Pool One starts early.
8am.
8.30am.
That’s all it takes for a slow start to turn into a one-way ticket to the Shield Division. These four teams are good. Pool One will still swallow two of them.
The Nines rewards fast starters. Teams that execute. Teams that treat the format with professionalism. On paper, pitting last year’s Grand Finalists in the same pool as Reborn looks like a scheduling joke. The real punchline comes on Sunday, when at least one of them will be fighting off relegation.
That’s the Premier League.
Photo: Bailey Sands
The Dawgs have lost once across two full Nines campaigns. It came in the 2024 Grand Final, when the Southern Sharks shut them out 24–0 and exposed one thing this format doesn’t forgive: lack of depth.
They didn’t argue the lesson. They soaked it in. Twelve months later, with a full squad in tow, the Dawgs were premiers.
Look a little closer and the common thread is obvious. Including his 2023 premiership with the Southern Sharks, Jacek McLaurin’s Nines record sits at 17–1. That’s not just dominance. That’s a margin most teams never get to test.
The Dawgs have controlled pool stages both years. But context matters. Those pools were among the weakest in the competition, and this time the margin comes with questions attached. Both McLaurin brothers are carrying injury clouds, and Pool One won’t offer the luxury of easing into the weekend.
Photo: Bailey Sands
The Salty Pigs have gone back-to-back as champions of the merch tent. On the field, the breakthrough has been harder to find. A quarterfinal exit in 2024 and a grand final loss in 2025, both at the hands of the Dawgs.
What the last tournament did show was resilience. Four wins decided by two points or fewer, the kind of margins that suggest a team comfortable living in tight games, and occasionally flirting with the edge.
Ben Thomas has carried the big-man role, chewing up metres with every run. But without the size of some other squads, the Pigs tend to manufacture their own physicality. That edge has earned them metres and attention. In this format, penalties and send-offs don’t just hurt. They shorten weekends.
Photo: Bailey Sands
Reborn treats the Nines like something you grow into. This pool won’t allow that.
When it lands on the field, the talent is obvious. Brad Takairangi has always stacked his sides with former professional experience. What’s never been part of Reborn’s formula is knowing exactly who that squad is a month out from kick-off.
Born out of an Athletic Hub in Sydney, they arrive big, strong, and fast, looking like they were built in a lab. When it clicks, they can overwhelm teams early. The problem is that this competition rarely gives you time to wait for it to click.
Reborn is built for success later in the weekend. Pool One won’t reward teams that need time to gel.
Photo: Bailey Sands
Indigenous Mana played the Brisbane Qualifier like a team that didn’t care who was in front of them. They ran hard, hit harder, and looked like they could have kept doing it on Monday.
The step up will be real, but so will the pressure they apply early. Cory McGrady gives them a creative edge by hand and by foot, and if that carries into Pool One, they’re the kind of team that can turn a slow start into a problem very quickly.
This pool punishes hesitation. Indigenous Mana won’t hesitate.
Pool One won’t be decided by who looks best on paper.
It will be decided by who’s ready at 8am on Saturday.
And who isn’t.
Teams. Stories. Opinion. 