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Opinion
Another round of rugby league which went according to script* and the gap between leaders and chasers further widens. However, there’s still a few things to toss about in the old Monday rundown – so here come your Round 6 NRL talking points.
*Barring a Wests Tigers win over Parramatta today, which would be the biggest upset of the NRL era.
Like sands through the hourglass, so are Kalyn Ponga contract dramas
About halfway through Newcastle’s 21-16 loss to St George Illawarra, a story by The Daily Telegraph‘s Dean Ritchie, perpetuated by veteran Fox Sports reporter ‘Staff Writers’, started to circulate stating the Knights “had pulled Kalyn Ponga’s contract offer”. The story goes the Knights and Ponga had agreed on an extension, but the club made the dramatic move in response to delays from the Ponga camp they felt were unsporting.
Quickly came the hoses to water it down, with local Newcastle journos and others saying it was not correct and that in fact Newcastle’s CEO Phil Gardner was on holidays so nothing was happening.
As with all these things, the truth is somewhere in the muck. What is fact is that Ponga is signed with the Knights for two more years, but he has an option in his contract to leave before those years and he has to make that decision by Round 10.
What is also known is that Ponga is only 24 and is hot, hot property, wanted by whoever can get him.
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
Remember, the average NRL career is around 48 games, which is barely two seasons. If you are blessed enough to be able to cash in on your talent and someone wants to pay you, you should go and bloody well take what you can get.
And for the record, Ponga was bloody good in a losing team on Sunday.
Once more around the mill
Like the intro paragraph said, Round 6 went just like you’d expect on the field. Canberra dominated their opponent North Queensland for a half but didn’t cash in with enough points, spent the second 40 fumbling and penalising themselves to death and were, as Jack Wighton put it speaking to Tim Gore on the ABC, “bullshit”.
There were regulation wins for the Panthers, South Sydney, Manly, the Roosters and the Storm (more on that next).
Six of the top eight sides have a winning streak of at least two games, with Penrith leading on 6-0, and looking at the schedule, there’s not much reason to think that is going to change a great deal.
The Sharks were okay – the Storm were better
It was a great game on Saturday in Melbourne, with the 34-18 final score for some belying the true contest which unfolded. It was Cronulla’s second game against a top-eight side (they beat the Eels in Round 2) and the new-look Sharks gave it all they had.
But I call it a ‘regulation’ Storm win because they just did what they do, which is give their opponent a look for a little while, then take a lead and hold it. Harry Grant’s 64th-minute score gave Melbourne a 12-point gap they wouldn’t relinquish as the Sharks tired in the face of their toughest opponent so far.
Both teams come away feeling good about their efforts, but injuries are starting to bite for the Sharks, with a pectoral injury to barnstorming prop Braden Hamlin-Uele and recruit Dale Fincucane with concussion concerns.
You all know of my love for a good big bopper and Hamlin-Uele’s one of my favourites. Hopefully he doesn’t miss too many games.
No, the Bulldogs weren’t ripped off
A lot of complaining about the 26th-minute sin binning of Canterbury prop Jeremy Marshall-King against the Rabbitohs on Friday afternoon, but the call was correct and was the result of his team giving away three penalties and six set restarts in that first 25 minutes as they frantically tried to slow South Sydney down.
We all complain about multiple infringements not being punished with a sin bin, and we all complain when multiple infringements are punished with a sin bin. If people genuinely want ‘the wrestle’ gone, this is how to do it. But even then, rugby league’s great detractors can’t help themselves.
Like all things rugby league, this decision should have been applauded and repeated, but instead, like everything NRL, it became about how bad referees are.
Who’s a write-off? Who’s repairable?
Want a metaphor? Here’s a belter. We’re six games in, essentially a quarter of the season and some teams are in the garage for a service.
Newcastle, Gold Coast, Canberra, St George Illawarra and Brisbane are in bad shape. Do their mechanics make the call to write them off and send them for scrap, or can they recover and get them back on the road?
Maybe it’s only Brisbane who didn’t come into 2022 with genuine finals plans, but the rest are in danger of falling too far behind due to their flaccid and predictable attack, lapses of concentration and lamentable discipline.
Gold Coast are tenth and are already 28 points behind the eighth-placed Rabbitohs on points differential. Newcastle, Canberra and the Dragons are even further behind. If they can’t get their engines fixed, it’s a long, long road to Round 25.
The Raiders need to improve before 2022 becomes a write-off in Canberra (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Quick hits
•Nathan Cleary receiving a feather touch of a fine for his disgraceful tackle on Brisbane’s Billy Walters was an absolutely diabolical decision from the Match Review Committee.
•The Match Review Committee fining serial offender Felise Kafusi for a shocking tackle on Ronaldo Mulitalo was just as bad.
•David Fifita had another dud game for the Titans? If a player in my team had a try, try assist, line break, line break assist, five offloads, four broken tackles, 131 metres and made 28/30 tackles, I’d think they did okay.
•Cameron Munster took Cronulla apart and is on an absolute heater in 2022. Surely the Dolphins, Knights, Storm or Roosters make him the game’s highest-paid player for his next deal?
•Moses Suli showed again what he’s capable of at centre for the Dragons. He gave Newcastle nightmares, continuing a pretty good year to date.
•Parramatta can load up on points differential against Wests Tigers today, but the Tigers’ defence has only conceded two more points than the Eels. We’ll disregard the 108-point difference in attack…
To the next
A few interesting match-ups ‘on paper’ next round. Cronulla will need to show if they can back up on Thursday against Manly, Brisbane host Canterbury in a game where both will fancy their chances, and the Cowboys and Titans battle in Townsville for an important two points.
Newcastle simply must get the win as they host Parramatta, Penrith are a genuine chance to put 70 on the Raiders, the Dragons have a very interesting match-up with the Roosters and the Storm host the Warriors in the ANZAC Day match.
What did you make of NRL Round 6, Roarers?