NRL Tackle: Warriors grand final time, Shaun Johnson’s Dally M campaign

Shaun Johnson returned to New Zealand with serious questions being asked about his commitment to the game – his form this year has proved the doubters wrong, writes PAUL CRAWLEY.

Ashley Klein has copped plenty for missing this howler.

Paul Crawley reveals his likes and dislikes from the second week of NRL finals in The Tackle.

FINALS LIKES

JOHNSON WORTHY OF DALLY M FAVOURITISM

A week out from the announcement of the Dally M Medal, Shaun Johnson again showed why he is the standout favourite for this year’s top individual prize.

Given the count is finalised at the end of the regular season, Johnson’s starring role in the 30-point smashing of the Knights won’t add to his final count.

But what it did was again highlight what an amazing rugby league resurrection this has been for a player who returned to New Zealand with serious questions being asked about his continued commitment to the game.

Yet the way he went out and absolutely took charge of the semi final showed why the player who exploded onto the scene back in 2011 as a gun rookie has now evolved into the ultimate team player.

It’s going to be a cracking match up when he goes head-to-head with Adam Reynolds with the two veteran playmakers arguably now in the best form of their distinguished careers.

Another ‘old-timer’ who deserved plenty of credit in the Warriors’ win was inspirational skipper Tohu Harris who doesn’t get nearly the accolades he deserves.

MADE OF THE RIGHT STUFF

For all the justified attention the Warriors have received this year, young centre Rocco Berry is one who has flown under the radar.

But what about the try the son of former All Black Marty Berry produced on the weekend.

Although it was initially sent up as another ‘no try’ with suggestions of a double movement, it was just an incredible show of strength how he kept that ball off the ground with three Knights on his back.

This time last year Berry was playing in the Queensland Cup grand final for Redcliffe.

Now he’ll be going head-to-head with star Englishman Herbie Farnworth with a place in the NRL grand final on the line.

BIG WILL CASHES IN ON MUNSTER MAGIC

It’s easy to find fault with the Storm’s performance after a somewhat lucky escape against the Roosters.

But even so, that winning play from Cameron Munster and Will Warbrick is the exact reason you just shouldn’t write them off against the Panthers.

Because whenever Munster has the ball in his hands, anything is possible.

Just when it appeared as though they’d blown their chance to send the match into extra time after butchering some field goal set ups, Munster went for broke with that Hail Mary bomb.

And what a spectacular take as Warbrick soared above Junior Pauga before planting down the ball for an unbelievable try.

The look on Warbrick’s face was just priceless as he realised the magnitude of what he had just done.

Will Warbrick scores the winning try. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty

VICTOR SHOWS WHY THERE’S NO NEED FOR THE TOUGH GUY

Victor Radley has copped plenty of justified criticism over time for not always putting the team ahead of his emotions.

But the Roosters’ lock really came of age during the finish to this season.

With Jared Waerea-Hargreaves out suspended, it’s like Radley finally realised he had to stop trying to always play the tough guy and he’s just concentrating on being the best player he can be for the team.

He capped it off with a wonderful performance in the heartbreaking loss to the Storm that Cam Murray would have been proud of, as Radley worked himself to a standstill and still came up with some big plays.

He finished with the most metres of any forward on the field and his carries were so effective.

He racked up 16 runs for 156m, along with 36 tackles, that was only bettered by Nat Butcher (40) and Terrell May (39).

May also had 18 runs for 132m and was enormous off the bench.

And what about young Sandon Smith again, with his ability to just back himself in the big moments. He’s really announced himself as a player of the future.

FINALS DISLIKES

STORM TO PAY FOR INCONSISTENCY

Who would have ever thought the Melbourne Storm would go into an NRL final as such rank outsiders?

But on the back of scraping home against the Roosters, the TAB has actually handed Craig Bellamy’s team their longest odds ever in an NRL finals match.

