Five games to go and plenty to play for up and down the ladder. Who will hang on in round 23? here come your NRL preview talking points.
Go west, life is peaceful there
Perth hosts Saturday’s double header this week with the Dolphins playing Newcastle and the Rabbitohs playing the Sharks. Western Australia is the one place that the NRL needs a team more than any other, with rabid local support, a strong corporate presence and quality facilities.
Anyone who knows anything about Western Australian sports also knows it’s not a place where long dead NSWRL teams should go begging for resurrection – WA folks don’t want ring-ins, they want their own team. And they should have one.
Perth Stadium. (Grant Trouville NRL Photos).
Melbourne celebrate their ill-gotten gains… again
I’m not going to re-prosecute my thoughts on Melbourne celebrating their 2007 and 2009 premierships which were stripped due to rampant salary cap cheating, you can read all I had to say about it here because this has happened before.
Melbourne rolling out two replica trophies for titles that were removed certainly was something, especially when they were playing the team the beat in one of those cheating years. For those wondering if Melbourne will be in strife for this middle finger to the game – the NRL did nothing about it in 2019, and they’ll likely do nothing about it now. If they were going to, they would have already.
Good games this week
Fresh off a 22-point loss the Roosters start favourite with the bookies for some reason this Thursday at the SCG against the Sea Eagles. The chooks are out of finals thinking and Manly need wins to reach the lower part of the eight. Wonder which team has more to play for.
Speaking of finals dreamers, the Gold Coast host the rested Warriors and simply must win to have a top eight chance. The Titans are four points and points differential from eighth and have a brutal run home featuring Penrith and Melbourne.
New Zealand took the two from the bye and now sit third, with a delightful run home featuring no top eight sides. It would be classic Warriors to balls it up from here though….
Friday primetime is Penrith and Melbourne in Penrith, two teams in great nick who may not be keen on revealing too much so close to the end of the season. Should we just be prepared for a meat and potatoes battle with both sides employing five hit ups and a kick?
Saturday starts with a ripper when the Cowboys host the Broncos, the classic Queensland derby which could pull the handbrake on North Queensland’s run up the table. Brisbane have a two-game space on third and only need a couple more wins to secure a home final in week one. Maybe that will get Kevin Walters some respect for a job well done?
Broncos coach Kevin Walters. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Saturday twilight is the first of a Perth doubleheader with the Dolphins and Knights, with Newcastle on a month long winning streak but still acting calamitous in the back, undermining coach Adam O’Brien and causing headlines by meeting with discarded Titans coach Justin Holbrook. Will that affect the team? You’d think not, but let us see.
The Dolphins have already done enough for season one to be an incredible success and they’ve basically been playing with house money for weeks.
Saturday night on paper should be a good game but with Cronulla’s recent run of disgraceful form, the South Sydney Rabbitohs are the last team they’d want to be facing. Both teams are on 26 points so this one matters – if results go other ways, the loser will be out of the eight.
Sunday has two matchups which appear straightforward but involve mercurial favourites who might just cough up a game. It begins with Parramatta and St George Illawarra in a game the Eels absolutely positively must win, with a final month including the Broncos, Roosters and Panthers with a bye in the final round which may prove decisive.
The Dragons have been playing pretty hard without a win recently and can’t be dismissed out of hand, but in the cold light of day this is a team with finals designs against the team who’s second bottom.
(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
And it’s the team at the bottom who will fancy their chances in the round’s final game when Wests Tigers and Canberra battle in the capital. Ricky Stuart has shaken up his team after a month of poor defence and stodgy attack, with inspirational captain but defensive liability Jarrod Croker being out ‘injured’ a pretty big selection move.
Canberra have a -90 points differential in their home games this year and yes you read that right. Their run of wins means they’re an unlikely shot at the top four, but their for and against of -78 means they simply must win games like this to even make sure of being in the finals at all.
The Tigers are running last and only have three wins, but are still making a nuisance of themselves every week, they’ve been no pushover in the second half of the season.
