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Opinion
Back to some semblance of NRL normalcy, if you ignore all the injured Origin players. Here come your talking points.
For the last few seasons NRL head of football elite competitions Graham Annesley has been spending Monday afternoons holding his weekly football briefing for journalists, where he looks at refereeing decisions, answers questions and shows selected data from the round just gone.
Those of you who’ve sat through one or two of these know they’re interesting enough on occasion, but mainly a dirge that’s not really worth the time.
But what bugs me the most about these is that Annesley makes a point of highlighting referee errors. There’s nothing to be gained from hanging the refs out to dry. All it does is further inflame aggrieved fans and add days of bullshit in the NRL media about how bad they think the refereeing is.
There aren’t many sports in the world that disrespect match officials more than rugby league and the NRL in particular. It’s a demanding, incredibly difficult and heavily scrutinised role that I doubt most of us would be able to hack.
So if Annesley simply must get himself in front of a camera, he should back his match officials and move on. Don’t feed the beast and when errors are made, talk about it behind closed doors.
Victor Radley is sent to the sin bin. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
They sit in fourth place, are +80 in their points differential. So why are there still doubts about the Sharks?
Last year Cronulla won 15 games, but only four of them were against top eight sides and they crashed out of the finals in straight sets.
In 2023, they’re 7-5 with not one win coming against a top eight side. They’ve had embarrassing reversals in games they were expected to win against Canberra, New Zealand and Brisbane last week.
Jesse Ramien celebrates after scoring. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
It’s one thing to cash in against poorer sides, but teams with serious credentials have game plans that stand up against examination by genuine contenders.
The Sharks have five games left this season against teams currently in the finals spots. Right now, they’re coming up short, but there’s time to rectify.
Our full NRL weekend is back, with the round starting Thursday when the Titans and Tigers do battle. Will they be able to replicate their iconic 8-6 balltearer in 2022? Probably not.
The Titans remain an unstoppable conundrum and got towelled up big time by South Sydney last week. Wests took 75 minutes to crack the Raiders’ defence and almost turned over 18 points into a win, but fell short. They need to aim up early and there’s likely to be a few points in this one.
Friday’s early game sees New Zealand head to the capital to play the role of spoiler in Canberra co-captain Jarrod Croker’s 300th game. The Warriors were workmanlike in shutting down the Dolphins 30-8 in Auckland and they’re a strong chance to poop the local’s party.
Primetime Friday we’ve got Manly and the Dolphins back from the bye. Wayne Bennett’s starting to lose more and more of his roster to injury while Manly are running with star fullback Tom Trbojevic, who is able to put his long-term health at risk thanks to a technicality in concussion protocols.
St George-Illawarra game it a good crack against the Panthers, undone by late fades and a shocking referee discussion which went against them. They’ll face up to South Sydney on Saturday afternoon who are still racking up wins.
The Broncos are the real deal and they’ll host Newcastle in Brisbane at the bizarre time of 5.30 Saturday, a most un-bronco scenario. The Knights had the bye last week and are still in touch with the finals, it’ll be worth seeing how they attack Brisbane’s strong middle defence.
Penrith and the Roosters finish Saturday in what’s usually a highly anticipated matchup, but expectations for this one have changed. The Roosters got away with one last week to squeak past Canterbury while Penrith also had a close run thing with St George-Illawarra, but it’s the premiers showing a more consistent on-field product so far.
Sunday has an interesting matchup when Cronulla travel to Melbourne seeking a genuine scalp. Normally you’d expect the Storm to be livid and ready to destroy after getting touched up 45-20 in Townsville but this version of the purple monster might not be able to live up to the type… We’ll see how they come out from the blocks.
Last game of the round is Canterbury and Parramatta, and if the Eels win they’ll likely be in the bottom section of the eight. The Bulldogs played well last week but their problem (among other things) has been backing that effort up once more.
The bye once again pulls the handbrake on a team in form, with the Cowboys taking the week off.
– Disgraced former Cronulla coach and hopeless Fox League special commenter Shane Flanagan is favoured to take the Dragons job, a classic St George-Illawarra move.
– Apparently NRL CEO Andrew Abdo is blowing the ceremonial Viking Horn in Canberra as the Raiders run out for Jarrod Croker’s 300th game. One question – WHY???
– Jack Cogger takes the reins for Penrith with news regular halfback Nathan Cleary is out for 4-6 weeks. Cogger’s a decent player who will plug nicely into the Panthers system.
– Being knocked into next year by Joseph Aukuso Sua’ali’i’s knee hasn’t stopped Reed Mahoney being picked by Canterbury, who have applied for an exemption from the mandatory 11-day concussion stand down. If Mahoney’s allowed to play, after Tom Trbojevic was too, what are we doing here?
What’s got you talking ahead of Round 15, Roarers?