Taking on the back-to-back premiers, the Storm are paying $4.80 with the Panthers at $1.18.

In comparison, in the other prelim final the Broncos are $1.27 favourites with the Warriors at $3.80.

The TAB’s Rohan Welsh said: “Even I had to do a double check of the prices as it’s difficult to imagine seeing the Storm at anything near the $5 odds at any time let alone during the playoffs, where they have been so dominant for so long.

The Storm is paying $4.80 against the Panthers. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty

“If anything, it is usually Melbourne’s rivals with odds like this so it’s quite the reversal and also an indication of just how powerful this Penrith team is, and of course how popular they are with TAB punters.

“The most recent prelim final resembling these odds was when the Storm played the Broncos in 2017 with Brisbane at $4.75.

“You could never write off a Craig Bellamy side and there has been a few sharp punters who have taken the value on Melbourne early so they’ve trimmed from $5 into $4.80.

“But with Penrith holding almost 30 per cent of the premiership market we expect them to be well backed to make another decider here despite being as short as $1.18

“A Panthers v Broncos grand final remains the best backed option in TAB’s quinella market with the Panther $2 favourites for the title.”

WARRIORS FAN TREATED AS SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS

If the NRL needs any further motivation to bring forward the grand final kick off time, the Warriors’ raging success is the slam dunk to finally end this ongoing debate.

Because it is just madness that Saturday’s preliminary final against the Broncos won’t start until 7.50pm Brisbane time.

With the time zone delay, that means it will be a 9.50pm start in New Zealand, and it won’t finish until close to midnight Kiwi time.

This comes on the back of the overwhelming support of the weekend’s early start for the semi-final showdown with the Knights.

That 6.05pm start New Zealand time translated to a 4.05pm kick off in Australia.

It was one of the highlights of the weekend watching the crowd in Auckland turn on a party-style atmosphere.

Could the Warriors making the grand final force start time rethink? Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty

But it was also a win/win for all the fans watching both in Australia and New Zealand on TV.

Now those same Kiwi fans will have to deal with a much later timeslot that you can only imagine will be a huge turn off for many of the younger and older fans.

Every time we run a poll on the preferred grand final kick off time it’s an overwhelming win for the earlier start.

But with the NRL grand final this year again locked in for a 7.30pm start in Australia, that will mean a 9.30pm kick off time for the Kiwi audience.

So if the Warriors get through this week, it won’t finish until about 11.30pm before the celebrations even start.

Everyone understands the game makes a lot of money from the TV broadcast rights and advertising revenue, and stadiums have to be booked in advance.

But surely on the back of the game’s growth in New Zealand, and the chance to continue to pull some support away from the All Blacks, there needs to be earlier starts for the big finals matches to accommodate all audiences.

There is no way anyone could argue having the biggest NRL game in New Zealand in more than a decade finishing around midnight is in the best interests of growing the game.

NO HIDING FROM REF BLUNDERS

No one wants to see any match official subjected to the horrible social media abuse Ashley Klein copped over the weekend.

But the NRL still can’t allow the disgusting behaviour of a few lowlifes to hijack the reason so many fans were upset in the first place.

The fact is the standard of refereeing during the Storm’s controversial 18-13 semi final win over the Roosters was just not acceptable.

We can’t hide from the fact Klein had a shocker that was highlighted by those two diabolic blunders.

That included the missed knock on by Harry Grant early in the game, and then the high shot from Sam Walker on Grant that went unpunished in the dying minutes.

Everyone accepts referees make mistakes.

Ashley Klein has copped plenty for missing this howler.

But in these instances they were not simple mistakes.

They were absolute howlers.

And it is just extraordinary in a game with all the modern technology that is available these decisions can go through to the keeper.

Even if you were standing 15 deep at the bar with your beer goggles on, it was impossible not to spot that was a clear knock on from Grant.

