It was a weekend headlined by controversy as Billy Slater almost had his head taken off, but Round 20 provided plenty of action as the top eight continues to work itself out. This is The Roar‘s NRL talking points.

What on Earth does it take to get sent off?
How did Sia Soliola not get sent off? No, let’s be serious for a second. I don’t think I’ve seen a malicous head high, swinging arm tackle like that this decade.

He fair dinkum took Billy Slater’s head off. Sure, Slater might have slipped a fraction, lowering him, but Soliola had so much time to pull out of the hit it wasn’t funny.

The Raiders forward left the arm out, connected with the head of Slater and that was the end of the Melbourne full-back’s night. So you can only imagine the surprise when the ruling came back as on report.

Since then, Tony Archer and other former players have come out and said he should have been sent off – there are almost no questions to be asked. But it runs far deeper than that.

For a sport struggling to expand it’s grassroots reach and trying to go global, an incident like that is going to make every parent, both here in Australia and right around the world question why they would let their child play rugby league. If you can clean hit someone like that and stay on the field, how does that implicate parents at a junior level to let their children play this sport?

Simply put, it doesn’t. Having a precedent set like that is a dangerous one. Next time there is a swinging arm at the head that is about a thousand years too late – does it let go as well?

It’s dumb, it’s silly and whoever made the decision to not send him off needs to be stood down immediately – I don’t that’s overstating it either.

And then there were 9
It’s not mathematically impossible yet, but it’s time to realistically whittle the finals contenders down to nine teams.

I came into this weekend thinking both the Raiders and Titans were a long shot at making it, while the Warriors were written off in last week’s column with the injury to Shaun Johnson.

The top six – being the Storm, Roosters, Broncos, Sharks, Cowboys and Sea Eagles look pretty assure of their place for mine, even taking into account the Sea Eagles thumping at the hands of the Dragons on Sunday.

The three teams in the race to finish seventh and eighth are the Eels, Dragons and Panthers.

Parramatta and the Dragons both notched up important wins on Sunday, while the Panthers beat the Titans on Saturday to maintain the status quo. With those three teams winning, it now makes it bordering on impossible for any team below ninth to make the cut.

But who takes those final two spots? The Eels are currently on 26 points, the Dragons 24 and the Panthers 22.

The Dragons and Panthers do have what can only be described as a soft run home though, so you’d have your money on them given the Eels inconsistent form.

Of course, form wise the Dragons haven’t been much better but they put Manly to the sword today and showed glimpses that they will get back to their best before the season’s over – if that’s the case they won’t miss the finals.

If they don’t though, the two western Sydney teams will take the final spots.

Luke Lewis makes 300 games
One of Rugby League’s genuine champions, Luke Lewis played his 300th career game on the weekend in the Sharks victory over the Rabbitohs, and there isn’t anyone more deserving than the back-rower.

Starting his career as a winger at Penrith in 2001, he has transformed himself and represented both the Blues (17 times) and Australia (16 times) at the highest level of the sport, turning into a back-rower.

Lewis is one of the most consistent players in the game, and there are no questions to be asked about his willingness to do what it takes.

He is a two-time premiership winner and of course, there was overcoming the cancer scare in 2012, around the time he defected from the Penrith Panthers to the Cronulla Sharks.

Lewis is a true hero of the sport and is in a very exclusive club to play 300 games. It’s an absolute credit to him, and reaching the milestone couldn’t happen to a better player.

Women’s Interstate Challenge being broadcast a big step towards a national league
As Mary Konstantopolous talked about in her women’s weekly sports wrap on Friday, the women’s Interstate Challenge between New South Wales and Queensland was the first women’s game broadcast live.

While the Jillaroos and Ferns (Australia and New Zealand women’s national teams) have had their last two matches broadcast on delay by the Nine Network, the live broadcast on Fox League this morning was a great step for the women’s game.

The Blues won the match as debutant Jessica Sergis scored a hat-trick. New South Wales only won the shield for the first time in 17 years 12 months ago and now have managed to defend their crown.

It was another high-quality game from all reports though and anyone who has watched the last two women’s Trans-Tasman Test matches will know women’s rugby league is on the rise.

With the full world cup set to be broadcast live later in the year, it’s a huge step for the women’s game which is showing absolutely no signs of relinquishing its momentum.

Could Matt Dufty be the next Billy Slater?
In last week’s column, I was singing the praises of Broncos youngster Jamayne Isaako. Now it’s time to switch attention to the Dragons fullback who was finally given an opportunity in first grade, Matt Dufty.

What a debut it was. A try, a pair of assists and he looked electric every time he has touched the ball. I’ve been vocal previously that he should be fitting into the Dragons team somewhere, and it’s hard not to be convinced after his effort in the 52-22 win against Manly.

It was a thumping of the highest order, and Dufty was a big part of the reason why. He read the match well, played with a quality passing game and was solid when put under any defensive pressure – not that there was much of that.

