Storm will cover the loss of bromwich, I think, better than a lot of people are letting on. He went off after 8 minutes and Bellamy didn’t bring on Young T. who sat on the bench the entire game. The storm basically beat the dogs with 15 men. It is probably a good indication of their tough preseasons and their resilience.They had the same problem last year when they had mclean, harris, munster and green out for a period of time and continued to win.

I think some of the guys who went played in the nines will plug the holes well; vincent leilua and mark nicholls both showed good form in the nines and there’s tui kamikamica who went well in trials. If the storm can get through the early parts of the season and get slater, bromwich and harris back they should be able to finish the season strong.

I agree the jury is still out, Green was solid defensively for the storm which is always the most important thing for Bellamy. Other than that he didn’t really set the world on fire in his time at the club. A lot of Storm fans would be sad to see him move on because he worked well next to Cronk (after widdop we had garbage 5/8s), but the real test will be when he doesn’t get the delivery and organisation that Smith and Cronk usually give the guys around them.

I think people forget the real reason JWH was no longer selected for the kiwis. He was one of a few players who played up during the 2013 word cup campaign. It was after that moment Kearney drew a line in the sand and said he would put respect into the jersey regardless of any player’s ability or stature in the game. That’s why he did what he did. It was not a selection mistake on Kearney’s behalf, it was a cultural shift that let all the players wearing the black and white had to earned. Kearney made that tough decision for the better; the following year he put tohu harris at 5/8th in the Anzac test and the kiwis pushed the aussies. They then went on to win the four nations. All without the baggage and bad behaviour of the past. I would say he left the Kiwi squad in a far better position than when he started, now it’s why all the kiwi blokes want to be a part of that. That is why JWH had a change of heart and worked his backside off to get back there, he now understands. Kearney also selected him in the squad before taking up the warriors gig so I think there is no bad blood there. He was also willing drop guys like Isaac Luke, and to Isaac’s credit he agreed he was not good enough to don the jersey. Good on them for creating such a culture.

As for my prediction I think the forward battle will be won by the kiwis but the roos have the better spine so no doubt they have more points in them. I think fitness always plays a part this time of year so maybe some of the guys in the kiwis will be a bit underdone. I would like to see NZ win but think Australia will, I don’t expect it to be by more than 8 points though. Aus 18 NZ 14.

I thought the most dubious penalty in the game was where dale finucane dropped ball when he went to play it and hodgson was penalised. I’ve gone back and watched it a few times, I think the refs blew the penalty for the length of time hodgson had his hands in the ball when the ref was calling the tacklers to move away. They may have made their mind up before dale lost the ball.

The other one a lot of people are blowing up about is the sin bin. The thing is: the ref cecchin was standing right over the top of the tackle. How he was fast enough to get there after the break way I don’t know, but he stands over the tackle and twice yells at the player and signals with his arm to move away. Wighton doesn’t listen, I really don’t know how the referee had any other option.

The sharks will be sitting back enjoying that these teams have to go at it for a further ten minutes. A great 80 minutes so far.. Definitely a modern day rivalry that continues to impress.

Wow, lachlan coote is having an absolute shocker! Cowboys’ big men really need to step up if they have any hope of turning this around.

How good has this years finals series been? The match ups are have been great and we are treated to a grand final rematch elimination final. I am tipping the cows to produce the goods against the broncos this week. They were extremely good last week against the storm who put in one the great defensive displays. And that’s what I think will be the key for the NRL premiers. I think you will find none of tamou, scott or JT13 ran for more than a 100m last week, expect that to change, and I expect more points from them… mainly because the broncos defense last week was bad. Even by their standards. You just can’t afford to be leaking 28 points in the finals. I realise both teams are losing some key men (lowe/roberts) but I think they cancel each other out. So I’m tipping the Cows to progress to a qualifier.

As for the Penrith vs Raiders game… well, Penrith were really impressive last week. I think that the game will be won on the edges as IMO that is both teams’ key strength. Mansour/Peachey vs Leilua/Rapana is a scintillating prospect and both teams will be hoping their respective flanks continue to perform. Again I think the key will be how each team approaches their defense. Both teams play flamboyant styles and ask a lot of you so whoever steps up and pressures the halves will be the key. I was really impressed with the way penrith wore the dogs out last week and I think they can do the same thing to the raiders this week, so I’m tipping them to get the chocolates. I thought against the sharks last week the raiders showed they were a bit more affected by the pace of finals footy. That along with an injured hooker and no real affirmation that Austin is playing, I just can’t go past the Panthers.

You know what? I’m not to fussed at the news of this. I love watching NAS play just as much as the next storm fan but he didn’t offer as much as I thought he would based on his last performance. He made 2 runs and gave the cowboys a penalty by hitting JT late which led to a try. Bellamy hooked him early, not because he gave away a penalty but he was gassed in the 13 minutes he was on. I’m more than happy for Welch to come back into the side because he has a good offload and makes no mistakes, and I agree with Joe… Hampton seems like a wasted interchange. Sure, he is a pocket rocket utility, but another forward (Kaufusi) would be a much better prospect IMO. Kenny Bromwich seems like he could fill the utility roll better if someone went down anyways. So while NAS is a big loss, I personally feel we are more consistent and stronger with the other guys in the team who have been missing out.

