bit of finals footy and you dropped to ninth this year obviously South Sydney being the proud club that is that it is and the number of fans representing you or wanting you to get in the finals and it just didn't happen you kind of pushed for it towards the end there but not not close to enough the fact that you sat first on the ladder and you dropped significantly from there really kind of Echoes what I saw from both Manley and the Broncos in previous years so not great not the way you want to end the season I'd really love for people to stop talking about Latrell Mitchell he's Superstar he does a number of things on field and I don't think he should cop half the media that he cops honestly but it is what it is he's probably one of those polarizing type characters that no one really is able to agree or disagree with and just unable to figure out where he sits in the grand scheme of things rabido fans absolutely love Latrell Mitchell most of them anyway I don't know who else you're going to put back there if I'm honest uh Monroe came through he was freaking amazing but I I just see him more of a a wing Center Winger player I don't think latron michell is your issue I don't like hearing the talk of the Adam Reynolds potential that is in the past it's been a couple years now it's time to move on you went with ilas he's the dude you put all the eggs in the basket for keep backing him he's still young he still has a bit to learn most of the halfbacks in the NRL took a while to get to where they are and 33 and up seems to be the age that you want your halfbacks to be because those dudes are just playing Amazing in that age category give ilas a bit more time I don't think he's an issue for you and like I said your upand comers really kind of slammed it when it came to that State final competition so you're doing all right with the next group keep your heads up and just try to figure out what the hell's going on in the administration really because similar to the Tigers doesn't seem to be an issue with your roster or what's going on when you get on the field during games there's just a lot of influence external to that and a lot of noise that you kind of just need to figure out how to tune out overall like I said rabido season a loss hopefully they get a bit more happening for him in 2024 moving on to the Cambra Raiders the Canberra Raiders Season Review Green Machine's final ladder position was eighth their average ladder position throughout the season was ninth highest ladder position they got up to Fourth Place their lowest ladder position was 16th they were the 10th best completion rate in the NRL so on the lower scale there for errors they were 12 only five teams worse than you with errors in the competition penalties conceded you were fourth so only three teams were worse with penalties conceded than you were average points conceded 26 average points scored 20 you had 13 total wins 11 total losses your biggest win this season was a 12-point margin against the Bulldogs your biggest loss was 46 points against the Melbourne storm your average winning margin was Five Points points your average losing margin was 19 points you had one season ending injury 20 games of suspension your gains in 2023 were pami solo from Newcastle and Danny Levi from huttersfield your losses in 2023 Josh Hodson to pamama Adam Elliot to Newcastle and chares niichel clad to the Warriors wonder if Raiders fans are rethinking that one crucial moment for the Raiders I would say was the injury to Xavier Savage I was questioning the positional switch of Seb Chris but he really did a job he improved significantly in the fullback position he seemed to need a few games to get his head around the transition but he developed extremely well this year the win against the Broncos in round six really platformed the Raiders onto their season up until that point they really weren't doing much and needed a bit to figure figure out what was going on only a single win up to that point then five wins in a row and a buy really kind of solidified your position in the top eight the selection and not of Jared kroer really impacted your season as well but Jared started the season like he finished it not in the side your positional switch you didn't go anywhere eighth in 2022 8th in 2023 overall I have to say I was really impressed with the Raiders just you had this hot highflying fullback that you're going to put in you invested everything in him you let chars go uh that to me was a mistake I said that well before the season kicked off but Xavier Savage was starting to show a bit of promising signs towards the end of last year then don't know what happened after the injury he returned he returned in the center or on the wing can't remember which one didn't really impress a number of people and Seb Chris retained his spot up until his suspension and then Jordan Rena took over for him uh maybe it was the injury to Seb Chris first and then the suspension either way it was an interesting Shuffle with Xavier Savage pretty much playing Reserve grade the whole year when he was fit the reality for the Raiders is you won the games you needed to win you got in the top eight and honestly that game in Newcastle that was pretty impressive just the way you went about your business you absolutely refused to give in to the crowd and that would be pretty intimidating at McDonald Jones Stadium going up against it so bit unfortunate how your season ended but you didn't do enough