It was a round of upsets, ladder changes and uncertainty, with the top eight suddenly not looking so certain after Round 22. Here are my NRL talking points for the weekend.

It’s time to apply common sense to the obstruction rule
This has been grating away in the background all season, and with another two soft, almost milking type penalties in the first half of the Panthers and Tigers game on Sunday afternoon, it’s finally time to write about it in this space.

The NRL is progressively moving its rules to award players for being good at milking penalties. From players going to ground after being touched, to the obstruction rule, there are times we might as well be playing touch football.

There have been numerous examples this season where a player has been hit – not even hit, but contact has been made in the line on a player who had absolutely zero chance of making the tackle anyway and a penalty has come of it.

It’s time to apply a common sense rule to the obstruction rule. If we keep going down this path, you have to wonder where we are going to end up – decoy runners hold a pivotal part in rugby league, and without them some of the wonderful tries we see simply wouldn’t happen.

The obstruction rule holds its place in the game, but let’s turn things around before they become absolutely irreparable.

Retro Round – SCG – Friday, 6pm. You must be joking?
It was only last week I was chatting about Friday 6pm games needing to go, and it’s only gotten more confusing. Which genius thought, yep let’s go to the Sydney Cricket Ground in that timeslot?

It’s absolutely mind boggling. There have been some scheduling clangers over the years, but this is up there with the worst of them.

The crowd, apparently reported at 12,000 looked and sounded a lot smaller than that. If it was, then congratulations, but even 12,000 is ridiculously small for a rivalry game with that much nostalgia behind it.

Playing at a ground steepled in rugby league tradition, particularly for the Rabbitohs and Dragons, anything other than a Sunday afternoon timeslot wasn’t doing it justice.

I know Souths have been poor, but you have to give fans a reason to turn up, and playing in the heart of the city at 6pm on a Friday is a damn good reason not to.

Parramatta did what they had to do, but must step it up
Parramatta beat the Bulldogs, and there would have been real trouble if they didn’t. It was expected, and they went out and took care of business.

There’s no disputing the facts. In the weather conditions that presented themselves, they played a solid game and came away with the two points that help to push them closer to a potential top four finish and the all-important second chance.

What can be disputed though is whether Parramatta should have put them away a lot more in the second half. They seemed to be quite content with letting the game run its course and just go through the motions.

Canterbury were woeful and that’s not the worst decision in those conditions, but you feel Parramatta took their foot off the gas way too early. It was almost as if they didn’t back their defence to get the job done if they did start throwing it around and things didn’t come off.

Not that they had to throw it around, but they certainly shouldn’t have put the cue in the rack the way they did. Given the way Canterbury played – making 11 errors and running for 400 fewer metres – Parramatta not scoring a try in the second half is nearly unacceptable.

Of course, you would expect a different approach against a stronger team, but it’s not good enough at this point in the season. Again, credit because they took care of business, but we need to see a lot more out of the men in blue and gold before we start running around, calling them premiership contenders.

The Dragons can’t be serious?
Mathematically, it might not have been season on the line for the Dragons, but realistically, it felt damn close coming into Friday night’s clash with the Rabbitohs.

And then they put in a performance one might describe as insipid. It appeared as if Paul McGregor’s men were going through the motions for the most part. Sure, they had what seemed like an unassailable lead with ten minutes to go, but this is a side who looked as if they didn’t care for the most part.

They struggled to clear their own end during the second half and let in some of the softest tries you are ever likely to see during the first.

In fact, if it wasn’t for Sam Burgess and his stupid professional foul which winded him up in the sin bin, the Dragons may not have been in the game at halftime.

It was so, so bad their performance and losing to the Knights and Rabbitohs back-to-back under such pressure to keep the season alive is unacceptable. It’s not good enough and it raises major questions about where the Dragons motivations lied on Friday night.

Lachlan Coote needs more involvement for the Cowboys to succeed
Paying close attention to the Cowboys performance against the Storm, with the exception of their bravery through trying circumstances, Lachlan Coote’s regular inability to get involved seemed to be a telling point.

The Cowboys never dominated the game. It was going to be a tough ask, and almost made impossible when they lost two players in the first ten minutes and then spent some time without Scott Bolton through the middle third of the game.

But, that’s no excuse for Coote to not be more heavily involved. His defensive work, as always was first class – positionally, there’s no questioning he is one of the better fullbacks in the NRL.

Unfortunately, only ten runs for 79 metres isn’t good enough given the type of game that was played. He needed to be more involved in an effort to bail his team out of their own end more often. In fact, Kane Linnett was the only Cowboys back who made more than 100 metres, but Coote needs to be leading from the front.

Scarily 79 is above his season average of 66.4, which is one of the lowest for fullbacks in the competition.

He has to assert himself on the game more. He has creativity, a solid kicking game and we all know he is dangerous with the ball. Let’s see him use it.

How can the Titans defend that badly, and the case of Jarryd Hayne
54-0. It sounds bad enough, but if you didn’t watch the second half, let me fill you in.

It was nil-all 20 minutes in. Then it was 18-0 at halftime. Then the Broncos scored seven tries in the second half. Let’s put that into perspective. They have just seven tackles in the opposition 20 and ran on an average of a try every five minutes and 45 seconds.

That’s embarrassing. That’s incompetent, and the Titans didn’t try. They looked like they would have preferred to be anywhere else in front of their own fans.

No team should let in that many points when not under constant pressure. Tries from within your own half are excusable once, maybe twice during a game – but not that many.

