Some teams looked great, others were trash, others enigmatic… Let’s take a moment and look back on the NRL’s first completed round for season 2024.
Massive weekend overreactions are here!
The Cowboys are back! Their flogging of the hapless Dolphins shows they’ve learned their lessons from last year’s horrible start.
The Dolphins are ignoring Wayne Bennett, he’s washed up!
Penrith don’t scare anyone any more! They’re too defensive!
The Eels are back! They showed how ready they were to attack the year.
The Knights are shot! Adam O’Brien can’t coach! The Knights were fools to extend him!
Cronulla have broken through and can now beat anyone and New Zealand are frauds, we all knew it!
Yes, these are all genuine takes I’ve seen from the weekend.
It’s time for your weekly reminder – teams are pacing themselves and it’s way too early to fire up about one thing or another because week two will prove you wrong.
Let’s not set our takes in concrete until we get past round four.
Deathriding the Panthers for their doughnut in Melbourne is moronic. Same for other losing sides Newcastle and New Zealand. There’s a long, long way to go here. Remember – Penrith were 1-2 after a month last season. The Dolphins started 3-0. Canterbury were 2-1.
More overreaction and lots o’hubbub about North Queensland’s Zac Laybutt being awarded a penalty try after being taken off the ball by a Dolphins defender. I can see it both ways, which to me means the call is fair enough.
As with all these things though, the reaction was well out of proportion to the actual decision as fans and pundits alike lost their minds.
Wonder if a big driver of that outrage was because Kasey Badger in the bunker made the call?
Storm and the Panthers was the worst best game of the round
Friday night in Melbourne was a fascinating study in rugby league. It was hot and humid in Melbourne, which made handling rough and sapped players’ energy quickly. For me, that made the defensive effort from both teams just remarkable.
Penrith only missed 22 tackles to Melbourne’s 32 (both great numbers, to be fair). Penrith completed sets at a better clip than the Storm, ran for many more metres, had 14 more offloads, more line breaks but still, after all that, couldn’t break through.
But the teams combined for 28 errors and 15 penalties. Normally error and penalty counts like that result in a bludger of a game but I was enthralled.
So many moments: The Storm defending like maniacs for what felt like 15 minutes midway through the second half. Penrith missing a try for an obstruction call I thought was iffy, but was in the rules and helped by an all-time sales job by Jahrome Hughes. The desperation from both clubs in what could have been a round one throwaway game – but it clearly meant plenty more.
One of the best one-try games we’ll see in a very long time.
Reimis Smith of the Storm celebrates with teammates after scoring a try against Penrith Panthers. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Good games this week
Round two has a few intriguing matchups and we get right into it in Brisbane on Thursday when South look to amend their Vegas shocker against the Broncos, who are also looking to amend their Vegas shocker. The loser goes 0-2… Is that a big deal?
Cronulla host Canterbury in Friday’s early game fresh off a great win across the ditch, while according to their coach, the Doggies come off a fantastic second half against the Eels (which they lost 6-12). Whose form are you gonna believe?
Penrith look for their first score of the year against Parramatta in their home surrounds primetime Friday. The premiers defended pretty well against Melbourne but just couldn’t turn half-chances into points, while Parra looked reasonably good in a first-up win.
Saturday afternoon it’s Canberra hosting Wests Tigers, who had the bye last week. It’s an interesting time for Tigers fans, who genuinely don’t know what to expect as their new on and off-field setups get the gameday test.
Life doesn’t get much easier for Newcastle, who need to shake off their first up horror show in Townsville against the keen Cowboys.
Melbourne will see if they can replicate that defensive effort when the Warriors come to town. New Zealand were the disappointment of round one – let’s see how they react.
Sunday’s games are Manly and the Roosters at Brookvale in what might well be the game of the round, and then things wrap up with the Dragons a genuine chance to go 2-0 at Redcliffe.
The Titans have a week off to dwell on their horrible first-up effort against St George Illawarra.
Round 1 random thoughts
– Canberra prop Emre Guler was incredibly lucky to get away with a fine for a sticker of a hip drop tackle on Newcastle’s Dylan Lucas. I thought these were the types of tackles we were trying to get rid of. Guler was a centimetre from ending Lucas’ season.
– On pure body language it was interesting to see how Des Hasler and Shane Flanagan took to their first games back from the wilderness. Hasler looked like he’d rather be anywhere else, Flanagan’s Dragons did what they needed to do.
– Andrew Johns and Paul Gallen had a bit to say on the weekend about the Spencer Leniu/Ezra Mam racism accusation. If there are any two people in Rugby League I’m less interested in hearing from about racism, it’s those two. You can do a search for yourself as to why.
What else caught your eye this weekend, Roarers?
