Eight talking points from NRL Round 21

What a crazy weekend of footy that was. We had massive upsets, high-scoring games and wall-to-wall entertainment. Here are all my talking points from Round 21 of the NRL season.

Also, preamble – I hate tipping at this point.

Right, onto the points.

Is Damien Cook now the NRL’s best player?
If there has been one player who has broken out of the shadows this season, it’s Damien Cook.

While it must kill Bulldogs and Dragons supporters to know the talent slipped through their fingers, the Bunnies hooker is starting to lay his claim as the best player in the competition during 2018.

Certainly, on form, it’s worth more than a small argument.

He was fantastic again on Friday night for the Rabbitohs as they got the better of the Melbourne Storm.

The NRL has somewhat undergone a changing of the guard this season. Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston have fallen away, and while Billy Slater and Cameron Smith have still been good, it’s not exactly like they are having career-best seasons.

Cook, on the other hand, is. At the moment, he is the only hooker who is able to break down the ruck and marker defence with ease, and his speed is blinding. The try he scored from dummy half to crack the game open during the second 40 was superb, likely to be one of the best of the season.

The Rabbitohs’ hooker is also playing big minutes and making every one of them count, having one of the highest tackle averages and efficiency ratings in the competition.

Some players go from hero to zero in the post-Origin environment as well, but not Cook. He has stayed right on top of his game and at the moment, it’s hard to name a player in better form than Cook.

He makes the Rabbitohs the form side of the competition and if they go on to win the premiership, you can bet your dollar their little number nine will be the reason why.

(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

It’s happened again. The slide to ruin for the Red V
It’s hard to have any faith the Dragons are going to turn this around over the final month of footy, or indeed once we get into the finals.

It should be an embarrassment that a club who were playing such excellent footy can go from where they were to where they are now. It’s even worse when it’s a familiar script and we have seen it all play out before.

After last year’s debacle which finished up with the Dragons losing their final game of the season to the Bulldogs to miss out on the finals, plans should have been put in place to avoid this happening again.

At the start of the season, there was no doubt things looked slightly better than last year. They had two halves and a forward pack who were all in contention for Origin or international duties when the competition got to the representative round.

After Anzac Day, it was time to start daring to dream. The win over the Roosters on a five-day turnaround back from Auckland seemed to be the landmark moment for Paul McGregor’s men.

Since, it’s all been downhill. Since their disgusting loss to the Panthers in Round 12, the Dragons have barely looked like beating anyone and are now on a four-game spiral to the end of the season.

Their loss to the Warriors was just another frustrating loss for a team who supposedly have the 17 they want and the cattle the man nicknamed Mary believes he needs to win the competition.

Maybe they came out of the gates too quickly, maybe Origin had a toll, but at the end of the day, there are no excuses for the Dragons. They haven’t had a heavy injury toll, they haven’t had major problems off the field.

It’s just been a general degradation in terms of skill, attitude and game plan where they now simply don’t play direct anymore and have a pair of halves who are completely out of sorts.

It’s embarrassing and while they still might save their season with some wins and a performance in the finals, the team announcing a trip to climb Mt.Everest tomorrow looks more likely right now.

(AAP Image/Darren Pateman)

Here’s why the Broncos and Sharks won’t win the competition
The plight of both Brisbane and Cronulla is hard to get a read on, but after their respective performances this weekend, it’s hard to justify writing anything positive about either of them.

Let’s start with Brisbane, which is where this point originally stemmed from after their shocking performance against the Bulldogs on Friday night.

With a chance to push for a top four spot, they could have easily belted an ordinary Bulldogs outfit, but instead, put in a pretty poor performance of their own to let in 36 points and drop the game.

Instead of pushing for the top four, they will now be locked in a battle to earn a home final in the bottom four of the top eight.

If they can’t do that, the pressure will be right on come the first week of the final.

This is one very close competition for the most part, but the Broncos have had struggles all season. Simply put, they are struggling to find ways to be consistent from week to week.

Just when you think they are starting to put a run of results together (and at times, there have been some pretty positive runs), they will find a way to lose like they did on Friday. It’s happened all season – the Bulldogs, Warriors, Sea Eagles, Knights and Titans losses spring to mind.

Whether it’s their defence or lack of creative options, something tends to let them down. While they have won back-to-back on occasion, their form doesn’t look good enough to win three – or maybe even four – games in a row to win the competition.

The Sharks are almost in a similar boat. Letting in 33 points against the Sea Eagles at home on a Sunday afternoon wasn’t part of their forward progression plan, but Cronulla looked tired at times on Sunday.

Their defensive problems were soft. They had gaps opening up everywhere and while their attack was good, it was completely off last week against a better side in the Broncos.

I don’t want to write off teams who are going to finish in the top eight, but neither the Sharks or Broncos are exactly doing much striking to confirm themselves as premiership hopefuls at the moment.

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

How would Melbourne cover the loss of Cameron Smith?
While it would appear Cameron Smith is going to be okay to play on in the next few weeks and guide the Storm’s charge to the finals, it brought about an interesting question.

An almost impossible one to answer if you think about it.