and even though there was a lot of bright moments in that Newcastle game the rest of the season I would say really just kind of a platformed you into that match you did like I said exactly what you needed to do when you needed to get wins against sides that you should have but just not enough spark I suppose you could call it uh question mark over the shifting of whon towards the end and didn't exactly work for you Jordan Roa doing enough uh annoying the crap out of me on a number of occasions but pretty impressive for your squad Cory horbor really stepped up this season I think his suspension really hurt any chance you had uh going into the finals and continuing on there he's been absolutely amazing for you all year long the question I have for the Raiders primarily I'll touch base in the season previews because I just wonder how you're going to go about business next season trying to lock in in the halves in your fullback spot your forward pack seems to be pretty solid and a lot of depth there which is great Ricky Stewart's supposedly turned down the New South Wales coaching job because he wants to focus on camra which I think is great shows a lot of commitment from Ricky Stewart but your assistant coach at this stage anyway will be doing both assistant coach for the Raiders as well as the coach of the new southwest Blu and he's currently in international camps with the New Zealand side again get to that a bit more in the season previews but I just want to say that I rate the camber Raiders season 2023 as a win yes you didn't go up higher on the ladder than you were last year but you didn't drop either and a number of teams can't say that I think that just the grittiness and determination that your team has showing it on the field for most of the year that was fantastic I really wasn't a fan that Jared kroker was not in the side very often but he was at the end of his career he did make that Milestone game and get the job done I really am curious as to if he's going to follow campy do similar things like showing up for his feeder Club side uh Cy went and played in Queen Bean for a number of years after his official NRL retirement but maybe Jared does the same maybe he sits back and enjoys retirement and not having to worry about what injuries he's battling who knows we'll wait and see there I know I've said it a few times now but I really was extremely impressed with the camber Raiders and what they were able to put together in 2023 number of questions over what's going to happen with your squad moving forward but extremely impressed and Raiders fans you should be proud of where you ended up and what you you handed to Newcastle at McDonald Jones Stadium was fantastic not the result you would have wanted and I get that but the the performance overall just amazing in that game that is the camber Raiders we move on to the Sydney roosters The Roosters Sydney Roosters Season Review final ladder position was seventh their average ladder position was 10th their highest ladder position this season was third lowest ladder position 15th their completion rate was the worst in the competition at 17th their errors they were first their penalties they were first now both errors and penalties it's bad to be first in the competition so you had the worst completion rate the worst errors and the worst or highest penalties conceded out of the entire competition and you still made seventh average points conceded 21 average points scored you had 20 total wins 13 total losses 11 your biggest win was a 24o victory against the Rabbid o your biggest loss was by 44 points to the penth Panthers your average winning margin was 11 average losing margin was 15 you had three season ending injuries and 16 games of suspension across your side gains for 2023 you picked up Brandon Smith from the storm Jackson bollo from the rabitos Jake Turpin from Brisbane Cory Allen from the Bulldogs your losses for 2023 teaho Wentz catalans Adam kran Wentz catalans Kevin Nama went to huttersfield Giants Sam vers went to the Gold Coast The crucial moment for 2023 for the Sydney roosters in my opinion is not living up to the strength of your your roster on paper you looked like you were going to be the absolutely best team in the competition this season and you never even looked it never even looked close positional change you were sixth in 2022 you fell to seventh in 2023 now I know a lot of listeners probably read between the lines and may have some thought or belief that I'm not a fan of the Sydney roosters I don't know why you'd think that I'm pretty sure I haven't Point Blank said that but maybe I did uh overall though for Roosters fans I think if you believe your season was a loss you were judging too harshly I would say you didn't do great for a lot of the year and similar to 2018 you pretty much sat in the middle of the pack for for majority of the season but when it came to crunch time and you had to win every single game in order to get in the finals you did that your average ladder position for the year was 10th you finished in seventh place now it's not quite the turnaround that Newcastle had I'll give that you didn't get out of Brandon Smith what I believe you should have I know that there was some injury concerns there it wasn't the greatest I suppose uh full season from Brandon Smith because he didn't have that I just don't think that you used him effectively and I also saw a little bit of a drop in his performance uh a majority of