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Carayannis' Crystal Ball: The big headlines for the Knights, Sea Eagles, Bulldogs and Cowboys
Charles Goodsir, SEN • February 6th, 2025 12:41 pm
The 2025 NRL season begins in under a month with the double header season opener at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Ahead of the season getting underway, The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis has looked into his crystal ball and forecast the big headline for every team in 2025.
Newcastle Knights
“Kalyn Ponga will once again brush the Kangaroos,” Carayannis said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“The big thing is that he still wants to play for Queensland. I don’t think we will ever see him play for the Kiwis.
“It will be an interesting discussion if he doesn’t put his hand up for the Kangaroos, whether he will play in State of Origin.”
Manly Sea Eagles
“I think you will see a reduction in minutes for Jake Trbojevic this year.
“With the emergence of a few players, I think we’ll see, particularly towards the back end of the year, Jake play around that 50-60 minutes mark for the first time in his career.
“We typically see him churn out 70 minutes. It won’t be sub 40 minutes but he won’t play those 80 minute games like we’ve seen him do.
“It will be tough (for him to retain NSW captaincy). I think he will struggle which means NSW will looking for another captain again.”
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
“There will be another big name player who will join the Bulldogs.
“They’ve shown their hand by looking to sign Ryan Papenhuyzen and they have signed Leo Thompson but the spending spree is not over.
“They will look to sign another marquee player. It will be a contracted player because if you look at the players off-contract, there isn’t a lot there on the open market.
“The Bulldogs are sitting pretty at the moment and I think they will land another big scalp.”
North Queensland Cowboys
“Jason Taumalolo will announce his retirement.
“He has that knee issue and whether it’s the end of 2025 or he announces that 2026 will be his last year, (he’s done).
“He’s contracted until the end of 2027 and I don’t know if he is going to see it through.
“I have the Cowboys in my top eight but the injury to Heilum Luki hurts. That made John Bateman’s signing that much more important.
“I’ve got high hopes for Tom Dearden this year. We talk about where Mitch Moses could go but I think Tom Dearden is not too far behind.”
