Well, we all knew to expect the unexpected, because inevitably that’s what the NRL finals produces. 2014 is no different, if week one of the finals is to go by, with some huge scorelines mixed in with some unexpected results.
South Sydney and Penrith were victorious in the top half of the finals draw, while North Queensland and Canterbury stay alive the bottom half, and live to fight another day against the Roosters and Manly respectively.
It’s the first time that the top two sides in the minor premiership race have lost under the new system, and it makes for an interesting second week.
Here’s our wrap of week one of finals action.
Manly Sea Eagles vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
South Sydney won 40-24
Roar expert Tim Gore predicted in his first stat article this week that the Rabbitohs would clean up Manly but 26 points.
It wasn’t a bad prediction, and he texted the editor of this site when South Sydney were up 22-nil and looking ominous at half-time, saying his prediction may have been conservative.
This was a proper thrashing, with respectability only being brought to the scoreline late in the game, as South Sydney switched off after being up 40-0.
It was a stunning performance from the Rabbitohs, with the huge Bunnies forwards laying a perfect platform for Adam Reynolds and Luke Keary to take control. Dylan Walker, Alex Johnston, Kirisome Auva’a and Lote Tuqiri were the beneficiaries, all having blockbusting games.
For Manly, there were few positives, and with Jamie Lyon and Anthony Watmough both on report for a tip tackle on Greg Inglis, they may be missing more cattle next week.
Sydney Roosters vs Penrith Panthers
Penrith won 19-18
Another week, another belter in the NRL season. Jamie Soward was the hero this time, as he has been throughout the season for the Panthers.
18-12 down, Panthers’ winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak kept the game alive with just three minutes left on the clock, with an outrageous flick pass to Dean Whare, with Jamie Soward good enough to convert from the sideline.
Then the little general knocked a bullet-like field goal over from 35 metres out to give the Panthers the week off and the Roosters shaking their heads.
The Roosters will also be worried about big prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, who is on report. As we mentioned in our preview of this game, this is precisely what the Roosters didn’t need in Anthony Minichiello’s 300th match.
The Roosters are set to face the Cowboys, and although it’s at Allianz, they will need to be better than they were in this match to get to the qualifying final the week after.
It was a huge surprise for fans that the Panthers will be through to the third week, but they are a team with a huge amount of belief, and despite a huge injury toll, just keep on winning.
North Queensland Cowboys vs Brisbane Broncos
North Queensland won 32-20
The Cowboys enjoyed a solid victory over the ‘bigger brother’ Broncos in Townsville on Saturday night. Interestingly, that’s three from three for the North Queenslanders against the Broncos in finals matches.
Although a comeback from the Broncos might have been on in the second half, the 24-point lead the lads from North Queensland took into half time proved far to much for the Broncos.
A big concern for the Cowboys will be the points they leaked to the Broncos backline early in the second half, and the fact that combative backrower Tariq Sims was put on report for a very late shot on Brisbane fullback Justin Hodges.
On the positive side, their flawless first half performance and sparkling backline moves will see them travel to Allianz Stadium in high spirits, and confident of a victory against the Chooks, who couldn’t close it out against Penrith.
Johnathan Thurston will be key in that game, and will be keen to take advantage of a Tricolours side that might be shocked they have to play again this coming weekend.
Melbourne Storm vs Canterbury Bulldogs
Canterbury won 28-4
Playing Melbourne in Melbourne is always tough. Well, almost always. In this case, although it was a bruising game, with both sides out on their feet by the end, the Storm never showed enough to crack the Bulldogs’ line, while the Canterbury men just kept piling on the points.
Canterbury will now face Manly in the second week of the finals after disposing of the Storm, and should be confident against a side that has lost two in a row, and is looking very shellshocked heading into the finals.
Tim Lafai, James Graham and Greg Eastwood all performed well for Canterbury, while Melbourne were just too sloppy with call in hand to get any attacking momentum.
Trent Hodkinson led the team around the park well, and after playing a shocker last week, Josh Reynolds bounced back to his aggressive best, with some strong defence and a lot of passion around the park.
Josh Morris is a worry for the ‘Dogs, as he was put on report a chicken wing-style tackle on Sisa Waqa midway through the second half, so we will have to wait and see what comes of that.
It sets up an absolutely fascinating contest next week, and an interesting element to the draw, with the winner of that game going on to face the Panthers, who don’t seem to know how to lose recently.
Glenn Innes
Guest
Were Souths that good or Manly that bad?.Remember North Queensland flogged Manly the week before. I am far from convinced about Souths. I still can't get their two recent losses (home and away) to North Queensland out of my head. in particular the way the NQ pack got right over the top of the much hyped Souths forwards not once but twice, in other words they franked the form and proved the first effort was no fluke. My guess is whoever wins the Roosters Cows game rolls Souths the following week and heads to the big dance to play Penrith or Canterbury.
The Barry
Guest
It's a tough crowd if people didn't enjoy that. Souths were brilliant and brutal against manly. Did they clock off or is this another example of them not being able to play 80 mins of semi final footy. Roosters v panthers was scrappy but had one of the most exciting finishes ever. The roosters who looked like they were marching to another premiership now have question marks against them and panthers have announced themselves as contenders. Cowboys were also clinical in their first half and have established themselves as the premier qld team. Then the dogs came out and pumped the storm against the odds in a near faultless first half display. All six of the remaining teams are genuine premiership contenders.