There were moments that even confused the Broncos, and none more so than the final try of the match to Josh McGuire. He received an inside pass about 15 metres out, looked around for a teammate to pass to, before realising there was no one within cooee of him.

It summed up the night for the Titans, and based on that performance, it’s going to be a very long final month of the season, for a team who might be starting to regret putting an option on Jarryd Hayne’s contract.

Hayne’s form has fallen off a cliff. He made a meal of a grubber at fullback to give away one try, and had absolutely no impact during the first 25 minutes when it looked as if the Titans were going to be in the game. Instead, they forced four or five dropouts and barely saw the try line again.

Have the Broncos found the answers to their hooking problem?
Ben Hunt. Wow. He had a late start off the bench and an early finish back on the sidelines, but the period in between saw the Broncos race ahead on the scoreboard, with some exhilarating long range efforts.

Hunt first flipped the game after the Titans actually started on top, paving the way for Brisbane to be 18-0 ahead at halftime.

Then, the game opened up completely. Hunt, in just 48 minutes had three tries, two assists, a pair of line breaks and plenty more dangerous runs.

While it was against a Titans team who looked beat from the opening minutes, he was the best player on the park by a mile, and it couldn’t have come at a better time with Andrew McCullough sitting on the sidelines for the rest of the year.

Will that be the wake-up call Cronulla need to save their premiership hopes?
The Sharks didn’t exactly play well on Saturday night, but then again, they haven’t played consistently at the top of their game for most of the season.

They have struggled, to say the least, yet still find themselves at the top of the NRL ladder after 22 rounds.

Up until now, they have found ways to get themselves out of trouble and win when they definitely shouldn’t have. Because they have kept winning though, there hasn’t been a light bulb type moment for the Sharks to base a turnaround on.

This might be it though. They were poor but had ample opportunity to get back into the game against Canberra. If this doesn’t awaken the men from the Shire, then nothing will and 2017 will quickly become a write-off as we move into September.

The Knights go bang, bang for the first time since 2015, but won’t escape the bottom
I’m still not happy about last week, and the second instalment might have been against the Warriors, but it’s heart-warming to see the Knights win two in a row for the first time in over 40 games of rugby league.

The celebrations would have gone long among the Hunter faithful, who just keep turning up. It’s a point, but these fans are the most passionate and dedicated in the competition.

It’s been another long, tough season for the Knights, but the positive signs are there. Brock Lamb is growing into his role, the forwards are starting to build and with experience to come into the side next year, the future is starting to appear bright.

Unfortunately, even with the Tigers going down to the Panthers in the final game of Round 22, there is little chance they are going to get off the bottom of the table.

Another win for the Knights looks unlikely, given their run home consists of the Eels, Storm, Raiders and Sharks. That’s a tough run in anyone’s books, but let’s hope the Knights do themselves justice.

On another note, best wishes for Nathan Ross after that ugly accidental knee in the back that left him in hospital.

Manly bounce back with a flurry, but what impact can they make in September?
The way Manly came out of the blocks against the Roosters, you would have been excused for thinking it was going to be another long afternoon for the Sea Eagles.

But the second half was a completely different story. After conceding 92 points in the last fortnight against the Dragons and Storm, they flew back into the contest.

The side had almost 2,000 running metres throughout the game, and their attack went to another level as tries came with ease. The Roosters helped them with errors, but the Sea Eagles had to capitalise and play well to do so.

36-18 was a fair round up of the game, with Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans both playing brilliantly.

If their attack flies like that, there’s every chance the Sea Eagles could make some sort of a run in September. On the back of a defence that muscled up in the second half, it was their best half of football in quite some time.

Canberra just played their best game of 2017, but can they sneak into the eight?
With Penrith winning the final game of Round 22, I’d be inclined to say no, but the Raiders, who appeared to be well out of the picture and struggling, have strung their way back in, racking up a few victories on the trot.

Beating the Sharks on Saturday night was most impressive and each of their next three look winnable, taking on the Warriors, Panthers and Knights.

A game against the Storm to close the season is just about as hard as it gets, but if they win their next three, they will be on a roll heading into that game. Further to that, they have been a bogey team for the Storm in recent seasons.

The Raiders can only control their own results, but winning all four of their remaining games will give them a shot. Given the Dragons and Panthers both have a difficult game or two, as well as playing each other and are in form that doesn’t inspire confidence, the top eight is far from locked in.

After whittling it down to nine teams a fortnight ago, I’m taking it back out to ten. I don’t think the Raiders will make it, but it’s now impossible to completely write them off.

Is Cameron McInnes the best defensive player in the competition?
McInnes has been of the best buys this season. His work in attack has been sensational for the Dragons, even with their forward pack falling away in recent times.

What has been more impressive though is his efficiency in defence. The hooker is averaging a massive 48 tackles per game, and it’s of little surprise to anyone he has made more tackles than any other player in the competition – by a considerable distance as well.

What is probably the best statistic though is just 20 missed tackles for the entire season. He has made 963 and missed just 20. That’s phenomenal and gives him a tackle efficiency rating of 98 per cent, which this deep into a season is almost unheard of.

To give you an idea, Andrew McCullough is around 95 per cent, Simon Mannering is at 96 and Jake Friend is at 94. With that amount of tackles though, it’s quite a difference in the amount of missed. McCullough has 42 missed, Mannering 25 (having made 160 less than McInnes) and Friend 47 missed tackles.

There is a genuine argument to say McInnes is the best defensive player in the competition.

Roarers, what did you make of Round 22? Drop a comment below and let us know.