I reckon our best bench for the rest of the finals series is K. Bromwich, Glasby, Welch, Kaufusi.

Great comment, last nights game was one the best displays of rugby league this season – both teams were excellent. Somehow people seem to find negatives and critique the game on baseless assertions, it was one of the quickest halves of football this season and the number sets/tackles shows this. Yet, people have a found a reason to revert to the cliché wrestlemania line. If people can’t respect or enjoy a game like the one last night, I’m not really sure what they expect from a rugby league game.

I thought Bromwich was massive last night and definitely deserved the MOM accolades given to him. 8 tackle busts, a try and he outran every other forward on the park. He managed to clock in more metres than the Australian front rowers (Scott & Tamou) combined. That is impressive. I’d probably say smith was close behind in the dally m points, coming up with some clutch plays during the game. Was a cracking game played at high intensity and no doubt both sides will progress deep into the finals; I think the cowboys will regroup and put the broncos away next week which means they’ll be facing the sharks in the prelim. If that is the case, the cowboys will play the same teams in the finals this year as they did last year, so it would not be amiss to see a rematch between the storm and the cows in 3 weeks time come GF day.

Also, did anyone else watch the cows presser? The injury to Scott’s hand looked pretty decent, quite impressive to play with it if I’m to be honest!

Needs the “Ha!” tag.

I agree, george did go full retard… the only sympathy I can give is that he was intoxicated. So, as bad as that was, his decision making was clouded.

On the other hand, by all reports, these blokes were sober and were dumb enough to act like a bunch of merkins. Makes me wonder sometimes what goes the the head of footballers?

I remember when george burgess got charged with wilful damage a few years ago and was stood down for 2 games, fined 10k and forced to do community service. Obviously a different situation, but nonetheless a black eye for the game, I expect JT to miss games and get fined for this.

Already mentioned on another article my distaste for the MRC and it is ridiculous. Isn’t it funny how the three key indicators don’t even have the word “shoulder” in it? The thing for me is that you can entirely do away with this one:

The upper arm of the defender must be tucked in to his side at contact.

This is what is causing all the furore, and to be honest, isn’t needed to aid in determining a shoulder charge. We all know you can shoulder charge someone without tucking the arm.

I just hope we can have a week where the focus is entirely on the games at the end of the week. Last week we had Fafita giving the game a black eye and now we seem to be caught up in yet another controversy. It will be Thursday before we really start to talk up the Broncos/titans semi final. I just prey after this week that is the case.

I’m of the opinion that the MRC is in desperate need of an overhaul. It’s always frustrating as a fan to see the inconsistencies with the system and the definitions of what constitutes the charge. Why is there ambiguity with the shoulder charge depending on the action/behaviour of the arm and whether or not it is tucked? For me, the action of the arm is there of course, but I would think the player turning into the player carrying the ball or rotation of the body to drive shoulder first is a much easier indication of the shoulder charge. You do not need to tuck your arm into your side to perform one, but by the definition of the MRC this must be visible/present in order for it to be deemed one. It’s pathetic really.

Like I said, it’s the definition the MRC works with, and then all the other steps involved in charging a player that become tainted if you fail to meet one of their criterion. Just thinking back to this years SC suspensions and the outcome of them shows the inconsistencies; Greg Inglis – 3 weeks, Charlie Gubb 7, Wighton – 3, Michael Ennis – 0. Ennis’ one was no worse than the hit Inglis put on Dugan IMO but the difference is staggering with the MRC gradings. As much as they try justify their decisions the fans become further disillusioned, surely the NRL has to listen to the public outcry? I recommend anybody to go over to todd greenburg’s twitter and read some the tweets directed at him. The penny has to drop at some point.

I reckon that he is going to be charged and that he will miss the first week of the finals. Everything about the particular incident is textbook SC so I don’t see how it could be deemed anything else – but stranger things have happened.

The thing with MRC is they are so inconsistent that it is still a lottery, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he receives nothing other than a concerning act notice. The NRL probably is riding the sharks 1st premiership storyline; that, and along with the Ennis swansong, there is a bit of pressure there. Like with refs determining the outcome of games, the mrc also has a track record of leniency if affects selections and team lists when it comes to suspensions. They are afraid to make a call. Like I said stranger things have happened, he should be charged, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t.

The title should probably read: “radradra definitely a test winger”. Eligibility rules need to be reigned in or at the very least, the second tier nations should be better financially compensated in the match payment department to strengthen the international/integrity of the international game in the future. Semi should really only be playing for Fiji but he likes the ca$h. It pains me to see blokes such as Josh mansour potentially miss out because the criteria is so bad when it comes to selecting players.

If semi is only allowed to play for Fiji it strengthens the international game because he is strengthening the Fijian team. Look at all the fijian wingers we have seen over the years… Koroibete, Waqa, Radradra and vunivalu coming through now. Earlier in the year Semi publicly declared that he wants to be known as the greatest Fijian rugby league player of all time. Kind of hard to do that when he is playing for Australia or worse playing union.