Dufty is in the driver’s seat to be the fullback at Kogarah in 2018 and a performance like that should put Dragons’ fans at ease. He has been superb in Under 20’s and the Intrust Cup and it’s translated to first grade.

Comparisons to Billy Slater are somewhat ridiculous at this point, but he does look like he’ll possess many of the same qualities in terms of match management, reading of plays, passing and running.

Dufty looks to be the complete package.

The Knights will be better with experienced players in 2018
The Knights are just lacking the instinct to put sides away and that was evident in a fighting loss to the Roosters on Friday night.

Newcastle did quite well during the first half, but weren’t rewarded for their effort. They spent most of the first quarter of an hour on the attack, peppering the Roosters line.

Don’t get me wrong, the Roosters defence was good but the Knights seemed to lack direction – something Nathan Brown highlighted in his post-match interview.

Trent Hodkinson’s form line is still a mystery, while Brock Lamb has not lived up to his potential yet. There is no question Lamb will be a star and is the future of the Knights – you only need to look at some of the leve-headed plays he has produced to know that.

Unfortunately, with a mightily inexperienced forward pack playing around him and no controlling influence on the team, the moments of brilliance are too few and far between.

They will come though – 2018 is shaping as a better one for the Knights already. The signing of Aidan Guerra will bring stability to the forward pack, and there are plenty of other rumoured signings.

The performance against the Roosters – even if the scoreboard ended up ugly proves they have the young core there to take the Knights into the future. It’s just going to take some time to get to the next level.

The Sharks win scrappy again
Broken record, I know, but it seems to be all you can say about Cronulla this year. They just find ways to get the job done.

It wasn’t a strong win against Souths. They never looked to be on top of the world or playing at their potential, but they scrapped, fought hard and overcame botched tries, high error counts and silly penalties to pick up the win in the already aforementioned important game – for Luke Lewis’ 300th.

There are four tries the Sharks botched – and that’s without even thoroughly reviewing the game – off the top of my head, they ruined four scoring opportunities.

Do it against Souths and you’ll be alright, but do it against Melbourne in September and you dont’ stand a chance.

I’ve often questioned in this column at what point Cronulla will take it to the next gear and get out of this inconsistent slump they are in where, seemingly they can’t string together 80 minutes.

Now, I’m questioning if they even have that extra gear without the experience of Michael Ennis to lead them around the park. With James Maloney now missing the next three weeks, you have to wonder if the Sharks will actually be able to lock away a top four spot after looking certainties not so long ago.

Connor Watson is a star in the making, but the only run he will get at Bondi is on the beach
What is it with fullbacks and breakout games at the moment? Isaako, Dufty and Connor Watson all have deserved a mention in this column over the last fortnight.

Watson was dangerous against Newcastle, to say the least. While it has to be taken with a grain of salt, because again, it is Newcastle, Watson was sensational.

He took every opportunity to back up his halves and forward, latching onto offloads, putting pressure on defenders with kick chases and doing a great job under the high ball.

The utility back came away with a try, but given his previous performances both in the halves, at the back and filling in off the bench, Watson’s market value is rising with every passing week.

Of course, the chance of him getting a run in Bondi next year are slim. James Tedesco has been signed to the club, Michael Gordon retained and it’s hard to see Mitchell Pearce or Luke Keary being overlooked.

It’s little wonder he reportedly wants to leave and break the last year of his contract.

The Panthers are a very different side with a firing Nathan Cleary
The key difference in the Panthers game over the last fortnight has been the play of young half Nathan Cleary. Instead of hoisting bombs up from 45 metres out over and over and over again, he has been taking it upon himself to run at defensive lines and more often than not, the extra dimension to his game is working a treat.

He had become so one-dimensional that defensive lines almost seemed to know exactly what was going to happen at the end of every Penrith set.

Not so much anymore, and after a superb performance against the Warriors in Auckland a fortnight ago, he backed it up with another in the Panthers win over the Titans.

While Matt Moylan, Josh Mansour and others have lifted the Panthers game, the last fortnight has seen Penrith as good as they have been all season, and a lot of that is down to the unpredictability in Cleary’s attacking patterns.

Semi Radradra back to his best and it improves the Eels out of sight
It’s fair to say the form of Radradra, who is off to French Rugby has been at best, inconsistent through the 2017 season. But there are no questions he was at his destructive best against the Tigers as the Eels notched a tough one-point victory.

His stat line is staggering. More than 200 metres from just 14 runs, a try, an assist and three line breaks as well as countless other dangerous plays.

While it wasn’t the best performance on the whole from the Eels as the Tigers almost pulled off one of the upsets of the season in a shock contender for game of the round, Radradra’s form was the key point to come out of it.

If he continues to terrorise on the edge like that, there is little anyone will be able to do to stop an Eels side being led around the park by the in-form trio of Corey Norman, Mitchell Moses and Clint Gutherson – Gutherson, in particular has had a wow of a season.

Roarers, what did you make of the weekend of footy? Drop a comment and let us know.