Newcastle wound the clock back over a decade with a full house at McDonald Jones Stadium on a Sunday afternoon with the Knights putting in a tremendous team display to make it seven wins on the trot.
They were very impressive in their “must win” game against the Rabbitohs who were far from their best and only have one game left to make the finals let alone make a premiership charge.
Star fullback Kalyn Ponga has been player of the match in nearly every one of their run of victories and he was instrumental in most of their left-edge attack against the Bunnies.
You know someone is a quality player when the opposition does their “homework” and they still come up empty, which is what happened to South Sydney’s right edge on several occasions on Sunday.
The speed and execution of the Knights attack was great to watch and they are finishing the year very strongly.
Greg Marzhew scores. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
Sharks back in contention after regaining their bite
Other than Newcastle, If you’re looking at form over the past three weeks, I’d have Brisbane and Penrith in that order and then Cronulla.
And that’s a helluva turnaround from a few weeks ago when it looked like the Sharks were dead and buried.
They were far too good for the Cowboys at QCB Stadium on Thursday night and they’re back to playing the type of footy that Craig Fitzgibbon wants.
They’re competing on every play, their back five are giving them a lot of momentum to start their sets and Nicho Hynes is back to playing like he did last year when he won the Dally M.
Ronaldo Mulitalo. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Cameron McInnes is tackling everything that moves but he’s also hitting the ball up with intent. They’re getting quality minutes from their forwards with guys like Royce Hunt, Toby Rudolf and Jack Williams stepping up and Wade Graham going on a bit of a final fling before retirement.
This time of year is all about the teams that are prepared to work the hardest no matter what and Cronulla are rolling up their sleeves, saving tries, showing commitment with their goal-line defence and taking the tough carries.
Connor Tracey has been a revelation at fullback with Will Kennedy out injured, I think he made 200-plus metres the other night and made a few crucial tackles, plus Braydon Trindall is complementing Hynes in the halves nicely.
They seem a pretty galvanised group so they could be dangerous in the finals.
The Cowboys haven’t recovered from that run of six, winning games where they pulled themselves back up the ladder and it looks like they’ve run out of energy a bit the last few weeks in losing to the Titans, Broncos and now Sharks.
They have a slight chance of making the top eight but they haven’t been able to find the magic elixir to get their season back on track.
Sea Eagles unlucky with Garrick penalty
The Warriors played well to get past a desperate Manly side but I thought the Sea Eagles were a trifle unlucky with the call that went against them late in the game when Reuben Garrick was flipped in a tackle by Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.
It was great by the Warriors to show desperation to charge down the Daly Cherry-Evans field goal and by the letter of the law in the rulebook, Nicoll-Klokstad was entitled to tackle Garrick because he wasn’t jumping to catch a kick, but I thought it could have been a penalty.
Anthony Seibold wasn’t too happy about the call and if I was in his shoes, I would have felt the same.
The NRL can justify the decision to say it was accidental but in the context of the game it was critical.
The Warriors still did well to then march the ball down the other end of the field and come away with the win.
Their form hasn’t been quite as strong over the past few weeks but they have a couple of weeks before the finals to get back to their best.
It was a good example of what I wrote last week about how teams who drop off at this time of year – Manly competed for most of the match but couldn’t quite go the distance and the Eels are now goners after getting beaten by the Roosters.
Benji can breathe life into Tigers
It wasn’t surprising to see the Wests Tigers bring Benji Marshall’s time as head coach by 12 months.
Their win over the Dolphins wasn’t the greatest advertisement for rugby league but when you’ve lost 10 straight, you will take any win you can get and it was pleasing to see Api Koroisau’s long-range penalty goal from out wide just sneak over.
Poor old Tim Sheens has been moved on and it’s a common occurrence in rugby league that the coach gets the blame while the coach and CEO keep their gigs.
Marshall can make a good fist of it if he can have a high level of autonomy surrounding recruitment and coaching staff.
Even as a rookie coach you need to have a strong say on who you have around you and how you do things.
You inherit player contracts that you might not be too enthralled about and you have to build your relationship with the player managers and all the many stakeholders in a club to give yourself the best shot of succeeding.
