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Nine down and things are getting very, very interesting indeed. We got a bit of everything this weekend: close finishes, statement victories, huge upsets, crazy weather games…and that was just the Tigers v Panthers on Saturday night.
As we move to Magic Round next time out, the real table is still as clear as mud. Even accounting for byes, we get one side on seven wins, another on six, four on five and six on four victories. It’s tighter than a Yorkshireman’s wallet in there, with apologies to John Bateman and Elliott Whitehead.
We don’t care about anything as piffling as ‘results’ and ‘form’ here though. Where we’re going, we don’t need ladders. Here’s the totally subjective, who’d win if they played the finals tomorrow, come fight me in the comments Round 9 Power Rankings.
Table-toppers for the foreseeable given the statement nature of their last two victories. Souths have won twice against the last two occupants of the top of this list and did so by playing their way, with expansive footy on pretty much every set and a defence that can back it up.
They’re the best to watch in the comp and have been for a while, but are now able to mix it with the very best off the ball too. The team to beat.
What do you take out of losing to the Tigers? It’s embarrassing, of course, and it’s now becoming something of a trend. Six of the Panthers’ eight games – seven of nine if you include the World Club Challenge – have been tight, and they’ve won just twice. That’s a worry.
It’s better to be in the fight than not, and teams will aim up against the back-to-back champs. Faith is not lost quickly when it has been built over such a long period of excellence. But it’s final warning time for our second-placed side and if they lose again in close circumstances soon, you can expect a demotion.
Nicho is a superstar, the Sharks are great. They were assisted by a charitable Cowboys team but the off-the-ball movement and willingness to chuck the ball are to be admired. Lingering suspicions about defensive solidity remain but nobody was talking about that on Thursday so let’s not spoil the party with it here.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The Broncos bounced back to earth with a bump, but it won’t faze them. The Bunnies are further along in this caper and showed why on Friday night.
But don’t discount these Bronx. Throw Payne Haas and Ezra Mam back in and you’re looking at a closer game, and this team is only getting better together.
Their draw has been soft so far but never really gets tough for a long stretch – compare Parra and Souths – so they’ll make the Finals and, probably, the top four. They’d do well to treat every game against a contender like a rehearsal from here out.
A solid win over bye – even Bellache couldn’t find fault in their performance. This column operates a rule in 2023 that teams with a bye go neither up nor down (given that they haven’t played), but if we didn’t, the Storm could well have gone up without taking to the field given results elsewhere.
The Roosters gritted out a win in tough circumstances against a live opponent in the Warriors. It might have been easier with a certain halfback able to kick a little more effectively in said tough circumstances, but that’s by the by.
With the injury to Paul Momirovski, it’s likely that the tedious debate around it all goes away anyway. For better or worse, that’s two in a row for the Chooks and the Cowboys are up next, so it’ll be three from three.
Tough conditions, men out and a few questionable officiating moments were just some of the excuses the Warriors could rightly give for their defeat to the Roosters on Sunday lunchtime. Forgiveness abounds, as do this week’s coveted ‘good defeat’ points.
Panthers next week, though, and they’ll be smarting. A big test awaits.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – APRIL 30: Joseph Manu of the Roosters attacks during the round nine NRL match between New Zealand Warriors and Sydney Roosters at Mt Smart Stadium on April 30, 2023 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Plenty of credit goes to Parra for their performance on Friday teatime. Sure, it might have looked like Newcastle were mannequins at times, but the Eels put on the attack that made them seem so silly – and without their best forward, too.
We won’t be putting the farm on another Grand Final appearance just yet but it’s green shoots in Parramatta after a confidence-boosting win.
Canberra came off an emotional week, and the bye, like a team possessed. Then they chucked it, because they do that sort of thing all the time.
Let’s not be too harsh on Ricky’s Raiders, who don’t need anyone else to kick them at the moment, and did get the win in the end (after a fashion). They need to improve pronto, though.
The unkillable beasts of the NRL after just nine games. You have to love the spirit and dig in this bunch. Even the data and stats types who think that intangibles don’t matter that much are left wondering how a team of bang average jobbers so consistently overperform the sum of their parts.
It’s no fluke, and that’s why they go up a spot despite losing.
Manly played like drains and deserved to lose to the Titans. They will, and it cannot be underlined enough, get absolutely flogged by Brisbane next week.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Slack is given this week for an off-night in which Parra played well and Newcastle didn’t show up. They’re off to Bali this week on the bye and hopefully flush that result out of their system in a flood of Bintangs. Future Power Rankings may be less kind if they continue to be rubbish.
It’s impossible not to love the grit on show in the Gong on Sunday. They’ve got some, err, dog in them.
Points off for a guy called Grub acting like one – please don’t talk to refs like that – but generally a great day at the office for a team that have done it very tough and deserve something good.
North Queensland got thrashed in the Thursday game and deservedly so. Given how well they played against Cronulla last year, it’s hard not to draw a straight line between then and now and ask where it’s all gone wrong.
The defence is the short answer. Their attack was never that good even when the team were good, and now the tackling has gone to pot, the Cows are getting thrashed.
Magic Round might be chastening given the Roosters’ slow return to form, but the Dragons and Tigers come after that so there is hope yet for a resurgence.
Queensland might still pick plenty of their boys, too, though Jeremiah Nanai won’t be one of them.
Junior Tupou is tackled by Brian To’o. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
This team. This bloody team. What do you do with the Titans? They destroyed Manly and deservedly so.
In the post-match presser, Justin Holbrook reiterated that a team that goes 26-0 up isn’t a bad one, even if it chucks away that lead and loses. He didn’t mention that a side who do such things repeatedly probably aren’t that crash hot either, but that’s by the by.
God love the Tigers. They deserve to celebrate their biggest victory in nearly a year: being taken off the bottom of the Power Rankings.
The Dragons are so bad that, even when their opponents are driving to the stadium in an ambulance, they still can’t get the win. It’s particularly annoying as we got a snippet of how well they can play last week in the Anzac game, only for a return to regular service this week.
They completed at 83% though, so there’s that.