The home straight is being turned as we speak, and amazingly, our beloved NRL logjam really hasn’t gone anywhere.
Newcastle are in, and it would take a points swing of monumental proportions for the Sharks not to make it, but we still have four into two after that, with plenty of moving parts too.
Beyond even that, however, there was the injuries. Nicho Hynes went down before the weekend even started, then you got Jarome Luai, Clint Gutherson, Joey Manu and Kalyn Ponga go down.
Will anyone be left to play come finals time? Will we have to call the comp off? Should we just skip the next month and let Brisbane play Penrith anyway?
There are no answers to these questions, but there are rankings. For one final time – it’s Power Rankings time.
Crack in the armour or nothing game against a fired up opponent? Probably the latter. Parra played like there was no tomorrow, largely because there wasn’t one, while Penrith have plenty of tomorrows and let today slip. We’ll not read too much into it.
No Reynolds, no Carrigan, no problem. The Broncos won at Canberra and probably should have done so more comfortably, given they won 6-3 on tries and 9-4 on line breaks. Much as it’s fun to talk about refereeing, this wasn’t a close game.
The Minor Premiership is in their hands on Thursday night, and seen as Brisbane haven’t won it since 2000, they’ll not want to let it slip.
The Storm did that thing again where they win pretty comfortably but also look a little ropey in the process. It’s a good trick to have, for sure, but might get found out once someone realises how easily they can get over in goalline situations.
The ladder splits into top four and bottom four as far as the finals are concerned, but really, it’s a top two and a bottom six. Anyone can beat anyone after that.
Knights celebrate the try of Kalyn Ponga. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)
Newcastle are the new Warriors, a proper vibes train of a team with lots of loveable little elements.
There’s Kalyn Ponga, looking a million dollars for once at the back, and Dom Young, who looks like he could become the best winger in the world, with full Pommy bias acknowledged. Even Tyson Gamble, not a character necessarily featured in the same breath as ‘loveable’ very often, has been excellent, and Adam Clune! Was anyone expecting a Clune-aissance? Is that a word? What have Newcastle done to the Power Rankings?!
Last week’s Power Rankings described the Warriors as ‘sleepwalking’ into the finals, and nothing seen on Friday night dissuaded that notion. The Dragons are really, really bad and New Zealand made very heavy weather of beating them.
Like Melbourne, however, it might be that it’s better to win and look bad than (cough, Souths, cough Cronulla) look flashy but not always win.
It’s not quite back to square one for Cronulla, who ran into the vibes train and came off second best, but they were pretty disappointing in defeat to Newcastle and will need to dust themselves off sharpish to get by a Canberra team that loves to fight its way out of a corner.
It’s hard to put the finger on quite what was missing on Sunday, though it might be as simple as just naming their best player and starting from there. SOS Nicho, your team needs you.
The week off didn’t exactly do wonders for Souths, who managed to make a bye week all about them with a full on meltdown. These things can something put the required rocket up the arse ahead of a derby game, or they can provide the reason for a total capitulation. We’ll find out on Friday night.
The Chooks are peaking, in the sense that they actually seem to have found some footy, and yes, this was only the Wests Tigers.
But for the side that just can’t stay on the field, they don’t half hurt themselves. The rake of injuries are out of their control, but having your most experienced forward decide to start fights with the game done absolutely is.
They’re now outsiders against Souths, just about, when, had they emerged unscathed, they’d likely have been favourites. Form and odds mean less in derby games, sure, but bookies put their cash where it matters.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
North Queensland will cheer on Brisbane for the first time ever on Thursday night, knowing that they might get to face Penrith’s second string on Saturday instead of the wounded Panthers with the minor premiership on the line.
It is, of course, the Cowboys own fault that they are in this situation.They completely their assignment in defeating a Dolphins side that, true to form, had a crack but weren’t that good.
Needless to say, NQ will get a tougher challenge out of whatever Penrith they face this
Weekend. If they make it through, it’ll likely merely extend the execution by a week.
Ricky Stuart did an excellent job of attracting attention with his refereeing rant, but the ref’s didn’t rob Canberra this weekend – playing an entirely new edge against one of the best edge attacks in the comp did.
The Raiders are often pretty ineffective even with their best team, so picking a brand new defensive unit that went on to concede five tries (of six) really hampered them in a game that, maybe, they could have won.
Now it’s a tough trip to the Sharks, and it wouldn’t at all be a surprise if Canberra used the maelstrom kicked up by their coach to create the siege mentality needed to win. It’s what they do.
Parramatta ended with a bang, defeating Penrith in Penrith. They have an unbelievable ability to do this, but like all things Eels, it must come as a point of extreme frustration to their fans.
When you know that performances like that are in, it can only be annoying not to see them more often.
It’s also very annoying that Brad Fittler called up a host of Eels to NSW’s dead rubber – including Clint Gutherson, who played three minutes – and thus ruled them out of Parra’s clash with the Warriors, which they went on to lose, and that they had an incredibly hard draw when others (yes, it’s Canberra again) haven’t.
Finally, the sort of late season game we love to see, pure sickos only stuff on a Sunday lunchtime with neither team capable of making finals. Defence optional, kids everywhere, lots of footy being thrown…and Manly getting revenge for losing the same fixture last year in a deluge.
Regular reggies watchers got to see Gordan Cham Kum Tong, which is always fun, and Tolu Koula got into space, which is also great. Nothing matters, but hey, it was enjoyable nonsense.
Daly Cherry-Evans scores. (Photo by Izhar Khan/Getty Images)
The Dolphins tried hard but lost, rinse and repeat. They could ambush the Warriors on Saturday, though, and that would be a lot of fun (and maybe give the Wahs the kick up the jacksie they might need).
The Titans can’t tackle, but can attack. Who knew?
Canterbury decided to be fun rather than depressing, but please, get these boys to Bali pronto.
St George Illawarra actually played really well against the Warriors, but lost anyway, because that’s what they do. They’re favourites to beat Newcastle on Saturday, presumably because the Knights won’t try, though…send the fans home happy, Dragons…
A loss again for the Tigers, but a win, really, in the sense that Souths took over the clown car for a week.
Joey is clearly still not over Dominic Young leaving the Knights. The Roosters winger scored the sealing try in a 40-18 win over Brisbane.
The Broncos skipper tried to stop Joseph Sua'ali'i with one good arm and did a decent job of diffusing the play with the pass…
Bad idea putting these two together! Paul Vautin and Andrew Johns had their Nine colleagues in hysterics with this post-game segment.
Jesse Arthars was in hospital receiving treatment for a broken jaw before Friday night’s game was over after a self-inflicted blow in the first…
Deine Mariner was sin binned for this high shot on James Tedesco. Does he have more to worry about?
Sam Walker wanted to challenge after Ashley Klein deemed his tackle on Reece Walsh was high. Unfortunately for the Roosters, they were out of…
