What a weekend that was. Every single game was alive deep into the contest, and along with Origin on Wednesday, key injuries and a battle beating up to avoid the spoon, there is plenty to discuss in this week’s NRL talking points.

Jarryd Hayne scores two tries, but it shouldn’t save him from the Origin cull
Let’s face it, Hayne was rocks and diamonds on Wednesday night. Facing the Tigers 48 hours later, he was better than solid scoring two tries and for the most part, taking good options.

However, it shouldn’t save Hayne’s spot for Game 3 of the Origin series, and nor will it be enough to rescue the Titans precarious season.

While the Titans beat the Tigers, it was far from a convincing victory and they still need to win seven from nine. Unfortunately for fans on the Coast, Hayne being superb is going to be anything but enough for them to make the finals.

But, back to the Origin arena.

No matter what Hayne does between Game 2 and 3, he isn’t in my Blues best 17 for Game 3 of the series. His defensive positioning (as has been pointed out by keen observers a number of times) is simply not good enough to be a high level centre, and he still at times appears to play with an attitude suggesting it’s all about him.

With Jack Bird being poorly utilised from the bench for the Blues, it’s time to bring him into the starting side and add another versatile forward to the bench who could run over the Maroons pack during the second half.

The Tigers are well on the way to a spoon
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the Tigers are the worst team in the competition at the moment. At least the Knights look like they might win, and are working hard.

The Tigers, on the other hand, are insipid. They are putting next to no effort on defence, look lost in attack and getting beaten convincingly more often than not.

Sure, it’s not a great surprise given their change of coach and contract speculation, but even with all that sorted and new players signed for next year, marking a clear sign of battle for positions in Ivan Cleary’s 2018 team, the side continue to play bad football.

It’s not even ordinary, or hard working. It’s just plain bad and the Tigers are well on the way to a wooden spoon.

Even with the Knights losing on the weekend, the Tigers stay planted to the bottom of the table. The Tigers do have a bye up their sleeve, but even that may not help them.

If the Knights win one more game, it’s likely to leave the sides on equal points and battling it out on for and against, because right now the chance of the Tigers winning another game this season appears slim.

How did Josh Jackson win man of the match in Game 2?
I don’t usually use this space to harp on about Origin more than I have to, but there’s another important point to come out of the game that we have to address.

Josh Jackson, who ended with 26 tackles and not even 80 running metres was named man of the match for the Blues, in a losing side.

Now I understand the Blues were the better team for most of the contest, and probably should have won but there were more deserving New South Wales players for man of the match.

I don’t want to say Jackson played poorly, because it was anything but. He worked hard all game, barely made a bad option at either end of the park and did everything full speed ahead with 100 per cent effort – something that can’t be said for many others.

But to call him best player on the park is a bit over the top. Dane Gagai at a bare minimum was ahead of Jackson, but to say James Tedesco, Josh Dugan, Nathan Peats and even second-row partner Boyd Cordner had worse games than Jackson indicates the award was picked 20 minutes from full time.

[latest_videos_strip]

Will the Cowboys make the finals without Johnathan Thurston?
It’s now the million dollar question for the Townsville faithful. How will the Cowboys cope without Johnathan Thurston for the rest of the season?

On paper, they should do just fine. Michael Morgan, Jake Granville and Lachlan Coote leading the side around the park with Jason Taumalolo doing the damage up front is not a bad option in anyone’s book.

But how much better does Thurston make them look is the real question? The Cowboys have already struggled at times without Thurston on the park this year, and there’s no question his competitive drive and will to win spurs other players around him on.

While we know that’s the case, it’s up to Morgan, Coote and Granville to stand up. With all three on the park, they have the creative juices to lead the team to glory, but the way things went down against the Panthers will leave their coaching staff concerned.

Granville appears to be the key from dummy half and for that reason may need to pick up his minutes as the season draws on, but they only just scraped past Penrith and should have done it with flying colours.

Pressure on in Townsville. Whether they make the eight is anyone’s guess, but right now they should still be confident of a lower top eight finish. The next few weeks will be telling.

The Bulldogs need to rebuild from the ground up
This point isn’t being written simply because the Bulldogs lost to the Warriors. It’s been a season of ups and downs for the Bulldogs, but one with more downs than ups.

The fact of the matter is the Bulldogs are simply not performing. On paper, this is a top eight team. In reality, they are sitting 12th with a record of six and nine.

Simply put, that’s not good enough in anyone’s book.

Canterbury need to look ahead, and while Des Hasler has re-signed so we know that won’t change despite it probably needing to, the Bulldogs rebuild must be swift and wide sweeping.

James Graham needs to go, and while the Bulldogs are going to lose forwards with Aaron Woods arriving, Graham’s performances have been up and down. Despite the effort you know he will bring every week, if the Bulldogs are going to change their style, then it’s going to start with Graham and the spine.

Michael Lichaa has provided them with nothing at dummy half this year, and there is a school of thought that says Craig Garvey is the man, while the loss of Josh Reynolds next year is a tough one for the club.

That becomes even more so the case when they have retained Moses Mbye, who appears to be in two minds about which option to take more often than not, resulting in plenty of wrong ones.

Will Hopoate is maybe the only player in the Bulldogs spine who should be staying on with a spot unquestionable.

That might be just a few options, but the Bulldogs have plenty to work on in 2018 if they are going to return to the business end of the ladder.

The Dragons letting Josh Dugan go is dumb, dumber and dumbest
Seriously, what was Ian Millward and his staff thinking? Josh Dugan has signed with the Sharks next season, and he won’t play fullback there but he damn sure would have at the Dragons.

But because Millward couldn’t see that, he has lost a superstar.

I wonder if he can see that now. Another starring performance from the New South Wales and Australian representative brought the Dragons back from the dead against the Knights on Sunday.

