Only big three have a chance

Greg Prichard | March 10, 2008

MELBOURNE, Manly and Parramatta will be playing in their own competition and the remaining teams will be playing in another.

The most intriguing battle will be between the Sea Eagles and the Eels, to see who plays the Storm in the grand final. It is unusual in these days of the salary cap to see bookmakers put up such a clear premiership favourite, as they have done with Melbourne. But it makes sense. The club's management has held the team together pretty well, in the face of cap pressure. They lose several players from last year's premiership-winning side, but regain representative prop Antonio Kaufusi after he missed the second half of last season injured.

Manly may have been thrashed by Melbourne in last year's decider, but they were clearly the second best team over the course of the season. They will learn from that loss. The biggest test for them will be to handle the departure of hooker Michael Monaghan.

Parramatta were the team that troubled the Storm most towards the end of last season and it should be automatic that several of their biggest stars - Jarryd Hayne, Krisnan Inu and Feleti Mateo - will be even better, because they have played only 87 first-grade games between them and are still learning. If halfback Tim Smith has dealt with his off-field problems sufficiently well, even better.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy has proved he can get week-in, week-out consistency from his team. So has Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler. The Eels produced several inexplicably poor performances last season, which was the difference between them finishing the regular season in fifth place instead of third or fourth. Should they find that consistency this season, they will push for a top-two spot going into the finals.