NRL Odds: Historic Kiwi Season Opener
December 18th, 2014 by TJ Dilfer2015 is set to be an historic year. We know this for certain. It might be historic for other reasons as well – some of them might even be on the pitch – but it will definitely go into the history books as the first year to feature a season launch in New Zealand. It’s all part of the NRL’s plan to pull the Kiwis into the mix as much as possible, and we’re all for it, even if it doesn’t seem to have had a huge impact on the NRL odds, suggesting that it will be business as usual for all the franchises once the curtain-raiser is out of the way.
And the chance to get more fans in New Zealand involved in and enjoying NRL games is all well and good. It makes good sense, too, to have the season launch at a time when all the teams are in the same place: the launch will take place at the same time as the Auckland Nines, which means it’ll be at about the same time we get our first serious look at some of the players who could be key to the 2015 season as it develops, and at the teams who’ll be making the early running.
The season launch hasn’t likely been the topic of discussion at many of the franchises – they see it, no doubt, as just another stop on the promotion trail for the NRL. Instead, they will have been scrutinising the freshly-minted fixtures list to see which groups of games will be the key ones for them, which will be the tough months on the road. Because if the spotlight on New Zealand for the 2015 curtain-raiser highlights one aspect of the NRL and its Tasman-spanning geography it’s that the franchises will clock up a decent number of air-miles over the season (most notably the Warriors). Elsewhere in these pages we’ve already mentioned a feeling amongst the clubs that the season is simply too long to expect players to come through it unscathed, and we’ll be taking a closer look at the Warriors and their chances in 2015 at some point over the next few weeks. In the meantime, we’re not sure that the location of the 2015 season launch will factor into your calculations when you’re looking at the NRL odds for the coming season, but you might want to have a good look at the futures for the Auckland Nines that happen in the same week…
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