NRL Round 12 talking points: Get those points in the bank

It was an important weekend’s NRL as teams tried to bank two crucial premiership points before Origin plays havoc with player availability and scheduling. Here come your talking points from Round 12.

Meaningful wins, meaningful losses

Important victories to the Roosters, Parramatta, Brisbane and South Sydney kept them on track for where they want to be.

Cronulla had a chance to put space on the Roosters, but now find themselves sliding lower and lower and only protected in the eight by points differential should more losses occur. There’s a lot of expectation on new coach Craig Fitzgibbon but perhaps we can be a touch more realistic about how Cronulla shapes up as the year progresses.

The Broncos are proving to be a real thing this year, with enough defence backed by an attack that can catch fire at most convenient moments. They’ve got a tough month during Origin featuring games against Melbourne and North Queensland, but so far Kevin Walters has his mob in a good place.

As for the Bunnies, they’re a fair-to-middling team playing fair-to-middling rugby league. As far as team regenerations go, it’s fair-to-middling. Are Souths supposed to be regenerating, though?

Cody Walker (Getty Images)

The Penrith tax is real – can North Queensland avoid paying it?

Usually getting blotted 22-0 means crisis and dismay but while the Cowboys scored no points, they lost no admirers. Based on their effort in Penrith, not many who watched North Queensland shape up against the best team in the competition would be ruling a line through their long-term chances.

As is their wont, Penrith absolutely dominated possession and position and were their usual relentless selves, but aside from bad ball control, the Cowboys provided stout resistance, tackling themselves into the ground when many other teams would have been punctured again and again.

The question now is if they can back it up on Thursday against the Titans and with a bunch of players lost to the Queensland Origin squad. They’ll be tired – logic says there’s a physical cost from churning your way to 426 tackles.

Canberra had a similar experience when they made over 400 tackles losing to Penrith 36-6, their next game a deplorable loss to New Zealand. Penrith pounded a wounded Melbourne 32-6, the Storm having to make over 400 tackles then getting shredded by the Cowboys the following week.

Only three teams have won the week after playing Penrith (Parramatta, who beat Penrith, lost their next game). Can the Cowboys be the fourth?

The Dragons stay at their level

A big part of being able to extend your season for any length of time is to beat those teams around you and one team doing this well is St George lllawarra.

Their 34-24 win over Canterbury wasn’t pretty, but few of their six wins have been. Their ascent to ninth has been on the back of winning when they should (Canterbury, Warriors x2, Wests Tigers) and sneaking one here and there against the better clubs (Roosters on Anzac Day).

The road ahead ain’t so smooth, though. After next week’s bye, the Dragons’ stretch is North Queensland (away), South Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane (away). Then it’s the Roosters, Manly and Cowboys again.

Are they good enough for a 4-3 run there? That should be enough to keep them around the lower rungs of the eight.

Origin comes along and takes the best

We’re at the time of the year when State of Origin makes a massive impact on teams trying to keep their seasons alive.

At time of writing, only New South Wales coach Brad Fittler had named his squad including seven Penrith players, at least five of which are likely to miss their game against Canterbury this week.

When Queensland name their squad Monday morning it will have ramifications for North Queensland and the Gold Coast. Manly will lose their halfback and New Zealand maybe their fullback.

Next Sunday, Canberra are without Josh Papalii and Jack Wighton, while the Roosters lose Daniel Tupou, James Tedesco and possibly Joseph Suaalii and Lindsay Collins.

(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

It is what it is, but depending on their schedule, teams scrubbing around the ladder’s middle eight can either use this time to make hay, or have their season completely derailed.

Quick hits

– Canberra’s Joe Tapine is quietly building a season that will result in a big contract somewhere. He’s easily in the game’s top five front rowers.

– Dylan Brown is a superstar at five-eighth. He dragged Parramatta across the line in Canberra with a masterclass in attacking running and smart play.

– Wests Tigers captain James Tamou was his team’s best forward against South Sydney, gaining 102 metres. Problem was, that was only good for 16th most in the game. No less than 12 South Sydney players gained more metres than the Tigers’ best forward. Maybe Payne Haas can fix that?

– Coughing up a 24-4 lead to lose 35-24 is a new Gold Coast low. Will that trigger self-reflection and a turnaround, or does it calcify a losing culture?

– South Sydney only made eight errors, their first 2022 game under double figure mistakes… and they won 44-18. How about that?

– All things considered, Reuben Garrick was pretty good at fullback as the Sea Eagles resumed life without Tom Trbojevic. Shame his team couldn’t back him, going down 28-8 in Melbourne.

– Nice work Rabbitohs winger Alex Johnston, who scored his 145th, 146th and 147th tries against Wests Tigers to beat Nathan Merritt’s club record.

– Josh Addo-Carr is incredibly unlucky to miss the New South Wales squad. The Foxx is a great player who thrives with other great players and is, to coin a phrase, built for Origin.

To the next

Bye week! The worst two words for most fans of sport. Only four games next week, maybe only one decent contest and Origin call-ups wreaking havoc with selection.

We begin Thursday with the Cowboys visiting the Titans at Robina, then on Friday Penrith (sans half a squad) host Canterbury, Saturday sees Manly hosting the Warriors and Sunday’s lone game is the round’s decent match-up between Canberra and the Roosters in the nation’s capital.

Surely there’s a better way than standing down half the comp on a bye?

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