Monday Bunker: Effort not enough for Parra, is JT finished and Cronulla’s spine problem

WITH Round 5 of the competition now done and dusted, our team of rugby league writers analyse the NRL’s talking points in the Monday Bunker.

WITH Round 5 of the competition now done and dusted, our team of rugby league writers analyse the NRL’s talking points in the Monday Bunker.

The Monday Bunker show will be live streamed on our website and Facebook from 12.30pm.

If you have any questions for the Monday Bunker crew, leave them in the comments section below.

RAIDERS BREAK THE DROUGHT AT LAST

RAIDERS 26 BULLDOGS 10: Depleted Raiders prove they’re not soft

It was an emotional win for the Raiders.

AFTER four straight losses and a limp performance against the Sea Eagles, that resulted in a scathing rebuke from coach Ricky Stuart, things only got worse for the Raiders following news fullback Jack Wighton is being investigated by police for his part in a brawl during the pre-season.

And with that the stage was set.

There’s something about rugby league sides with their backs against the wall.

Adversity seems to be the perfect antidote to turning fortunes around on the footy field.

In the number six jumper, Aidan Sezer delivered his best showing in lime green to date.

He had the ball on a string and used his kicking to create in attack — setting up two tries — and to steer his men around the park.

But was his stellar effort enough to convince Stuart he can be trusted to lead the Green Machine’s attack?

Elsewhere, their forwards stood up after a lacklustre start to the season and firebrand centre Joey Leilua was at his damaging best.

It was an incredibly courageous performance considering they finished the game with only one healthy player on the bench — Ata Hingano and Michael Oldfield succumbed to concussion and Sam Williams suffered a medial ligament injury.

But instead of folding, Canberra were resolute, they found the will to see out the clock and earn their first win of 2018.

For the Bulldogs, their inability to create opportunities come to the fore again on Thursday night.

They were tackled 30 times in Canberra’s red zone and had 62 per cent of the possession in the opening forty minutes but couldn’t convert any of it into points.

— Fatima Kdouh

MORE QUESTIONS, FEW ANSWERS FOR CRONULLA

ROOSTERS 28 SHARKS 10: Cronk kicks Cronulla down

There are plenty of questions and few answers in Cronulla.

CRONULLA need to find the right spine:

Matt Moylan, Josh Dugan, Trent Hodkinson and Chad Townsend.

The following players are all talented, but the Sharks need to work out the right mix for their spine.

Injuries to Moylan and Dugan hasn’t helped, but it feels like Cronulla have too many cooks in the kitchen.

Townsend is the halfback, but who should partner him in the halves?

Hodkinson has proven to be a reliable foil. He helped guide the Sharks to consecutive wins prior to Friday’s loss against the Roosters.

Moylan has also spent time at five-eighth, but he is equally capable at fullback.

The former Panther looked comfortable in the No. 1 jumper versus the Roosters.

He was reliable under the high ball, while he could also showcase his skills at second or first receiver in attack.

Moylan’s involvement on the ball is greatly beneficial for Cronulla when it comes off.

But where do you play Dugan, who has moved to fullback following Valentine Holmes’ shift back to the wing?

These questions must be solved by Shane Flanagan if the Sharks are going to be genuine premiership contenders this season.

— Matt Logue

HIGHER HONOURS BECKON FOR RISING DRAGONS

DRAGONS 16 RABBITOHS 12: Dragons survive gallant Bunnies

The Dragons are getting close to the next level.

PAUL McGregor better have a good plan how he is going to tackle rep season because chances are St George Illawarra will be losing more than half their starting side.

Friday night’s win over South Sydney might not have been as pretty as some of the performances we’ve seen from the Dragons this year but as McGregor said it was further proof just how far this squad has come.

“We wouldn’t have won that game last year. In fact, we didn’t win that game against Souths last year … defensively, we have kept another team under 16 points which is our goal”.

The Dragons have just the right blend of experience and youth, toughness and talent.

Yet rep season is really going to stretch their depth.

Think about the Dragons in contention for State of Origin alone: Euan Aitken, Ben Hunt, Tyson Frizell, Jack de Belin, Paul Vaughan and Cameron McInnes for starters. And that’s not including Tariq Sims who is going as well as any backrower.

Then you’ve got James Graham, Gareth Widdop and Jason Nightingale who will be heading to Denver for the England v New Zealand Test on the same weekend as Origin II.

Along with McGregor, every single player in this team deserves credit for the role they are playing but McIness for mine deserves a special mention.

Here’s a kid that pretty much was told to pack his bags at Souths yet right now he’d have to be the frontrunner to wear the Blues No 9 jumper.

— Paul Crawley

TIGERS TAME STORM AGAIN

TIGERS 11 STORM 10: Melbourne can’t hang with tough Tigers

Nobody can break the Tigers.

How good is it to watch the Tigers play?

Gritty, tough and not giving an inch.

They are playing some inspired football and getting the rewards.

They have taken four competition points off the Storm and have emerged as a shock finals chance.

There are some serious concerns for the defending premiers.

The cornerstone of their success in recent years has been their ball control and discipline. Both seem to have gone out the window.