Canterbury have the bye, cruelly ending their winning momentum after they snuck past the Dolphins last week.
Week 23 random observations
- Only two rounds into the NRLW but season 2023 is a ripper – the four new clubs have all won a game, Wests Tigers are shredding all before them while usual champs Brisbane are winless and in strife. If you’re not watching, you should be.
- Following on from last week, Melbourne fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen has been named in the Storm’s feeder team this weekend. Who knows how he’ll go cos he’s been out so long, but it’s fantastic news after such a long recovery from a fractured kneecap.
- ‘Try July’ is over, and the funky try celebrations you loved and loathed in the NRL and NRLW raised around $400,000 according to the NRL. That’s fantastic stuff but why can’t we have funky celebrations every week?
What’s got you talking ahead of round 23, Roarers?
Redcap
Roar Guru
In other words, it's a deflection. Are you proud of the Melbourne Storm celebrating their ill-gotten gains, whatever the reasons (justifications) - utterly shameless behaviour on their part which you clearly endorse. :happy: I remember the literary references - that was the really vacuous part. :happy:
KenW
Roar Rookie
unprecedented punishment...The deeper cause of the undisputedly frenzied and disproportionate response from outsiders to Storm’s cheating It feels like you're totally discounting the Bulldogs having a similar level of breach, the exact same penalty, and probably more vitriol. Certainly more headlines that went on for longer - especially with the outcomes on the Oasis project. That the penalty was the same despite the far worse effects of the Storm's cheating - throwing seasons in the bin was a far bigger black eye for the game - they were lucky the NRL went so lightly on them.
KenW
Roar Rookie
I don't like them, but then again I don't like the Broncos, or Manly, or the Dogs, pretty down on the Roosters, really get a kick out of beating the Bunnies, Penrith can go get #$%^, and don't my Parra friends hear about it when we beat them. I really don't like anyone apart from my team come to think of it. Melbourne elevated themselves at the time though, and they peak back up the list when they carry on like this.
KenW
Roar Rookie
The overwhelming impression of the Melbourne Storm is generally back to being a fantastically run, perennially successful club. The baffling thing is the only thing that taints that shine in 2023 is their insistence on continually reminding everyone of their shameful past and then pointing out they are proud of it.
RobboMaroon
Roar Rookie
Firstly, the Storm were dealt with harshly by having both Premierships taken off them. The only team that has lost a Premiership due to being over the Salary Cap. Call it cheating if you want to, I like to think of it as creative accounting. Since then the rules surrounding the Salary Cap has been changed to permit certain third party payments. Secondly, why does everyone think that the Bronco's are coming second when they have won one more game than the Panthers. Unless the Broncos lose a game in the run up to the finals they will be the minor Premiers. Also it is assumed that the Panthers will win all of their remaining games. Nothing is a certainty in this crazy old game of League. Finally, I will agree with you that the Women's matches so far have been outstanding & this is unlikely to change this season. Anyone not supporting the NRLW is not a true fan of Rugby League.
Chris
Roar Pro
Yep, we cheated and it sucks so bad. But as a newer club, it takes up basically a FIFTH of our history. I'm hoping for the day when we can get this behind us, but the way the club and players have acted is so infuriating. Maybe I should just embrace the villain role :laughing: :laughing:
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Hi David, that 'vacuous' article you refer to was mine! :) In case you didn't read my reply to your comments on that article here it is again:-"To be fair to me that was not the original title. This is the original:-https://whatarethechancesofthat.com.au/2023/07/13/melbourne-storm-revisit-mad-dark-salary-cap-days/ The focus of the piece is not on whether the Storm cheated which they clearly did, or even the appropriateness of the unprecedented punishment but the significance of the saga for the club and its supporters, and the game. The deeper cause of the undisputedly frenzied and disproportionate response from outsiders to Storm’s cheating, and finally what the episode revealed about sport, human nature and the propensity for cheating. There were no ‘justifcations’ for the breaches, just reasons. On the “nature of Melbourne’s malfeasance”. Read one of those literary references (Roth)". Cheers, Andrew.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Win this weekend and they'll get 5th. Possible 4th if Storm falter. The other three in the top four are virtual locks.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
:unhappy:
The Barry
Roar Guru
Good to hear that side of it. Appreciate your position - must have been awful. Respect your sense of sportsmanship I guess it’s slightly different because we were busted before the fact and not after we’d won a premiership, but I was devastated when the Dogs were busted in 02. That turned pretty quickly into embarrassment. I’ve never complained about the penalty. I’ve never held that team up when ‘great sides’ are being discussed. I’ve never bragged about their run of wins We che.ated. It was a terrible chapter in the club’s history
Noel
Roar Rookie
How many of Gallen's personal record got wiped after his drug ban? It was backdated, so did every game he play, and awards he won get erased for that period?
