NRL Magic Round talking points: I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining

Magic Round! The most magical of all the rounds. Here are your talking points from the weekend in Brisbane, also known as NRL Round 10.

Playing eight NRL games at the same venue was great, again

There was some rain, but the biblical event some thought (hoped?) would ruin everything didn’t happen and hence, much fun was had. The surface held up again, players looked like they enjoyed themselves, crowds turned up and once more, Magic Round is a success.

Friday’s brawl in the stands took a lot of media oxygen but watching through the eyes of folks who were there and posting on social media, on the whole it looked like a great time and I can’t wait to get to one of these when life allows.

Credit also to Fox League’s broadcast, which showed the social ‘event’ side of things as well as the on-field business and also took the opportunity with all their kit in one spot to try a few different techniques, angles and camera tech to make the most of their work. That slow mo-focused camera carried some amazing images, especially when it was raining on Saturday night.

They even switched to the downfield view when the Titans attempted a field goal, something I’ve been screaming about for years!

If you were able to get along, drop us a comment about what you thought.

Peaks and troughs over the three days

Just two weeks after everyone signed their death certificate, the Roosters are fourth after a stirring win over Parramatta in the best game of the round. Young guns Sam Walker and Joseph Suaalii were great and just when Parra looked to have worked out the Roosters’ defensive setup, the Chooks reasserted themselves to close out the game.

The Gold Coast pulled off the heist of the round with a late, late score to send their game against St George Illawarra to golden point, where the Dragons couldn’t get past critical, big-time errors from Ben Hunt, Tyrell Sloane and Talatau Amone and handed the Titans a win. The latter two were the younger players many had called to be selected – they’ll come good.

Newcastle finally delivered their fans a win but it was a dirge of a performance, only sealed at the death against a Canterbury team that was equally poor. That was the worst game of the round.

Manly tumbled out of the finals spots after Brisbane ran riot on the back of recruit Adam Reynolds, who laid on tries, scored them and gave flying winger Selwyn Cobbo a stage to shine. Brisbane’s 38-point shutout was the biggest margin of the round.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

South Sydney and New Zealand was the strangest game of the round. If anyone needed to run up a score it was the Bunnies, who led 26-6 at halftime and looked like they’d create a huge gap between them and their fellow finals chasers.

Instead they relaxed to a walk in the second half and let the Warriors do what they wanted, to the point where they almost stole the game away with a miracle ending. The Warriors have done nothing this season to show they’ve shaken their enigmatic stereotype.

Of course, Canberra’s stirring win with 11 men over Cronulla was easily the best win in the history of Magic Round. But I would say that, wouldn’t I.

Penrith took Melbourne to school

Penrith comprehensively dismantled an understrength Melbourne 32-6 in the Saturday rain. What had earlier shaped up as a cracker of a match lost a bit of sizzle when Melbourne went in without fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen, halfback Jahrome Hughes, centre Reimis Smith and then prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona dinged up his knee during the contest.

Penrith were everything they needed to be: ruthless, clinical, brutal and spectacular. They’d taken any Melbourne hopes of a miracle away before halftime. Melbourne five-eighth Cam Munster was right, they were made to look like an under-12s side.

Don’t get me wrong – the Storm hate to lose a game, but there’s losing, and then there’s losing. This was a beatdown but have no doubt they still carried out a useful intelligence gathering exercise.

Next time these two shape up in Round 22, the line-ups will likely be markedly different – will the result, though?

What do security guards and police actually do at NRL games?

Again we must ask – what are security and the police doing at NRL games? Multiple streakers can make it to the middle of the ground and one of them has enough time to stop and light a flare, now half a dozen pissed clowns can swing away for a couple of minutes completely unaccosted by anyone with authority.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo can talk as tough as he wants about safety at games, but there’s nothing he can actually do about it unless he decides to pull fixtures from locations and there’s more chance of me running a marathon in full Canberra Raiders kit than that happening.

Until the stadiums get their s–t together to look after the people in the stands and the players on the field, what are we doing here?

To stress – this isn’t just an NRL problem, it’s a sport problem. I’ve seen massive and brutal punch-ons at cricket and AFL games that resulted in really bad injuries and people who had nothing to do with it dragged in and hurt. I’ve also seen hundreds of police and security at A-League games where roaring, chanting crowds look at them bemused while nothing happens.

If you go to sport and want to punch on, you’re a dickhead. If your mate wants to, tell them they’re a dickhead.

The good vibe of the weekend was almost derailed by that bunch of wankers and it’s most certainly the only thing code warriors and NRL haters will take from Round 10.

Quick hits
– At time of writing, Trent Barrett was still Canterbury coach. By the time you read this, he may not be. Media reports the Bulldogs had called an ‘emergency meeting’ on Monday to discuss his position were all over the news on Sunday afternoon.

– Again the Cowboys take care of business and drive up their points differential. Wests Tigers couldn’t last the distance with a short bench and a dynamic attack coming at them from all angles.

– The Tigers have some bad injury issues piling up. Luke Brooks pulling a hamstring on Sunday night might hurt them more than people think, with 100 per cent of opposition attention now on Jackson Hastings. Can he handle it?

– Cronulla’s effort to lose to Canberra was really something – it’s not often your opponent gives away ten penalties, has three players binned, plays with 11 for a period then flogs you anyway.

To the next

Round 11 might not be ‘magic’, but there are plenty of games worth looking into.

Brisbane travel to Newcastle on Thursday, with the hosts in that rare air of shooting for two wins in a row. Wests Tigers have Canterbury, Parramatta face Manly after both sides had bad losses and there are interesting contests between South Sydney and Canberra in Dubbo and North Queensland and Melbourne, with a potential beauty on hand Saturday night when Penrith play the Roosters at the SCG.

What did you think of the weekend’s magic, Roarers?