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Well, it was fun while it lasted. After some promising early efforts, reality started to exert its crushing weight on a few clubs. With six of eight games featuring at least one team scoring zero or single digits, it’s up to them to change their future – if they can.
Here come your talking points from NRL Round 4.
Do ‘lesser’ teams get the raw refereeing deal?
Titans coach Justin Holbrook has said it, Cowboys head honcho Todd Payten said it, others have said it too. There’s definitely a perception out there that lesser-rated NRL teams cop the worst of the decisions when they’re up against a top-four type.
Payten’s Cowboys won the penalty count 10-8, but that was more than offset by three of his players being sin binned during which the game’s decisive points were scored and his team were beaten.
Unconscious bias from referees towards lower-ranked sides is indeed a thing – there’s a lot of research and blind testing around (mainly in football) about game situations, teams involved and decisions made. Ask any team who has to play Melbourne in Melbourne how the rub of the officiating green goes.
Check how Canberra, the Gold Coast, New Zealand and some other teams have been spoken about by those in power over the years.
But even with all that in mind I feel I need to roll out one of my favourites…
Don’t like it? Play better!
Reality hits home for a battling group
After showing effort and energy for the first three weeks the reality of what it takes to be great hit hard for Canterbury, North Queensland, St George and Brisbane.
The Bulldogs fell apart during their annual belting from Melbourne, the Cowboys, while on the end of some creative refereeing, still couldn’t do anything to find a way through the Roosters’ defence, Brisbane collapsed on themselves to lose in Redcliffe to New Zealand and the Dragons put up a bit of a fight but ultimately were thoroughly outpointed by Parramatta.
It’s only a month in the books but there’s plenty of problems.
Panthers remain the benchmark
Penrith celebrated Wrestlemania weekend by performing an 80-minute submission move on South Sydney for a 26-12 win. They smashed wave after wave of attack into Souths early and gave the Bunnies nothing on defence.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
It’s hard to see their weakness, considering they started the season down a number of key players and are still missing a few. It’s hardly controversial to say the Panthers are easily to best team in it. But there’s a long way to go, including an Origin period.
The vanquished South Sydney sit 1-3 but it’s not quite panic stations. They have St George Illawarra, Canterbury and Wests Tigers in their next three games. They should be okay.
So many reports, so few send-offs
Pre-match media around Brisbane’s game against New Zealand included a profile of Broncos front rower Thomas Flegler, who assured all and sundry he’d turned over a new leaf, reined in the aggro and found peace which would stop him from getting penalised and suspended so often.
As the man said himself on Brisbane’s website: “I’ve been working with our defence coach Bumper [Brett O’Farrell] on my tackle technique which at times does get a bit out of hand and that leads me to get suspended.
“There are times during a game where you have these snap lapses but you have to learn to control them because it’s no good for the team.”
So, how did that go in reality? Flegler was reported not once, not twice, but thrice in the opening quarter of the game and ended up on report a total of four times for various dangerous tackles.
All up, he faces three charges worth two weeks and a few grand in fines if he takes early pleas and he has followed up that interview with some harsh words for himself in the Queensland press.
Yes, it’s darkly funny. But it does raise the question: four reports, no send-off? Flegler was binned once for the third offence, but surely the NRL can have something in the pocket for multiple reportable offences that means you gotta take a seat for the game, if not to protect the opposition, then to protect a player from themselves if they’re all over the joint?
What do Knights and Dragons do now?
Newcastle must have fancied their chances against Cronulla, but calling their losing effort sloppy would be complimentary. They had no variation in attack and while their defence has improved, they got shredded by Craig Fitzgibbon’s inspired move of Siosifa Talakai to the centres.
Talakai scored a try, broke 17 tackles and made 223 metres, just great stuff.
The Knights were a quandary before the season. Some had them in the eight, others with the spoon. So far they haven’t shown a great deal of progress from the last couple of years and with endless speculation around what Kalyn Ponga is doing, there’s sure to be a bit more of a blowtorch in the Hunter.
As for the Dragons, they’re turning into what we thought they would after a somewhat decent first two weeks. They fought hard early against waves of Parramatta attacks, somehow going to halftime at 8-12 before being opened up and losing by 34 points.
There’s big questions about coach Anthony Griffin’s handling of the roster, particularly his dropping Tyrell Sloan and Talatau Amone to back in more experienced players at fullback and five-eighth.
Tyrell Sloan (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Given the way the season is panning out, maybe it’s not the worst thing for Griffin to play the kids, and besides, he’s got another year on his contract anyway.
Massive NRLW boilover sets up a great grand final
It’s St George Illawarra against the Roosters in the NRLW grand final, after both teams took their semi-finals on Sunday against the Gold Coast and Brisbane respectively.
St George Illawarra knocked over the Titans 24-18, a result made closer by late Gold Coast scores but the result was never really in doubt.
The Roosters’ 22-16 win over the three-time premiers was nothing short of remarkable – their first win over Brisbane in nine games (with a closest loss of eight points) and overcoming an early sin bin and being 16-0 down, no less.
The grand final is in Redcliffe next Sunday at 1:30, with both teams vying to be the first non-Bronco NRLW premier.
Quick hits
Wests Tigers, the poor Wests Tigers. Battling for 80 against the Gold Coast and getting beat by the bounce of the ball. Will their fortunes ever improve?
Who cares if Kalyn Ponga met with the Dolphins? Players move, they’ve gotta get paid. That’s life.
Some great halfback play this week by the much-maligned duo Daly Cherry-Evans and Mitch Moses, tearing apart Canberra and St George Illawarra respectively.
As for Canberra, what is it about Manly that makes the Raiders play completely boneheaded rugby league?
Tigers halfback Luke Brooks’ salary goes to a reported $1.1 million in 2023 – good for him.
Speaking of NRL social media, it seems they’ve quietly binned that ‘So real it’s unreal’ guff, as predicted in this very column in Round 1.
To the next
Round 5 has a couple of important match-ups for the ‘middle eight’ teams looking to get one up on each other, and seemingly easy kills for the top four sides looking to bank low-energy early season wins.
Newcastle need to beat a dinged-up Manly on Thursday night after a flaccid fortnight. North Queensland and New Zealand are in a four-point game and Souths play the Dragons in a similar scenario.
Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters and Cronulla have a chance to move on against Canberra, Canterbury, Brisbane and Wests Tigers respectively.
What did you make of NRL Round 4, Roarers?