Five questions from Round 2 of the NRL

We’ve now completed two rounds of the 2015 NRL season, and already some themes, trends and narratives are starting to emerge.

Round 2 action saw the Bulldogs and Sea Eagles bounce back from disappointing Round 1 losses, highlighting that reports of their demise had been greatly exaggerated.

Meanwhile, the Panthers continue to show they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in 2015, belting the hapless Titans. Sadly the Sharks appear to be toothless in attack, thus allowing the Broncos to win their first game of the second Wayne Bennett era.

Lastly, in the battle to avoid the wooden spoon (tongue firmly in-cheek), the Tigers drew some Dragon blood, and the Raiders lost to the Warriors.

However, with so much to digest and dissect, we’ll focus our attention elsewhere, in the form of five questions that need answering after round 2 of the 2015 NRL season.

1. A grand final in March?
Steady on there, Ryano. It’s a bit early in the season to be labelling a game a ‘grand final preview’.

Having said that, Sunday afternoon’s blockbuster between the Rabbitohs and the Roosters was nothing short of sensational.

As I tweeted during the game, so often we see heavily anticipated and much-hyped games fail to deliver the goods. The Bunnies and Chooks encounter most certainly wasn’t an example of that, as the two premiership heavyweights threw everything they had at each other.

In the end, Souths won 34-26, but that score doesn’t reflect the closeness of the combatants, and how impressive both teams were.

It’s a cliché, but neither side deserved to lose, and it certainly whets the appetite for a finals match-up between the two fierce rivals later down the line.

A grand final preview? Even as a Doggies fan, I’d have to admit to being excited by the prospect of these the two teams facing each other at the business end of the season, should they continue this level of play all year long.

2. And yet… where the hell was the crowd?
The winners of the last two NRL competitions. Two teams that seriously dislike each other, based on geography and history. Two premiership favourites this season. Each team coming off an impressive Round 1 victory. Sunday afternoon footy.

Every single ingredient was in play for a bumper ground.

Yet the Bunnies and the Chooks could only draw approximately 27,000 fans to the game.

Disappointing. Measly. Poor. Discouraging.

Select whatever adjective you like, but the fact remains that this was a bad look for the NRL. If this game couldn’t produce a massive crowd, what can?

I have two excuses for my own lack of attendance: I’m not a fan of either team, and it was my mother’s birthday. (Happy birthday, mum.)

What excuses do fans of these two teams have for not turning up?

Certainly the players from both clubs held up their side of the bargain, and produced one of the best games in recent memory, and matched the hype I talked about in my first question.

It’s just a damn shame such a relatively small crowd were there to witness it.

3. Where to now for Manly?
Daly Cherry-Evans is off to the Gold Coast for 2016, and it’s now confirmed that fellow half Kieran Foran will depart for Parramatta as well.

So where to now for the Sea Eagles?

Recruitment for the 2016 season now becomes vital, and should become the Manly hierarchy’s top priority.

They’ve lost two of the best young players in the game, who also happen to play in the most important and influential positions on the park. Replacing them will be no mean feat, but if the Sea Eagles want to remain competitive in the years to come, they quickly need to develop a solid plan to replace their halves.

Never mind that the forward pack remains an issue as well.

Oh, and that backline stalwarts Steve Matai, Jamie Lyon and Brett Stewart are all on the wrong side of 30 years of age.

Seriously, Manly have more issues than Norman Bates.

Perhaps a more pertinent question is: just what the hell happened on the peninsula?

4. Is it panic stations yet in Townsville?
Full disclosure: I only watched the first 15 minutes of the Cowboys vs Knights game on Saturday, so I can’t talk in detail about the game, or the performance of North Queensland.

However, the ladder tells you all you need to know: the Cowboys have started the season a disappointing 0-2.

Though it would be silly to panic so early in the year, three of the Cowboys’ upcoming four games are against the Storm, Panthers and Rabbitohs, which means North Queensland need to find their mojo soon, or risk playing catch-up for the rest of the season; a position no team wants to be in.

You can understand if a few fans up north are starting to sweat a little bit. And it has nothing to do with the humidity.

5. Do we have to talk about the referees?
Regular readers will know I’m loath to write about the referees. Far too much attention is given to officials and their decisions, and I make a point of not even attempting to know who the referees are, their names, their style, etc.

Furthermore, Round 2 is far too early to talk about conspiracy theories, the standard of refereeing for 2015, or an officialdom crisis that needs to be addressed by the NRL.

By the same token, the refereeing in the Manly versus Melbourne game was appalling, with the Storm in particular on the wrong end of some game-changing decisions.

I mentioned on Saturday night that it’s customary to buy someone a drink before you do what the referees were doing to Melbourne.

I can’t believe we’re having a whinge about the refs so early in the season, and I especially can’t believe I’m the one leading the charge, but it would be remiss to talk about Round 2 without discussing Saturday night’s poor refereeing.

Let’s hope this is the first and last mention of referees in 2015.