the times he was on the field again that could be due to the injuries he was sustaining during the year and possibly playing through each game but I just really was amazed with the side you have on paper and the absolutely nothing you did with it I still believe as I've said previously this season that Luke Keri is not the way to go you had Sam Walker in out in again no idea what was happening there Drew Hutchinson was a lifesaver for your squad absolutely annihilated opposition teams regardless of the position you put him in when you had him on the field and you got the job done when you needed to I do not like admitting that that impressed me but it really did to be able to come out after really not firing a shot and still make it into the top eight by season's end that was really well done when James tadesco is a question mark over origin Captain see a lot of people thinking he's lost it or whatever he comes out and tries to prove a point and on the international stage I he seems to have kind of found a spark maybe I don't know I'm not sure what goes on from here what happens next season when it comes to blues and representative football but James sedesco definitely needed a spark given the Fall From Grace I guess you could call it that he's had in the past couple of Seasons he doesn't have to carry the whole team but a lot of decision making this year was not the right call trying to carry the team carry the ball and just ultimately try to do too much I think that kind of hurt your side you really couldn't figure out what was going on with Manu there were certain games during this season the Raiders game comes to mind where Manu basically won that game for you that's the type of guy that can take all of that weight on his shoulders tadesco Once Upon a Time might have been that dude but he is not anymore and he needs to figure that out use your support Runners stop trying to take up the ball every time maybe you'll get a few wins on the board doing that way again Luke Keri just he did the job he did what he needed to do uh reviewing his stats he doesn't look too poor overall for his season but I just don't think he's really what is going to get you where you need to be it is going to be tough for Roosters fans to try and swallow this given that you had your back-to-back victories for Grand finals living top of the world doing amazing things and Cooper Kon leaves I think it makes Cooper Kon look a hell a lot better than he really is don't get me wrong he was a hell of a player but he should have stayed in a purple jersey and he does have that sort of impact on your squad I don't think it should show nearly as much as this but the reality is since he left you've kind of been finding scap goats on who is the reason why you're not making it into the finals or continuing on Beyond week one week week two of the finals I felt that you absolutely punished a young halfback that wasn't to blame I think you did it again this year where you dropped Sam Walker and that resulted in no change for you whatsoever I get that Trent Robinson is a very respected coach and with reason he's done amazing things for your club and got you those back-to-back premierships but he seems to be putting the blame in the wrong people's hands time and time again Tesco came out to Media don't know if he was just blowing smoke or actually admitting that the senior playing group they weren't leading from the front they weren't doing what needed to be done and the result was lack of effort cross your team conceding on average 21 points per game is never going to get you a Premiership so that's something that's definitely going to need a bit of work on that defensive side which is curious given that Robinson tends to be a defensiv minded coach the airs not really surprising that you're first and errors that tended to be kind of where you sat in previous Seasons you conceded the most penalties you had the most errs your completion rate was never crash hot but you had the strike power so it didn't matter you could give away penalties you could drop the ball but the reason you're dropping the ball is because you're trying some amazing plays that more often than not would work out you're not really hitting that spark anymore and that is coming back to bite you a bit I think moving forward uh and again season reviews or Not Season previews but moving forward you still have the roster to do it you've picked up some decent recruits for next year and you really haven't lost any impact players so it'll be interesting to see how you go in 2024 but for 202 23 again roosters fans you might count this as a loss because you have this belief and you should every team should have this backing and belief in their team that they should be in the top eight top four premier of the Season keep that attitude because that winning attitude will pay off at some point but I still think the roosters 2023 season was a win because you weren't in the top eight for a majority of the year and you made it by the end so you did enough to get in you did enough to get through sort of hopefully fingers cross next year you can actually put it together at least for you fans uh for me I would be more than happy for the roosters to take wooden spoon next year but that's just me and that is the NRL 2023 season reviews of the eels rabitos Raiders and roosters I will be back with the final six team NRL 2023 season reviews this is the Tank tank podcast thank you as always for listening