Off to a flyer: Unlocking the secrets to Round 1 success

The 2024 NRL season is off to a flying start with the four teams in Las Vegas putting on a show for fans old and new.

No team is ever perfect in March, but the overall quality on display far exceeded that of typical Round 1 games as the Roosters and Sea Eagles broke patterns of previous seasons to hit the ground running as underdogs.

The Roosters have become known as slow starters and while they’ve not been worse than 3-2 after Round 5 in any of the four seasons since winning the 2019 premiership, it has become a hurdle pundits have regularly asked them to overcome.

Overcome it they did in Round 1.

Up against 2023 grand finalists Brisbane, expected to be one of the best teams in the NRL this year, the Tricolours played a brand we rarely see from them.

The Roosters have made the most errors in the competition over the last four seasons at 13.4 per game. They play a high-risk, high-reward style that hinges on the last pass other teams might hold, finding a teammate. 

It serves its purpose for the Roosters to feature consistently in the finals. However, with combinations developing and rust wearing off, their propensity for throwing the speculator has translated into sluggish starts to the season at times, even as they pick up more wins than losses. 

But against the Broncos, the Roosters cut out the errors to turn the ball over only eight times and upgraded their Round 1 attack in the process.

They won the possession count, made more metres than the Broncos, and turned their extra four minutes with the ball in hand into four line breaks to Brisbane’s one.

Fittingly, the game-sealing line break and try came directly after one of Brisbane’s 15 errors for the game as they turned the ball over in dangerous field position.

Roosters winger Fetalaiga Pauga crabs to the middle of the field to split the Broncos defence with five players on either side of the ruck.

Notably, Jordan Riki is involved in the tackle. While not involved in the second tackle as Luke Keary drops Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii back underneath, Riki is tight at A on the third as Adam Reynolds flips him late, effectively leaving the Broncos with six on the long side. 

Unable to apply inside pressure on Sam Walker to force an earlier pass, the Roosters halfback is allowed to bounce out and use Lindsay Collins as a lead to engage Patrick Carrigan as the four-in defender. 

As James Tedesco sweeps around and outside Carrigan, Ezra Mam waits for his inside to cover for as long as he can before attempting an off–balance tackle. Tedesco breaks through it with relative ease, and Victor Radley ends up under the posts.

It’s a well-constructed and low-risk play on the back of an opposition error, which isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when considering the early-season Roosters.

Trent Robinson’s side has managed fewer than eight errors in a game just once since Round 6 in 2020.

There is every chance that we look back at this game as an outlier within another high-error season. Nonetheless, it proved a recipe for success in this one and is something to keep an eye on as the Roosters look to shed the ‘slow starter’ tag in 2024.

Earlier in the night, the Sea Eagles made it back-to-back Round 1 wins with their 36-24 victory over the Rabbitohs. They’d lost nine season-openers in a row before 2023. 

Much was made of the smaller Las Vegas field in the lead-up and as a wide-ranging team that likes to shift the ball to the edges, the Sea Eagles loomed as a one that might struggle with less room.

However, as Daly Cherry-Evans mentioned in the post-game press conference, it put more focus on the middle of the field.

“There was a fair bit of energy burnt through the middle of the field because it was so tight,” Cherry-Evans said.

They found a lot of success playing narrower between the tram lines before taking the space down the short side.

Haumole Olakau’atu led all forwards in both games with 184 running metres. Ben Trbojevic and Luke Brooks scored down the short side in the second half after Tom Trbojevic broke into the backfield following a short-side raid before half-time. 

Throughout the nine-game Round 1 losing streak prior to last season, the Sea Eagles never once managed more possession and yardage than their opposition. Only twice (both one-point defeats) did they win either category.

Whether it be by design, as a result of the narrow field, or a combination of both factors, the Sea Eagles didn’t appear to shift the ball from side to side quite so much in Vegas.

As a result, they dominated the middle of the field on both sides of the ball to win 52% possession while running for 1870 running metres - 227 more metres than the Rabbitohs. 

Cherry-Evans also mentioned playing “our football” and displaying “glimpses” of it on Sunday. Those glimpses were enough to put to bed their early-season struggles of the last decade.

While it’s only Round 1 and trends and systems will develop in the coming weeks, it looks as though the Sea Eagles have upgraded their attack to be more versatile and threatening across the field.

Looking ahead to the second instalment of Round 1, the Melbourne Storm take on the three-time premiership-winning Panthers with their 22-year streak on the line.

The best-prepared Round 1 club in NRL history takes on the most well-drilled and consistent of the last four years. Melbourne hasn’t lost in Round 1 since 2001. Craig Bellamy has never tasted defeat in the opening round. However, this will be his toughest test.

Cohesion and consistency are a major part of early-season success.

The Panthers are a cohesive unit in all the right places and have played within a consistent system since finishing as runners-up to the Storm in 2020.

Ivan Cleary’s side will look to compress the middle of the field, dominate in yardage, and patiently wait for the defensive line to crack or for the opposition to take risks they shouldn’t.

But if there is one factor that is always proven correct every year, it’s that defence wins premierships. Defence wins Round 1 games, too.

Consistently one of the best defensive teams in the NRL across a season, the Storm are dialled in from Round 1. They’ve conceded 20+ points only twice throughout the winning streak. They give up just 14.1 points per game.

Footy fans are looking for excitement to start the season, but this blockbuster shapes as one for the purists.

It’s a tactical battle between two of the greatest coaches in NRL history with each having a little bit longer to break down the opposition.

As most teams look to dust off a few cobwebs, Bellamy and Cleary will need to dig into their bag of tricks early on to claim victory in Round 1. 

In stark contrast to the Storm and Panthers, the Bulldogs again enter an NRL season full of expectation.

Every year, a list of recruits offers hope for the season ahead. However, across the first 10 rounds of the last five seasons, so 50 games, the Bulldogs have won just 11.

Matt Burton, Reed Mahoney and Viliame Kikau have all arrived and have been unable to drag the Bulldogs through the early rounds on their own. This year, Stephen Crichton is the headliner and also takes on the captaincy. 

We’ve not seen a lot of him in Bulldogs colours so far. He touched the ball only five times in his brief cameo in the second trial, four of which were yardage carries from deep in his own end.

But one action may have offered a glimpse of what is to come for Crichton in the centres despite the assumption he had been signed as a fullback. 

In this clip, Burton has space in front of him to run. Give him his time over, and he probably makes the two-in defender his target before shifting the ball to Crichton. 

Crichton is another centre primed to take on a roaming role, but that will come later in the year. Until then, it looks as though the Bulldogs will play for him close to the line. Provide him with early ball and space to apply the skip and offload he did on this occasion.

Cameron Ciraldo and the Bulldogs need something to change. Already facing the struggles throughout the opening rounds in recent seasons, they head into Round 1 on a four-game losing streak and come up against a Parramatta Eels side that looks ready to fire on trial form.