WA Sharks Fan
Roar Rookie
I’m a Sharks fan, through and through but that no try call against the Panthers was an absolute abomination call from the bunker. NRL is being ruined by over referring the game. Common sense CLEARLY shows that the Storm had overplayed their defence and that Luai was in clear air forcing the outside defenders to jam in creating the space. It had nothing to do with Luai “catching on the inside and running behind his own player - who BTW was 5 or more meters away and no one around him). What is this sport coming to!!!
criag
Roar Rookie
Loved the headline, btw!
astro
Roar Rookie
Ahead of the Panthers and Broncos!
astro
Roar Rookie
Dogs must be hard to watch as a fan...I don't follow them and they annoy me! Somewhere in that squad is a good team, but not sure Ciraldo is the guy to find it.
rodney pombart
Roar Rookie
Unfortunately this is true about my dear doggies
Bernie Vinson
Roar Rookie
Playing In March – expecting June but getting February. Are the Vegas teams playing at home next week otherwise we should see who gets the benefit of playing against Vegas travellers. Obviously they are trying to even up the comp – Penrith didnt get any calls trying to come back and of course the travelling World Club finalists (Sutton telling them not to challenge??) have to play away instead of at home in first round – how unjust is that (reminds me of the Danish womens soccer team who were always destined to face Matildas in second round but had to travel from east coast to Perth 3 times in 10 days before playing Matildas– no-one else did this). The Cronulla game seemed to be ÿou are in front so I’ll give a decision to the trailing team.
AJ Mithen
Expert
Bonza I don't see the value in sending Blocker et al to a venue, their call will be exactly the same as if they were calling off a TV
andrew
Roar Rookie
9pm, that early :laughing:
Redcap
Roar Guru
Certain folk aren't keen on the idea, given I spent Saturday night on the Gold Coast, and given I likely wouldn't make it home from Redcliffe before 9pm on Sunday night. I'll keep working on it... :happy:
andrew
Roar Rookie
If you make it to Redcliffe I’ll expect a commentary on the Roar Redcap, with hopefully another Dragons victory.
Redcap
Roar Guru
Good article, except for the perhaps unintentional suggestion that Tweed Heads is in Queensland. I probably read it back in 2017 being a lefty, pinko, 'wokeist', latte-sipping Guardian reader. :happy: Never liked Redcliffe myself - lived near Easts during my early days in Brisbane and quite liked them, plus I've always had a fondness for Tweed given I'm from northern NSW. I've been wondering recently if the old South Coast team who briefly played in the BRL in the early 1950s and showed some promise were a bit of a missed opportunity. Could things have turned out differently for latter day Gold Coast teams if they'd stuck at it longer and maybe developed as Redcliffe did from the '60s? There's a fair chance they'd have gone broke like most of the other BRL teams, but you never know.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Round review: All 4 LA teams acquitted themselves well. Given that not all our clubs (unfortunate yet true) are great examples of the game changing all 4 every years could lead to some embarrassment. I like Uncle Nic's idea of winners go back. This will help the the Yanks attraction to the game, they love winners and it might aid attachment. Raiders, gutsy and committed, well done. Knights, pi$$poor. Should have watched their '23 finals effort as a motivation, the crowd support in that game was top shelf. Not in the 8 on that performance. Sharks also committed and determined, well done. Warriors, pi$$poor effort. Can't lose those, that will haunt them in a tight comp. Storm v Panthers, not high class for execution or skills yet compelling viewing, Great effort both teams and should be LA bound in '25. Eels did their job in possibly the least impressive win of the round. Dogs maybe the new favourites for the spoon with the runner-up crappo performance of the round. Titans ordinary and Dragoons better than expected. Not much else to say. Cows hit '24 well and the Dolphins put in the crappo performance of the round. As a Dragoon supporter I don't know whether to be happy or worried about that given we face them next week. Tipping skids hit early in '24.
3 R M
Roar Rookie
Hammer got 2 points in the cows game in a 30 point loss where he was out played by half the cowboys starters if not most of the team. Must have been for the TA for Lukis try..
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
David I thought you might enjoy this link. Redcliffe were not my team growing up but they were everyone's second team. If they played in a GF, you supported them as long as they werent playing your team. Hope you enjoy the game. By the bye, 'Everyone Needs Hobbie ' mentioned in the article is a book filled with nostalgia for me . Its based a bit before your time but it's very funny. Not high art but a great holiday read and very funny. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/feb/27/redcliffe-dolphins-70-years-growing-and-with-ambitious-plans-for-future-in-nrl
mushi
Roar Guru
Fair point at least that's consistent then. Throws out the rule book, but consistently does it. From the geniuses that brought us two separate rules for impeding players without the ball on a kick we've now got two separate rules for deliberate foul play in a try scoring situation.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
You missed the headlines.. "Flanno is back" and "Dragons to make the 4" (actually I made that one up but it might have been somewhere)... Yep, it's early days..
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
Yes but before the end of the round they were 8 (hence the “temporarily”) C’mon give us that! It’s all we’ve got!!!
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
There are probably a few ex players in QLD who could do a sufficient job of colour commentating to save the expense of flying him up there. .. But yes, Fox started doing this about 5 years ago.
Redcap
Roar Guru
Not sure if it counts as an overreaction, but I am seriously considering making the long trip up to Redcliffe - a place that almost exactly 200 years ago was deemed too unpleasant to even host a penal colony - for the slightly awkward 5:15pm game on Sunday.
Bonza
Roar Rookie
Massively unlikely. Jetstar has become like the Greyhounds in North America, that are only used by drunks, psychos and those just out of the clink.