There’s a range of different areas that you’ve got to have your eye on but the good NRL coaches are the ones who can focus on preparing the team on the field every week because they have people they can trust looking after all the peripheral stuff like recruitment, strength and conditioning and so on.
I’m a little bit more optimistic about the future for them now too.
Benji Marshall. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Hope for Dragons heading into 2024
St George Illawarra are back playing with plenty of spirit over the second half of the year since Ryan Carr took over as interim coach when Anthony Griffin got told his services were no longer required.
Most teams, given their situation, against Melbourne could have not really had a dig but they took that match down to the wire and it could have been a different result if Ben Hunt had managed to land a conversion from the sideline late in the piece.
I don’t think he would have kicked one from there since he was playing for the Yeppoon Devils under 14s way back when.
They’ve lost a fair few matches by less than 10 points this year and with Shane Flanagan coming in next year, Hunt sticking around a bit more experience in their key positions there’s a bit more hope for the future.
The Barry
Roar Guru
PPS - so you were arguing against a ‘small army’ and you had to call off the debate, because not one soldier in that small army could counter your argument that referees can ‘play God’ and make up their own rules?!?!? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: And you think I have a distorted view of things…
The Barry
Roar Guru
PS - you just typed that you can’t be bothered replying to me, in your reply to me
The Barry
Roar Guru
My nonsense !!! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: He was saying refs don’t have discretion to act outside the rule book. You’re the one saying they can… So, tell me one time a referee has “played god” and created a rule that’s not in the rule book! Don’t call me names and insult me, just give me ONE example in the entire history of rugby league where a referee has made up his own rule that proves the point YOU made… These are your words. If they sound like nonsense when someone says it back to you, that’s on you
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
I can't be bothered replying to your nonsense again. I'm replying to Dumbo and if you read his comment you'll find that he claimed if the NRL were to give the refs discretion then consistency would fly out the window. I'm talking to the person who says refs don't have discretion and he's not alone no matter what you wish to dribble on about again. I've proven in the past that refs can't follow the rule book to the letter of the law because it's not feasible. I wasn't arguing against a small minority , it was a small army. Doesn't suit your distorted view on anything I say , so good luck.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
I perceive them as ring leaders of a group that is playing below par footy because of very ordinary attitudes, which could probably change quickly if Walker and LM changed their collective mindsets. The other two blokes you mentioned are out & out champions IMO, Tough to think of guys who have played with more heart in recent seasons
Cam
Roar Rookie
To be fair, they need to be singled out, those boys are marquee players and leaders in the group. We have seen good leaders in average teams maintain standards through the season, Daly Cherry-Evans and Ben Hunt spring to mind.
The Barry
Roar Guru
As always No knock on Edwards, but it will be hard for him to rack up maximums in the Panthers lineup Ponga would be close enough to three points in every game the Knights have won SJ has a bit more competition for points, but has been a standout pretty much the whole season
The Barry
Roar Guru
I remember the headlines… INTERNET TO BE SHUT DOWN. FORTY TWENTY WINS ALL SOCIAL MEDIA 1. Discretion is fine. I think most people realise that referees need to use discretion. But there’s a MASSIVE difference between a referee not applying every single rule to every single play, versus the ref ‘playing God’ to make up whatever rule they want, whenever they want. The refs can’t actually ‘play God’ - as you strangely put it several times. Of course they are bound by the rule book 2. Who has said the ref only had one option? 3. Your last point about Garrick getting smashed on the ground, doesn’t even make sense to your argument. If the ref sent the player off in those circumstances, he would still be acting within and bound by the confines of the rule book, not playing God and making his own rules up A better example for you would be something like “if Garrick got up and started quacking like a duck and trying to lay an egg, the ref could play God, invent his own rule and send him off for fowl play” (see what I did there…) That’s taken me a couple of minutes to counter. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Does that mean I win the internet today…? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
Agreed. I don't know if O'Brien discussed it with his players, but it seemed from very early on they weren't going to take any nonsense from the Souths players. What's sad is that the guys you mentioned do it at all. I'm not sure I can think of a time when they've gone the niggle IF they're playing their best football. They'll retaliate if the opposition does it, but if they're throwing the ball around and enjoying playing, they don't seem to need to do stupid things.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
The problem rests with the Laws as they stand, which are a carryover from times past, when things like shoulder charges were not only condoned but encouraged. We've now got a Law that says if a player is in midair trying to catch a kick on the full, they can't be touched, yet in the Garrick case, he was fair game for just about anything because the ball bounced!! At some point soon, the NRL needs to look at the Laws and re-write them to take into account the new reality - player safety has to be its number 1 priority.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Very hard to attract Dally M points in that Panthers team, tho. Same problem for players like Martin. But the fans and the team mates and the coaches know who their best are.