In big games and big moments, there is no better player to have on the field than Cameron Smith. He has been the main man for over a decade, whether playing for the Storm, Queensland in State of Origin or Australia in International rugby league.

There is a reason he has been one of the best captains, and that’s his leadership, skill and experience.

While Brendon Smight might be able to fill some ofthe talent issue at the Storm, he is still incredibly raw at first grade level, especially if he was to have to take over heading into a finals campaign.

Replacing Cameron Smith is going to be near-on impossible, but what the Storm would need is a major uptick from players like Billy Slater, Cameron Munster and Jesse Bromwich up forward in terms of allowing the team to pick the right attacking plays on every occasion or to stay calm when things aren’t going quite right in defence.

In short, if Melbourne are to win the premiership, they need Smith on the field. If there is even a niggle, Craig Bellamy would be crazy not to give him a spell next weekend.

The top eight still isn’t settled
Not that I want to remember it, but the Warriors have got themselves back into the winners’ circle, which allows them to keep a four-point lead on the edge of the top eight.

Yet, they didn’t play all that well. Their first half was great and defensive effort in the second even better, yet, you just know what they are capable of dishing up.

Throw the mind back seven days and their loss to the Titans is a good example.

With nothing in the for and against race between them and the Tigers who picked up a crucial win over then Knights, it’s only going to take a variation of two wins over the final four games to flip the final spot in the eight.

Last year, it came down to the final game of the season and there would be no shock if it was still alive heading into Round 25 this year, given the way the Tigers have been playing more often than not over the last month.

(AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

There go the Roosters again
How do you get a read on the Roosters?

One minute they are whacking the Dragons and winning convincingly for a month on the trot, the next they are back to square one, looking like they don’t know each other in attack and struggling to shut down the opposition with their defence.

While the Roosters did come away with another win over the Cowboys on Saturday night, it was anything but superb.

They let in 20 points to a team who have been struggling on both ends of the park and had the game alive at the wire, which was most certainly not what would have been in the planning of a perfect world for Trent Robbinson before kick-off.

The Roosters have been very good over the last two months, don’t get me wrong. At this point, they have won four on the trot and eight of their last nine, so it’s hard to knock a team for having a quiet week in that sort of form.

But what their game against the Cowboys shows more than anything is the reliance they have on James Tedesco, which I spoke about last week. He must have four (or three if they win first week) big games in the finals for the Roosters to go anywhere.

They can’t be a one-man team against the best in the competition though and that will show up next week against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

A good team effort, especially on the defensive end of the park, will be absolutely neccessary when they play Souths, who have attacking weapons everywhere.

Do that, and they are halfway to winning.

Don’t do that, and they could get absolutely smashed, leaving them down on confidence before a possible game against the men from Redfern during September.

Regardless, it’s the issue of how they are playing, rather than the results for the Roosters which is their only concern right now.

They are still one of the big premiership favourites, but need to show us plenty next week.

(AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)

The Knights could be dangerous in 2019
There are two things the Knights need to do to be a top eight contender in 2018.

Firstly, stay healthy. That’s completely out of their control, to be fair. Particularly, Kalyn Ponga and Mitchell Pearce have to stay on the field.

While the duo didn’t have a great first half against the Tigers on the weekend, they have spent much of the season carrying the red, white and blue in the other players absence due to injury.

The other is defence. Some of the tries they let in against the Tigers were quite frankly, pathetic.

The soft underbelly of their defence was clear to see as the big Tigers pack, led by the creativity on display from Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall, paved the way for them to simply roll over the advantage line at will and score points – that was particularly evident during the first half.

But when you get the likes of the exciting Jesse Ramien heading to the club next year, the men from the Hunter should be on an upward trajectory.

Whether they make the eight or not is anyone’s guess, but next season is looking even more promising than this season for Newcastle.

(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)

Viliame Kikau and Shaun Lane are leading the next generation of second rowers
I started this week’s talking points talking about a player who has come of age in 2018, and I’m going to finish it with another two.

Anyone trying to deny the obvious talent being shown by Viliane Kikau at the Panthers and Shaun Lane at the Sea Eagles must have rocks in their head.

Let’s start with Kikau. He has had an excellent season – a breakout season at the Panthers. He has clearly become one of the most damaging forwards in the comp and creates opportunities for his teammates left, right and centre.

He started the contest against the Raiders on Sunday afternoon fantastically, making a break in the first set and having a strong carry setting up a try in the second.

While the Panthers ended up putting in a less than impressive performance during another high-scoring game, Kikau has had impact every time he carries the ball this season and will become a hot prospect next time his contract is up for grabs.

The same goes for Lane. He started his career at the Bulldogs and burst onto the scene with everyone sharing the thoughts he was in for a big career.

Then he left the Bulldogs in one of those weird transfers, swapping spots with Raymond Faitala-Mariner. As so many players do, Lane struggled to live up to his name while in Auckland, but since coming back to Australia and playing for Manly, he has been one of their best.

In a losing team more often than not this season, Lane has nailed down a starting role and while the second rower has spent some time out with injury, he sent a timely reminder to the competition of his talents on Sunday with a try-scoring double and plenty of big runs.

Roarers, what did you make of Round 21? Drop a comment and let us know.