Footy is finally here. We might be three weeks away from the real thing, but trials will give fans their first taste of action for the 2022 season, getting underway this weekend.
It all kicks off on Friday night with a pair of games at Leichhardt, and with every game televised live this year (unlike previous years) it’ll be easier than ever for fans to get answers about their stars, and to get a look at the young guns who will be running around.
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In the grand scheme of things, trials mean nothing to the season itself, but that doesn’t mean certain players won’t be treating the next fortnight as possibly the biggest of their lives with many clubs still confirming their list of top 30 contracted players and development lists for the season ahead.
Most teams have named enormous squads for the opening week of trials, which, in some ways, makes it difficult to know which way to look.
And while a majority of the players on display this weekend will be fringe first graders and youngsters who will be stars of the future, there will still be plenty of storylines that will impact first grade this season.
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Here are the storylines which will be worth following this weekend in our first instalment of The Set Restart for 2022.
7. Touch wood: The big stars who will have fans sweating
Week 1 of the pre-season usually sees coaches wrap their biggest stars in cotton wool.
But not this year. Some teams have stuck true to the method - the Rabbitohs, for example.
But with Tom Trbojevic, Reece Walsh, Kalyn Ponga, Daly Cherry-Evans and Reed Mahoney among the biggest names who will run onto the park this weekend, fans (and coaches) will be sweating bullets that they make it through unscathed.
Injuries in trials happen every year, and while they could happen on the training paddock, in Round 1, or during the warm-up (or sprinting up the Manly promenade), the merit of playing big names in trials will continue to be debated until the cows come home.
It's intriguing that the Rabbitohs have left Latrell Mitchell out despite the fact he will miss the opening two rounds of the season, and while every player needs a different amount of time to prepare, injuries could, unfortunately, be a key discussion point at the end of the weekend.