Get_real
Roar Rookie
More teams should start getting in Latrell, Cody. Milne and Taas's faces as soon as they turn on the cheap shots even if they are mistimed, Newcastle did well the ref should have reviewed the cause of the first scrap.
Albo
Roar Rookie
Not too much wrong with Dylan Edwards form this season also, amongst a team of stars . He just seems to be getting better with each game at present. On Saturday 23 runs / 303 metres / 77 post contact metres / 11 tackle busts / 2 tries. The quiet achiever.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
The debate on refs using discretion has been debated before and my response where the consensus was that refs should just follow the rule book and stop using discretion was one of the few times on social media where I halted the debate because nobody could counter my argument. No ref follows the rule book to the letter of the law because they could find a penalty every set of six. Therefore they all use discretion and if you like , play god. Would anyone think a ref should notice a fatigued player with his foot a few inches offside in the last seconds of a GF who has no impact on play at all and then penalise him and decide the game? No is the answer, because being a ref has a managing element to it and it's well accepted that the refs don't blow the whistle every time. With the Garrick tackle , the ref once again has the choice either way and has played god again because he could have gone either way. Many claim he should have gone the penalty way. It's a valid opinion and clearly an option the ref could have taken. Those who claim it shouldn't be a penalty have a valid opinion as well but to claim the rule means they ref only had one option is 100% inaccurate. He could have used discretion like they commonly use. If Garrick held onto the ball and was screaming in pain with players from both sides concerned and trying to help but one Warriors player with rule book in hand smashes him on the ground do you not understand the refs power in being able to send the player off? It is dangerous regardless of the rule supporting the tackle.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
I think the way players react certainly has an impact on the way the officials deal with issues. If LM had tried to belt Frizell and Frizell simply got up and laughed, I reckon it might have been a penalty at most. LM probably wouldn't have even been put on report. In the case of the guys on the receiving end of the Rapana efforts, they barely reacted (in comparison to Frizzell that is), even though, as you rightly say, his "tackles" were vastly worse. That Rapana didn't get time in the bin for any one of his offences at the least is staggering. It wasn't that long ago guys were spending a lot of time on the ground, trying to milk penalties. I think the NRL risks going back to those times if they don't get serious about some of the dirty play we're still seeing. Rapana had a MOTM game, other than that, which meant the media wrongly focused only on his good play, rather than seriously looking at all aspects of his 80 minutes. LM had one of his poorer games, so the media used his binning as the lead for more sensationalist nonsense
The Barry
Roar Guru
It’s going to be an interesting finale for the Dally M between him and Shaun Johnson
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Ponga has been one of the stars of the comp since coming back.
The Barry
Roar Guru
There’s not that much field if he’s going to where the ball is Hard to take out one leg only. Still, the rules say there’s no imperative on him to avoid any legs in that situation
Renegade
Roar Guru
:laughing:
The Barry
Roar Guru
So player reactions determine how serious incident are Latrell caused glancing contact with Frizell’s head Rapana did that twice to Kikau before finally connecting on his third attempt. That one incident is vastly, objectively and demonstrably worse than anything Latrell did And that was the least of Rapana’s three offences on the day. Kneed Wilson in the back after he scored and landed full force with the knees into Kikau’s back chasing a loose ball I know you’re not defending Rapana mate, but I’m amazed here slightly, but on social media the wolves are howling for Latrell and Rapana has barely been mentioned