Chris
Roar Pro
It's put a bad taste in my mouth as a member. There's a few justifiable reasons for Storm fans to be very defensive about everything, but there are just some of us just outright defending cheating (by administrators and higher-ups) which is puzzling. My first ever football memories are of a team I have later found out to be illegal. Sucks, but cheating is worse. I know the players were isolated and a tight-knit group when playing in 2009, but I can't get behind the public celebrations. Makes wearing my hoodie jumper in public a little harder every time they issue a tone deaf comment.
matth
Roar Guru
I think we are covered for average to okay halves. We’d need a real top shelf option to shift the needle significantly compared to the Milford/SOS/Katoa/Nikorima options. I’d rather buy another top class edge forward and maybe a winger, unless Cleary wants a sea change or DCE wants to come home for some nostalgia. Katoa is our future
Greg
Roar Pro
okay, it is one of the reasons nobody likes them...
Rellum
Roar Guru
Sexton at the Dolphins would have been a good signing. At least from the outside
matth
Roar Guru
I think they were disliked well before that.
Horses for Courses
Roar Rookie
That is a load of bull, nobody liked them well before anyone knew they were cheating. Nobody likes them because they are successful, you're just using the cheating stuff as an excuse.
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
As someone who in 2009 flew from Cairns to Sydney via Townsville, went to the GF, had no accommodation, killed time the next day waiting for his flight home by going to a god awful Mariners v Sydney FC game, before flying home - all for a GF which meant nothing, I am one of the people who should be aggrieved by the Storm celebrating 09 again. But honestly i couldn't care less. We all like to have something to have a rant about, me especially, but i feel like this is something where it is like, "why would i care? And what does giving it a second thought achieve?" I get that is the minority view. but meh, time has passed and it feels like an 'old man yelling at clouds' topic to me. Pennies v Storm and the QLD derby are stand out games. Roosters v Manly is usually entertaining, and this should be too, even if not expertly executed. Hard to see the Dolphins getting up to play. What is Croker's "injury"? Realistically the guy is done. Well cooked. The Raiders are really struggling with what to do with a nice guy and great club man who can't play anymore and is hurting their Finals campaign.
matth
Roar Guru
Yep that was the last chance saloon for mine. The Bulldogs played the better football and with Sexton running the show that might not be the last team they trip up.
steveng
Roar Rookie
DP, Souths top 4, imo its very sus (they blew that chance ages ago from R12) as there has to be allot of things go Souths way for them to make the 4, I can’t see the Warriors getting beat in the next 5 rounds, they have a very easy draw, and as for the Storm, imo they could lose two to the Panthers and Broncs but can’t see them losing to the Raiders, Dragons and Titans as then Souths will have a good chance, but they will have to win every game and accumulate allot of points, as even if the Storm lose the two games, they will be on equal points to Souths but the points difference is where Souths have to pile it on, to have any chance of making the 4, hard task and at best Souths will get 5th, that is my prediction, which is a poor effort as they should have been a top 4 certainty and a real chance for 2023. Lets see what happens for Souths in 5th spot???