The NRL season is underway and here are my predictions for who will finish in eighth and ninth positions. These two spots were the hardest to pick so far, as both look equally promising, despite having tough draws this season.

9. Brisbane Broncos

The Brisbane Broncos fans are still feeling the pain after choking and missing the finals in 2022. The Broncos were flying high after Round 19, sitting solidly in the top four, before unbelievably sinking into the bottom eight. They lost five out of their last six matches. Those losses included two defeats where they conceded more than 50 points.

No one really understood the reason for the collapse, Brisbane had simply nothing to show in attack and played nothing like they did in their mid-season seven game win streak. Adam Reynolds was the biggest signing by the Broncos in a while and he delivered in all the ways they had hoped he would. However, Reynolds did miss a handful of games, which had some asking whether he was worth what he was paid. Yet an argument can be made that he almost single-handily improved the Broncos.

Reece Walsh has controversially returned home to Brisbane and could be a perfect fullback for a side which looks to be on the rise. You could argue that Red Hill was lucky to secure Walsh, as a clause on his release from the Warriors was that he couldn’t sign with the Dolphins.

Brisbane has the toughest draw in the league, as they face top eight teams from 2022 a total of fourteen times. Drama around Kevin Walters renewed contract has been circling in recent days, with the clauses in Walters’ contract making it seem like they haven’t renewed anything. Walters may be in hot water if the Broncos are on the decline after the first six games or so.

The Broncos are a team with a lot of potential and any result besides a premiership wouldn’t be too surprising because as a die hard fan, I’ve learnt that you never really know what to expect. 

8. Manly Sea-Eagles

The Manly Sea Eagles are entering the 2023 season after a rollercoaster year. They were floating around the middle of the table all season and found themselves in the top eight as late as round eighteen, before dreadfully losing seven straight games to finish their season in eleventh position.

2022 turned sour for the Sea-Eagles. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Manly went from thrashing Melbourne in arguably the biggest boil over of the season, to being embarrassed in those nightmarish final seven matches.

Tom Trbojevic was injured and for the second time in three seasons. These heavy blows to Turbo keep happening and it really hurts them. Once Trbojevic returned in 2021, he was able to turn Manly’s season around single-handily and comfortably won the Dally-M Medal, despite missing a significant portion of the season.

Trbojevic returned in the round one match-up against Canterbury and Sea Eagles fans will be praying to the rugby league gods that their superstar fullback doesn’t suffer a major injury once again. Manly have the second hardest draw in the competition, however I will give them the edge over the Broncos, due to an easier finish

It was tough to split two teams who will win plenty of matches in 2023, however the tie-breaker was due to the easier schedule at the back-end of the season.