But even if you can accept that was an honest mistake at the time, there was absolutely no excusing the call not to award a crucial penalty to the Storm after Grant copped a high shot off Walker.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley has since come out and attempted to explain the reason the Bunker did not intervene.

Ashley Klein copped plenty of heated abuse on social media.

He said it was because the rule changed last year which now requires the Bunker to only intervene if they think the tackle needs to go on report, to try and discourage players from staying down to milk penalties.

Yet the problem with that explanation is how many times have we seen similar instances corrected this season?

You only have to think back a week when the Raiders got a penalty when Joseph Tapine was hit high in the 80th minute of the week one final against the Knights.

Yes, Newcastle’s Adam Elliott ended up copping a grade one careless high tackle charge for that shot on Tapine that resulted in a $3000 fine.

But the fact the penalty wasn’t blown with the Roosters clinging to a 13-12 lead at that point only opens up the argument that the officials didn’t want to make such a crucial call to decide a match.

All fans want is consistency.

The NRL can thank its lucky stars the Storm ended up scoring a try at the death when Will Warbrick latched onto the Cameron Munster cross field bomb.

BARGAIN-BUY WARRIOR BLOWS PONGA AWAY

Kalyn Ponga’s stunning form throughout the Knights’ run of 10 wins was right up there with what we’ve seen over the years from the likes of Jarryd Hayne in 2009, Ben Barba in 2012 and Tom Trbojevic in 2021.

But that doesn’t deny the fact Ponga was blown off the park by a player on just over a third of his wage in the Warriors’ underrated No.1 Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad in the 40-10 thumping in Auckland.

Just looking at their stats goes a long way to explaining the difference between the two on the night.

Ponga finished with 12 runs for 102m with no tries, linebreaks, linebreak assists or try assists, and just four tackle busts.

Nicoll-Klokstad had 30 runs for 269m that included a try, seven tackle busts, a linebreak, linebreak assist and try assist.

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty

While boom Bronco Reece Walsh has been the season’s standout bargain buy on about $400,000, the former Canberra Raider has also provided pretty decent bang for his buck on about $500,000. Meanwhile, Ponga’s the game highest paid player on $1.4m.

The reason the wage comparisons are relevant here is because Ponga chews up a significant portion of the Knight’s salary cap.

And while Knights’ fans will forgive Ponga for one under-par performance on the back of what he did for the team this year, now they know what he is capable of week-to-week that sets benchmark going into next season.

On the flip side, no wonder Andrew Webster has already assured Nicoll-Klokstad he will be retaining the Warriors’ No 1 jumper even when Roger Tuivasa-Sheck returns next year, with RTS tipped to play in the centres.

WORST RULE STRIKES AGAIN

We blew up about it last week when the Sharks’ Cameron McInnes was denied a try because the Bunker couldn’t find sufficient evidence to overturn an on-field ‘no try’ call in the one-point loss to the Roosters.

Well, rugby league’s worst rule has struck again.

This time it was the Warriors’ Wayde Egan on the wrong end of a decision early in the game that was sent up to the Bunker as a ‘no try’.

And while the Bunker claimed there was not sufficient evidence to overturn the live call, the front-on angle seemed to indicate Egan grounded the ball.

Last week NRL head of football Graham Annesley supported the decision not to award the try to McInnes, saying “close enough isn’t good enough” when it comes to scoring tries.

Well, I’d love to get a hand count from the fans and the experts whether they felt there was sufficient evidence to overturn this decision.

Everyone I spoke to thought it was a dead set try.

The NRL has to get its head out of the sand on this rule.

It is ridiculous having the on-field ref forced to make a judgment call even when he has an obstructed view.

If he can see it is a try he shouldn’t have to rely on the Bunker at all.

But surely if there is any doubt it would be better sending it up to the Bunker and getting the decision made on the best available angle, not having to find sufficient evidence to overturn the ref’s guesswork.

Originally published as NRL Tackle: Warriors grand final time, Shaun Johnson’s Dally M campaign