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Manly is the only team still alive in the competition that can’t win it. Every other team has got a genuine shot at the title after an extraordinary weekend of football.
That is my first observation. My second is this: if you don’t like Jamie Soward, there is something wrong with you – not him.
I’ll expand on the subject of Soward shortly, but let me get back to this incredible battle for the title first.
There was always going to be at least one upset on the first weekend of the finals. The competition had been too even and too unpredictable all season to expect that every one of the four favourites was going to win.
I wrote on Friday that the best chance of an upset was Canterbury against Melbourne, and didn’t the Bulldogs do a job on the Storm yesterday? But that, of course, wasn’t the first upset as it turned out. Penrith got in ahead of the Bulldogs by beating Sydney Roosters on Saturday night.
South Sydney obliterated Manly on Friday night. The four tries the Sea Eagles scored after the Rabbitohs had stretched their lead to an incredible 40-0 meant nothing. That was garbage time.
Injuries in the forwards had already taken a severe toll on Manly, and back-up hooker Jayden Hodges is also now hurt, while representative back-rower Anthony Watmough faces the possibility of a judiciary charge and suspension.
The Sea Eagles didn’t have the best forward pack in the competition even when all their players were fit, but they were still good enough to win the competition because they had a halfback in Daly Cherry-Evans who was in great form.
He would often boot Manly out of trouble if they hadn’t made it far down the field coming to the last tackle.
That is no longer the case. Cherry-Evans is out of sorts. Sure, he came into the game late against Souths, but it didn’t matter then. He failed to make an impact when the game was still there to be won.
Cherry-Evans looks dispirited. It is hard to imagine all of the off-field stuff at the club is not having an effect on him.
Manly began the game against the Rabbitohs well enough. They looked like they had prepared as they should have. But when Souths scored their first try Manly immediately looked shaky. After the second try came, they were clearly gone.
It was like watching a car crash. The Sea Eagles are dead men walking.
Souths were fantastic for the first 60 minutes of their 40-24 win. Their coach, Michael Maguire, stuck it to them big-time in the dressing-room afterwards for slackening off in the last 20 minutes, but he shouldn’t be too hard on them.
Penrith thoroughly deserved their 19-18 win over the Roosters. They are a genuine ‘team’, but Soward is their beating heart.
I love the way he celebrated kicking the winning field goal, jumping out of his skin as he did. You want your sports stars to show what it really means to them when they succeed.
Soward polarises people because he’s got a bit to say and shoots from the hip when he says it. Some people like him and some don’t. I say thank God for him, because he is doing the work of 20 players when it comes to keeping the sport interesting.
Soward helps cover for those players who either have nothing to say, are too careful in what they do say, or are full of clichés.
If you don’t like Soward you don’t like colour, genuine personality and honesty.
But the most important thing he has to offer Penrith is, of course, his experience and ability on the field. Soward is the NRL player of the moment. He’s a great competitor.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson complained about the referees after the loss, but the Roosters should blame themselves for not being able to secure the win after leading 18-12 inside the last 10 minutes.
Like Souths did against Manly, North Queensland got away to a big lead against Brisbane on Saturday night, but the difference between the two games was that the Broncos got back into it with a chance to win. The Cowboys then steadied and closed the game out, 32-20.
Again, that is not too much to worry about for the winners.
The challenge for the Cowboys, after a home game to start the finals, is to win three road games in a row to take the title, but they have been in great form recently and Johnathan Thurston is almost irresistible.
Melbourne were never good enough to win the premiership this year. The rest of the team isn’t able to provide the right amount of support for the three superstar players, and the superstars are showing signs of wear and tear.
The Storm are very well coached and were still disciplined enough to win the necessary amount of games to get to the finals, but once again they weren’t able to lift once they got there.
They have now folded without a win in the finals for the second year running.
Canterbury dominated Melbourne in the forwards. Each of the five starting forwards for the Bulldogs, not counting hooker Michael Ennis, ran for more than 100 metres, and so did two of the forwards who came off the bench. James Graham was outstanding.
Off the platform created by the forwards, Josh Reynolds and his fellow backline players did plenty of damage in attack as Canterbury established a 24-0 lead along the way to a 28-4 win.
The Bulldogs’ kicking game was excellent.
Canterbury will now start favourites against Manly on Saturday night and should win. I don’t see how the Sea Eagles will recover from here. Surely they can’t compete with the Bulldogs up front.
The Roosters will start favourites against the Cowboys on Friday night, but warm favourites rather than red-hot. It promises to be a belter of a game.
Out of the two games, the Cowboys look the best chance of an upset to me, but how much of an upset would it really be?
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