NRL kicks off with players still the currencies that matter most

A controversial new rule change for the 2022 NRL season now allows illegal shoulder charges and crusher tackles to be punished with fines, not suspensions, while points-loading against repeat offenders has been scrapped. The decision has been slammed “as a step backward” by the Rugby League Players Association, but for the league it provides a reliable source of revenue.

Perhaps the reverse stagger is the NRL’s pockets heaving with the $20m in betting taxes it hopes to loot from newly legalised betting markets in the United States. The NRL wants Americans punting on league and ARLC chair Peter V’landys has hinted at plans to take an NRL game to North America in 2023 to secure a further revenue boost.

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Yet for true league fans the players are the currencies that matter most and they are about to roll the dice on a fresh batch of cattle and coaches. For fans, pre-season form means nothing, round one results mean everything. The opening 80 minutes of your team’s season is a crucial glimpse of the season to come, the tentative first peel of skin from an onion that either whets your appetite for the feast to come or brings tears to your eyes.

Penrith fans will be patting their belly and smacking their lips. Their local juniors are caramelising on the hot plate of NRL with delicious results. Even without their talismanic leader Nathan Cleary the premiers walloped Manly. Playing with the vim of cheeky kids in a pickup park game, the Panthers taught Tom Trbojevic how hard it is for an eagle to fly with four markers, a Dally M medal and the weight of Brookvale around his neck.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart often wears an expression like a bulldog eating a wasp.