State of Origin continued to sidetrack the regular season as NRL round 14 played out amidst a haze of Origin selection talk, argument, squad leaks and so on.
Let’s keep on track and have a look at what happened in the important stuff.
A few blowouts, but no real bludgers
Isaiya Katoa just keeps feeding tries, three more assists this week and a lovely 40/20 to boot. His Dolphins romped to a 56-6 win against a horrible, horrible St George Illawarra.
When they get space, time and a smile on their face Kristian Woolf’s team are fantastic fun to watch. They’ll go at you, through you, around you … But they can also be gotten themselves, which the Dragons must have forgotten.
Shane Flanagan’s team were just awful, completely at odds with their usual grit and grind that keeps oppositions honest. They got opened up all over the park.
Canberra peeled off 36 unanswered points after going behind 12-0 at home against South Sydney, a situation in which previous Raiders versions would have folded and copped 40 odd.
But this is a different team in the capital so far and they righted the ship before switching to celebration mode for prop and club icon Josh Papali’i’s club record 319th game, capped with a wonderful moment for all us lovers of the big boppers – a sweetly hit late conversion.
Melbourne did as Melbourne does, 38-14 over North Queensland as they kept the Cowboys at arm’s length before stretching their legs and walking away.
Sixteen errors didn’t help the visitors but Melbourne made 12 of their own. As usually happens here, the class kept the better team ahead.
A game worthy of a King, kinda
Canterbury and Parramatta put on a great show in the first 40 on Monday. Great defending by the Eels, matching the Bulldogs’ intensity and posing a great challenge to our league leaders. Parra are a team on the rise, even if the final standings this year suggest differently.
The final score of 30-12 speaks more to Canterbury’s professionalism and experience in seeing off opponents in second halves this year. Harry Hayes was great, Max King his usual quality, Kurt Mann keeps on going and I thought that was Matt Burton’s best game in a while.
Did the Tigers get stiffed?
One of the closer games we enjoyed was Penrith’s 18-14 win over Wests, but it’s fair to say Tigers fans had an eyebrow raised at Scott Sorensen’s game-saving tackle on Jahream Bula.
Sorenson leaves the ground, swings his body and lands on Bula’s leg, which really did remind me of those “hip drop” tackles the NRL punishes from time to time.
Maybe Bula needed to stay down for a moment or two?
The win kept the Panthers in touch with the finals and as their team defence starts to come together they should be odds on to make it, but they’ve left themselves very little room for error and still reliant on shorthanded wins during Origin.
Tigers fans had a couple of refereeing qualms as their team tried to wrest back the early initiative they’d given away, but as they say in the classics – don’t like it? Play better!
I have had my fill of these Cronulla Sharks
What a debacle at the construction pit. Cronulla, again living up to their stereotype as New Zealand teed off on them for a 40-10 destruction.
The Warriors unloaded after weeks of questions about their attack and it was great to watch. Cronulla never stood a chance as time and time again they whiffed on tackles and offered next to nothing in attack.
Cronulla continue to show us what they are, and now I do believe them. No more will I be fooled by stirring wins over Melbourne. This mob just don’t have it. The team who beat them? That’s a genuine top four club.
Forget the Titans
Just rubbish. Towelled up 44-14 by a Brisbane team that was eminently gettable but were off into the distance after just a few minutes.
It’s my fault for always talking myself around that Des Hasler can make something work with a pretty talented squad. So with apologies to Titans fans who are regular readers, I’ll be paying very little attention to your mob from here on in.
Broncos for a cause
Brisbane’s black kit looked great, and done for good reasons too as a collaboration with Black Dog Institute to raise awareness and funds for mental Health.
Can we get it as their away jersey? ‘Cos the Broncos’ white jersey is just horrible.
Adam O’Brien shouldn’t have apologised
“I know the scoreline is not what they want but to boo the effort that went into that first half from a really young team, the people that booed don’t know anything about rugby league. They were probably the ones that cheered at the end too.”
“It disappoints me that they’d do that because I thought the first half we defended our hearts out. You’ve got to remember there’s a really, really young footy team in there against a very good opposition.”
The Knights coach said a lot more than that after his team’s stirring 26-22 comeback win over Manly, but this was the portion that created the most heat.
O’Brien came out the next day and issued a good quality standard apology, but he never needed to do that in my eyes. He said what he meant to say and if fans are so delicate they can’t handle a little coming back their way after weeks of giving it to the team and coach, that’s not Adam O’Brien’s problem.
As for Manly? Not content leading 16-0 at the half or 22-16 , they loaded their shotgun and once again aimed it squarely at their own feet. They can’t get past their worst opponent – themselves.
Round 14’s random thoughts
I don’t have the stats, but my eye test told me a lot of short dropouts were won by the kicking team this weekend.
Salute to Mitch Moses for his performance to get Canterbury’s Viliame Kikau sin binned on Monday. Worthy of a Screen Actors Guild nomination, that was.
A few eyebrows raised at Wayne Bennett missing another postgame press conference. Is this really a problem though? It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but I know I’m difficult to rile up…
A quirky stat this weekend – did you know Sunday afternoon was Latrell Mitchell’s first game against Canberra since winning the 2019 grand final as a Rooster?
Benji Marshall loaded up on the refs after losing to Penrith but maybe it was worth asking him why Kit Laulilii wasn’t used at all from the bench? A few coaches do this, Do they play shorthanded because they want to, or is it incompetence managing their bench?
Again we got a week of Lachlan Galvin this and Lachlan Galvin that … And not nearly enough Ethan Strange this and Ethan Strange that. Two tries, 5/5 from the tee and 13 tackle breaks … Strange is one of the game’s genuine young stars. Maybe he should sign with Isaac Moses to get his name out there a bit more?
My big bopper love this week goes to South Sydney’s Keaon Koloamatangi. He finds himself starting at prop and going 70-80 minutes every week, but keeps ripping in and is on track for career-best stats across the board. A great player who has been a feature of the Rabbitohs’ fight against the impacts of so many injuries.
What did you make of round 14, Roarers?
