The Golden Four + Honourable Mentions

[radiowave82]

OK guys,

I've done the research for this on wikipedia, so my disclaimer is I don't know if there are any mistakes in the yearly ladders.

I've been looking at teams which have played finals since the year 2012, which was the the first year after the last time the Wests Tigers made the finals (which is the one we really care about right?).

THE GOLDEN FOUR - Played Finals Every Year

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs: 2012 - 1st, 2013 - 6th, 2014 - 7th, 2015 - 5th
Melbourne Storm: 2012 - 2nd, 2013 - 3rd, 2014 - 6th, 2015 - 4th
North Queensland Cowboys: 2012 - 5th, 2013 - 8th, 2014 - 5th, 2015 - 3rd
South Sydney Rabbitohs: 2012 - 3rd, 2013 - 2nd, 2014 - 3rd, 2015 - 7th

HONOURABLE MENTIONS - 3 Out Of 4 Ain't Bad!

Brisbane Broncos: 2012 - 8th, 2014 - 8th, 2015 - 2nd
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles: 2012 - 4th, 2013 - 4th, 2014 - 2nd
Sydney Roosters: 2013 - 1st, 2014 - 1st, 2015 - 1st
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks: 2012 - 7th, 2013 - 5th, 2015 - 6th

So in a competition of 16 teams where 8 teams play finals each year, a pool of 8 teams have pretty much booked a place in the business end of the season four years straight. In any given year 7 of the 8 teams mentioned above would be the ones playing finals football.

I'm pretty sure if you talked to the fans of these clubs they wouldn't think the current situation regarding the salary cap and third party agreements needs change. It's probably like fans of clubs who made it through the super league war unscathed - we're sitting pretty, so what's the big deal?

P.S. In case you're wondering who the lucky teams which snared a spot outside this group were, they are 2012 - Canberra Raiders (6th), 2013 - Newcastle Knights (7th), 2014 - Penrith Panthers (4th), 2015 - St. George Illawarra Dragons (8th)

 

[Goose]

Does making a damning argument against the evenness of the comp.

INterestingly enough, in the decade before that, on average 4 of the 8 teams made semis the following season. The comp as just got a whole lot less even.

 

[Tigerdave]

Interesting and yeah, the comp clearly not all that even.

Although this year was the best year in a while for the bottom teams.

 

[jirskyr]

Good post radiowave!

Whilst the actual premiership has been traded around quite evenly since 2000, I agree that the Top 8 isn't quite the same. That's not to say that the comp isn't somewhat even, that 1st and 16th can still be quite close in terms of ability, but you do see the same teams at the business-end.

Personally I think this has a lot to do with the very fine line between elite and middle performance. On any given day, any team can beat another, but across 24 days and 2 byes, you see patterns. Those patterns generally belong to the stable-rostered, well-funded, well-coached clubs.

 

[jirskyr]

I did an analysis earlier in the year of table position, updated with this year's Top 8 results, since 2005.

As noted, there are some teams that continually dominate the Top 8, but even more true is Top 4 and Top 2.

You look at Melbourne, they have been minor premiers on more than 1/3 of their campaigns, which is crazy. They and the Roosters have almost 2/3 of the MP results. Melbourne achieve Top 4 on almost 3/4 of their campaigns.

Overall WT cluster around 9th-11th.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Very good thread. Seems to be a distinct separation between the contenders and pretenders. Now that Cronulla have got their house in order with their development, you could argue that outside of Manly the remainder of the 8 regulars in the finals are well run, professional organisations. Meanwhile you have serial basket cases like Gold Coast, Wests, Parra, Penrith & Newcastle routinely missing the finals (given Penrith have turned their fortunes around in recent years in the front office, they're still patchy on the pitch for various reasons.

 

[sheer64]

Take away TPAs and lets see the difference.

 

[westTAHger]

Take away TPAs and lets see the difference.

I agree, and have **proper ruthless enforcement** of the salary cap. :bulb:
Yes, I know that dreams are free. :unamused:

 

[GoldXR50Leroy]

Level playing field my Ass, there must be some very creative accountants out there for 'some' clubs to fit so many players into the salary cap, while disregarding the obvious one's how do Manly find room for Marty Tapau and Parramatta hoping that the Hayne Planes Jets back into the Eels with open arms and finding that they have room in their cap, does letting Paulo go suddenly make room for Hayne?.