I don’t understand it either, the refereeing is something that should be the least of our worries when we have players fronting court for indiscretions and clubs breaking the salary cap. But, it is. The referees have every possible avenue and resource at their disposal, 2016 ushered in the bunker to try and quicken decisions and add consistency that was lacking. The typical NRL team has 24 regular season games to dictate the way they perform, the referees: 192. That is 192 games where they have the opportunity to hone their craft. You would honestly think that refereeing would be the least of our worries, that kind of naivety however is a dream when it comes to the nrl. Even with all the help in the world, a system is only as good as the people running it, which leads me to believe heads must roll at league hq. Change must be made, and there is no better place to start than getting rid of tony archer.

My personal gripe is more to do with the way the game is controlled and rather lack of dominance the referee asserts himself on the running of the game. The niggle? The shoving and shirt pulling? Wingers taking on front rowers? The constant milking of penalties? These are things that can be fixed quick smart just by the ref having the kahunas to penalise players. Harrigan, love him or loath him, had this knack down pat. You could only ever fool him once, if it happened a 2nd time you would get done for it. Players clearly understood who was the boss, harrigan could never be pressured by other influences when he was in charge. He would not cave into the crowd, the scrutiny or the boos. He did what a referee should be out there to do: dictate the rules and control the game. These days it is quite clearly the flip side. The players control the game simply because the ref isn’t being the dominant force he/she should be. There performance is so critiqued and reviewed to the nth degree by KPIs they are to scared to do no wrong. People are obviously annoyed, I mean, look at golden point. The refs are too scared to blow a penalty because they don’t want to influence the outcome of the game. Does not blowing penalties or failing to apply the rules of game do the exact same thing? Influence the outcome of the game?

For what it is worth, I watched the challenge cup final yesterday and it reminded me how good it can be to watch a game of rugby league. The one ref clearly works. The game flows and the game goes on. One ref on the field doesn’t give players a chance to whinge at a ref because two aren’t there. The linesmen actually get involved, the on field ref actually relies them to help him, I think people would be surprised if they watch the nrl to see how much staging and milking goes on because there are 2 blokes adjudicating in the middle. With the super league there is just the one guy and there is basically next to no time to do this garbage because the game has already moved on, the next play is already in action. For me, the solution is simple: simply the game to where it was 5-10 years ago. It gives us less subjects/points to complain about.

I’m afraid Benji Marshall should just hang up the boots and retire. He, in my opinion, is riding on his reputation for things he has done in the past but has been very ordinary as of late. There are some aspects of his game that just don’t work like they used to, defence is much better, and running sideways no longer is effective. Some of his impulse passes and kicks to nowhere are things that, I believe, have crept into his game over the years and are such bad habits that I don’t believe he can unlearn them. It’s case of only benji knows what benji is doing. You can’t form a cohesive combination on the field if your team mates don’t know what you may pull out of the bag on any given play. People are saying structure may suit him but I’m not convinced. Players who play to their own tune get found out a lot these days, hell, even DCE looked abysmal when he was allowed steer the ship for the maroons when cronk broke his arm. He looked ordinary and that was in an amazing team partnered in the halves with JT. Benji just seems to always go for a big play, but really, how often can you pull those off?

I honestly hope he kicks off a long and rewarding post NRL career in the media because I think he presents well and offers a different point of view to a lot of the other personalities.

It’s ridiculous to assume that the commentators were betting on matches just because you disagree with what they were saying. I was at the game friday and, believe me, the pace was so fast ashley klein was out of his depth. He made several calls and blew several penalties for both sides that were never actually there. The broncos were off side for most of the game but good on them for exploiting the referee. It was probably the wake up call the storm needed and the much needed confidence boost for the broncos to get a litmus test for where their form is at in comparison to the other top teams.

My observations on the bulldogs were that they lacked a real sense of direction. Considering the left edge they have and the try scoring ability of curtis rona. it does annoy me how they continually plod up the middle of the field and let the forwards dominate plays 1-5. If I was hasler I think that the dogs best option would be to move brett morris to FB, put Curtis Rona with Josh morris on the left wing and have hopoate and perrett on the other.

I think that because the game plan revolves around the forwards so much, it has led them to doing too much of the work which, in turn, looks like late in the second half they have been overworked. Let the forwards do the hard running and the hard tackling, leave the fancy stuff for the fancy players out the back.

Good point, It seems that most of the NRL and their off field punishments are just as inconsistent as they are on the field. I would have thought that any off field issues would be worse than copping a week on the sidelines for say a dangerous tackle.

How James roberts is still playing on in the name of “rehabilitation” just seems like a huge slap in the face. If the punishment, being as light as it is – indicates it isn’t that bad, why are the details not being shared to the public? If it is a minor offence, why not be transparent instead of covering it up and waltzing out the typical counseling/rehab line?

20k is nothing for these players, the club usually picks up the tab. And when they don’t they just do your typical salary sacrifice/charity tax dodge donation which affects neither party. I guess there is no such thing as a “second chance” in RL.