They don’t sustain any pressure and have struggled in the fundamentals.

— Michael Carayannis

HAS TIME COME FOR THURSTON AT LAST?

WARRIORS 22 COWBOYS 12: North Queensland stumbles, New Zealand stays perfect

Has time caught Thurston at last?

THEY say you should never write off a champion.

And while that is wise advice, the pressure is certainly building for Cowboys playmaker Johnathan Thurston.

After missing the majority of last season with a shoulder injury, the former Queensland and Australian star has come back into a North Queensland side that is struggling and he is the one copping the most criticism for that form.

Every player needs time to recover from long-term injuries.

They need the chance to find their match fitness, to build back to their best.

But that has not stopped the critics coming for Thurston this week, with the pressure is growing for the maestro to deliver a win for his side soon.

The first big hit of the week came when Fox Sports commentator Greg Alexander suggested Thurston had played for one year too long.

Then Sunday, NSW coach Brad Fittler claimed this is Thurston’s “moment” to prove his is still capable of being the best.

“This is a real big moment in JT’s career,” he said on the Sunday Footy Show.

“I don’t know how his shoulder is and how he is mentally. The last three or four games sides have just really targeted him.

“This is the moment right now because it’s quite obvious at the moment that every team is going to run at JT.

“Either the people around him have to do a better job or JT has to bite the bullet … He has to deal with it. He has to come up with an answer.”

And it is a big moment for the No. 7 in the way that the time has come to prove the critics wrong.

Cowboys coach Paul Green said he was “happy” with Alexander’s comments because he suspected it may motivate Thurston to a big game.

The pressure is on now for him to deliver against the Bulldogs on Saturday.

-Rikki Lee-Arnold

BRISBANE APPROACH PANIC STATION

KNIGHTS 15 BRONCOS 10: Knights slay battling Broncos

Brisbane are missing spark at the moment.

Brisbane’s attack has all sorts of problems.

There is no fluency, no spark and no cohesion among their playmaking spine of Anthony Milford, Kodi Nikorima, Andrew McCullough and Darius Boyd.

Milford produced some superb individual runs against the Knights, but his general-play execution and kicking remains questionable.

Nikorima, too, is going missing in clutch moments and was given a lesson in game management by Knights opposite Mitchell Pearce.

Now the bumbling Broncos must travel to New Zealand for a daunting clash against the unbeaten Warriors.

For the Knights, Kalyn Ponga is the NRL’s next superstar. At just 20, Ponga toyed with the Broncos. If he and Pearce stay fit, they are the attacking duo who can engineer a finals campaign.

-Peter Badel

ARE THE TITANS FOR REAL?

TITANS 32 SEA EAGLES 20: Titans slay another giant

The Titans showed plenty of fight in the win over Manly.

Are the Titans a genuine top-eight contender?

The answer is yes based on their gritty disposal of the highly-rated Sea Eagles in Gladstone. In the early rounds, the Titans were struggling to adapt to coach Garth Brennan’s defensive patterns but they look sharper and hungrier in defence.

Energy and youth is driving with the pack, with the likes of Max King, Jai Arrow and Morgan Boyle having a real crack.

Ironman Arrow, rated the next Corey Parker, has been magnificent in the opening five weeks and the Broncos should give themselves an uppercut for letting him go. Daly Cherry-Evans was outstanding in a losing team but Manly’s issues were in the midfield.

Chief enforcer Martin Taupau (101 metres) was well contained by an enthusiastic Titans pack. — Peter Badel

EELS EFFORT IS NOT ENOUGH

PANTHERS 12 EELS 6: Penrith add to Parra’s pain

Nathan Brown’s blinder was not enough for Penrith.

IT’S difficult to compliment a losing team’s effort without sounding condescending.

But Parramatta really did try as hard as they damn could in this game.

Through the 80 minutes the Eels resembled the top four contenders last year in terms of their effort, their desire to put their body’s on the line for the cause.

Brad Arthur cannot be disappointed in this showing, despite the loss. The two sides scored a try each and it was only the boot of James Maloney that provided the difference.

Nathan Brown was superb, doing everything in his power to inspire his team with every charge, every tackle.

Battling on through a severe ankle injury for a team coming stone motherless last on the ladder is the kind of effort that makes Brown Parramatta’s best forward.

But effort is not enough. Trying hard, even if it’s as hard as you can, is not enough, not if you want to win against a Penrith team who matched the Eels in the desire department.

The Eels had the better of the ball and the field position. A horror day from Dylan Edwards gifted them good ball time and again.

But nothing worked. Not the Mitchell Moses tricks or the Corey Norman kicks, or the brawn of the forwards or the speed of the Jennings brothers.

One try can be enough to win a game, as Penrith showed, but Parramatta’s lack of execution meant all the effort and fighting and everything else was for a futile cause.

The Eels have scored 44 points in four games. Twenty of them came in last week’s loss to the Tigers.

Who knows what it’ll take for the shackles to break and for Norman and Moses to find whatever they’ve lost.

But Parramatta are running out of time.

— Nick Campton