A staggering 256 metres from just 17 runs when backing up from a brutal Origin contest negates any lack of ball playing he might have while there is also no question he is among the best defensive fullbacks in the competition.

No matter who they have coming through the ranks, Dugan is close to unreplaceable.

Mitchell Pearce simply isn’t a big game player, no matter how many moments he makes
I have no problem with Mitchell Pearce as a club player. He does a fantastic job for the Roosters in games that won’t be remembered in five years time, and while he was anything but consistently brilliant against the dogged Melbourne Storm, he finished the game with a bang.

Kicking another field goal, he has shown just how ice cool he can be at the back end of big games this season, slotting his third field goal to win games for the Roosters this season, with earlier ones against the Dragons on Anzac Day and the Warriors away from home just a week later.

Unfortunately for the Roosters half, the same can’t be said about his pedigree when the big lights are on at Origin. It’s time to accept this is never going to come to fruition for Pearce, after he faded badly in the second half of Game 2.

His game management was woeful, and at times it comes out for the Roosters. He is simply not a big-game player. As tough as it is for Roosters fans to admit, he buckles under pressure and it’s time for even the most one-eyed to realise it.

Pearce is solid. Just not when the pressure’s on.

If the Panthers can’t beat the Cowboys, their finals hopes are in strife
The Panthers looked like they were on a roll. They had finally started to turn things around, winning three straight including a 38-0 thumping of Canterbury and a victory over the Raiders at the death.

Mitch Rein was doing everything right filling in for Peter Wallace, Dylan Edwards was providing at the back, moving Matt Moylan to the halves looked like a masterstroke and Josh Mansour being back on the paddock provided them with an X-Factor they hadn’t seen all season.

But that all came crashing to the ground in the second 40 against a determined and desperate Cowboys outfit. After a strong start, Penrith faded in the second half and it continues a worrying trend of not being able to play 80 minutes.

If coach Anthony Griffin can’t fix it, the Panthers in short have zero chance of playing finals footy. They must play the whole 80 on a consistent basis.

While they defended well against the Cowboys, every team in this competition can defend well and the Panthers aren’t in the top echelon alongside the Sharks and Storm.

Their attack sets them apart, but that disintegrated in the last half hour against the Cowboys. They haven’t performed well against the stronger sides this season, and their finals hopes are dangling, despite currently sitting in eighth.

They have towelled up lower ranked opposition, but at the end of the day this competition is so close if they can’t pick up wins against teams ahead of them it’s going to be a lost cause.

David Fusitu’a and Ken Maumalo have serious potential as a combination
Think Jordan Rapana and Joseph Leilua in Canberra, but potentially stronger. Both Fusitu’a and Maumalo have serious skill to burn for the Warriors and their combination has the strength to be deadly.

It might rely on combinations inside of them (namely that of Roger Tuivasa Sheck, Kieran Foran and Shaun Johnson) getting things consistently right, but if they are given early ball in the set and room to work with, it’s going to put edge defenders on notice across the rest of the competition.

Fusitu’a has always been impressive running the ball which he always does with maximum effort at full steam ahead, while Maumalo has come on in leaps and bounds as a player in the last 18 months.

If they can get a combination going on the same side of the field, it will resemble that of the Raiders duo who are so dominant. Both possess speed and strength by the tonne, and it should allow them to run through opposition defences.

[latest_videos_strip category=”rugby-league” name=”League”]

The Knights show their class
They might have lost, but it was a classy performance from the Knights. Their defence might have failed them in the second half as a desperate Dragons outfit got over the line to halt a slide down the table, but Newcastle were brilliant at the back end of the first half.

It’s glimpses into the future for the bruised and battered Newcastle fans. They have watched their team struggle to get competitive and battle for victory, but they so nearly had their third at Kogarah.

The 20 minutes leading into halftime shows their fans exactly what’s to come in the future. Brock Lamb will lead the charge, and while Trent Hodkinson’s future is unclear, this is a young side who will be dangerous. Nathan Ross is lethal on the wing, Danny Levi explosive out of dummy half and with the Saifiti brothers leading the club, they are building towards a long-term goal.

It might not come in the next two years, but watch out for this Newcastle team in half a decade. They are going to be right up there.

For now, it’s all about getting a third victory and avoiding the spoon.

The Storm are so far ahead, it’s not even funny
For 70 minutes, without their Origin players, the Storm dominated a Roosters team who might have been without Boyd Cordner but were otherwise at full strength in Adelaide on Saturday.

Craig Bellamy is a genius. How he gets that side to stay strong during the finals, continuing to build their game off the incredible defence is amazing. Just because there’s no Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith – three of the greatest to ever lace up a boot – it doesn’t mean the Storm go away from what works for them.

They back their ability and go for it. While the result didn’t end favourable, they will have learnt a lot from the performance and how things ended, and it’s clear they are so far ahead of the rest of the competition, anyone putting money on anyone else for the premiership would be called crazy.

Their depth is outstanding, their skill at the top of the tree and their resolve to defend and stick to what works unbreakable.

Good luck stopping them in September.

100 tries for Jason Nightingale
It’s a minor point given how the Dragons played (despite their win), but it’s worth some credit nonetheless. Dragons winger Nightingale went past 100 career tries against the Knights, and boy does he deserve it.

He has been a club stalwart at the Red V. He played in the 2010 premiership team and has represented the Kiwis on plenty of occasions, but 100 career tries brought up with a double has a particular ring to it.

He may not have many more years left in the legs, but the Dragons would be daft to think anyone can do a more reliable job than Nightingale. He finishes tries well and positionally is one of the best defensive wingers in the competition, particularly under the high ball.

Roarers, what did you make of Round 16? Drop a comment and let us know.