Squirrel
Guest
Manly vs Easts gf. Watch this space.
Kepu
Guest
Funny Shane Hayne let a blatant forward pass go for manly to score to get them back in the game yet what is the bet he will be a ref this weekend....He also pulled out a tackle infringement of a rollover for a manly penalty which happens 25 times a game - of course manly was trailing
The Barry
Guest
Did the game a disservice???? It's not the video refs job to ensure a close finish or spectacular tries for the highlights reel it's to adjudicate on the rules. It was a clear knock on. The video ref got it right and gets bagged for doing the game a disservice??? Are you really phil Gould roosters fan?
Brendan
Guest
i think the bigger question is why is he only tipped on his head by Manly players?
matth
Guest
Oh I get it, only players from outside NSW perform illegal acts. Thanks for setting us all straight.
matth
Guest
I ! hear ! you ! loud ! and ! clear ! Albo ! And I agree with your assessment 100%. Sims was deliberate against the one Broncos player capable of changing that game. Imagine the outcry if that had been, say, Thaiday on Thurston.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Mate forget what happened last week you said that Ennis was a grub yesterday. The only thing you can name is that he ruffled Smith's hair. I don't blindly defend Ennis - he is a massive pest. But he didn't do anything 'grubby' yesterday and neither did Reynolds. Ennis ruffling Smith's hair is no excuse for him to be shoulder charged from behind well after he passed the ball.
The eye
Guest
You're both right..consider me self-upper cutted.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Have you forgotten Ennis's Hollywood academy performance the other week? He continually mouths off and gets other players goat up and that is why that shoulder charge was put on him just like Reynolds put one on Cronk after he kicked on the 5th tackle which was late. And I don't condone knees in the back, head high tackles, chicken wing tackle, crushing tackles or any low acts like for instance Waerea-Hargr always goes into tackles with his forearm and/or scuffing player faces and continually is trying to rip the ball out in a tackle. If the NRL wants a clean the game up and reduce permanent injuries then they should limit any tackle to a maximum of 2 players and not have one guy around the legs one around the hips or midriff and the third guy either crushing or coming in on top and putting some sort of arm knee etc into the tackled player after he's down and tackled. The game should be played hard, tough and in good spirit like it used to be in the old days, with the likes of Johnny Raper who always went around the legs and was very effective in making some of the greatest tackles ever seen in RL and what a beautiful sight that was.
john360180
Guest
Hate to be negative however I thought it was a poor and disappointing start to the final series. Souths were impressive however that may have been that Manly were poor. Thrilling Finish in the Roosters Vs Panthers game but the first hour was poor football. Cowboys just got the job done. Bulldogs Vs Storm was not worthy of NRL final.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Where's KenAgain? Gone quiet. Who's holding their willy now champ?
The Barry
Roar Guru
Identifying a blatant knock on in the play leading up to a try is not nitpicking. You can't just award the try because the lead up play looked good.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Inglis goes upside down far, far more than any other player. I hesitate to blame Inglis but there must be some reason why he goes head first so much more regularly than anyone else.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I think you'll find it was Greg Inglis who took the intercept of Cronk.
The Barry
Roar Guru
That's it - I'm convinced "grub" is the most over used and least understood term in the game. To call ruffling someone's hair after a mistake grubby is ridiculous. It happens several times in every game. How you can pick that incident out of the game as a grubby act when you have Slater kneeing blokes in the back and Ennis copping a shoulder charge in the back, three seconds after he passed the ball? Wake up to yourself, get off the bandwagon and try having an original thought. So Ennis is public enemy number one because he ruffled someone's hair. Come up with something, anything else from that game that either Reynolds or Ennis did. You're back to front on who would have lasted in the 'old days'. Sledging has been around forever it's knees in the back and dog shots from behind that wouldn't have been tolerated in the old days. We'll all hate Ennis next year but I don't know any Bulldogs supporters who will be glad to see him go and don't appreciate what he's done for the club. What about how Dylan Walker was carrying on after he scored on Friday goading the manly players. Is he a grub? What about Luke Keary who mouths off every tackle and drops forearms and facials in every tackle. Is he a grub?
Albo
Guest
The worst of the lot was the Sims late, and deliberate shoulder charge on Hodges ! Should get two weeks ! One for late & one for Shoulder Charge ! Both Watmough & Lyons should go for the Inglis dangerous tackle ! If you can give Docker 2 weeks for a one on one tackle with no hands between the legs , but lifting past the horizontal, then both these guys should go equally ! JWH should get his mandatory week ! The rest should go nowhere !
Albo
Guest
Last week I predicted a Souths v Melboune GF So now forced to revise to Souths v Penrith GF. I had Penrith bowing out in week 3 to Melbourne initially, but with the Dogs belting Melboune, they should now deal with Manly, leaving the semi- final playoff to be between Dogs & Penrith. Based on recent history between these two, including the two Penrith wins this year, the Panthers to sneak through. Souths to deal with the either the Roosters or Cowboys (won't matter) and go on to prevail in the GF against a plucky Panthers .
P.Marlowe
Guest
Thanks Parrafan - he had a run at Parra to didn't he?