Monday Bunker: NRL round 16 talking points from every weekend clash
JARRYD Hayne’s best game, a low end for a legend, really poor officiating and a contender on the ropes — round 16 had a bit of everything and our experts wrap it up in the Monday Bunker.
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WITH Round 16 of the competition now done and dusted, our team of rugby league writers analyse the NRL’s talking points in the Monday Bunker.
ONE MORE CHANCE FOR HAYNE?
Dragons 20 Eels 18: Dufty gets Dragons out of jail
HAS Jarryd Hayne played himself into another Parramatta contract?
Apart from scoring a try against St George Illawarra in Thursday Night Football — one, importantly, that was as much about want as skill — the ageing Eels centre also had plenty of strong touches, and constantly went looking for the ball, in the heartbreaking two-point loss against St George Illawarra.
The early mail suggests coach Brad Arthur wants the two-time Dally M medallist around for another year, convinced he has still plenty to offer a club that, for large chunks of 2018, has struggled to compete.
Speaking after the Dragons loss, Arthur told reporters that, while his marquee man had been criticised for his performance for Fiji during Representative Round, he was more than impressed with the former Kangaroo’s efforts since coming back from injury.
Meanwhile, Eels fans are hoping the Dragons performance is proof their side can still avoid the wooden spoon.
Slumped in last for much of the year, Parramatta were actually the better side against the NRL competition leaders — conceding two tries within the final stages to lose by two points.
Currently, the Blue & Golds are on six competition points — two behind the battling North Queensland Cowboys and four adrift from Manly.
Apart from enjoying a bye next weekend, Parramatta then play three teams outside the top eight — Newcastle, Canterbury and Gold Coast — over the ensuing month, with a game against South Sydney wedged in between.
However, the final month is far tougher, with a second game against the Dragons, then Melbourne, North Queensland and the Roosters.
— Nick Walshaw
WARRIORS ROBBED BY WRONG CALL
Sharks 18 Warriors 15: Controversy as Cronulla pip New Zealand
SADLY, bagging referees has become the sign of the times.
Why focus on a team’s deficiencies or shortcomings when we can howl at the man with the whistle and blame him for losses, penalties, pestilence and plague?
Usually it’s smart to subscribe to the theory that letting the referees decide things is taking your fate out of your own hands, a state of affairs that is fraught with peril.
However in the example of New Zealand’s 18-15 loss to Cronulla, it is difficult to assign blame to anyone but the officials given the nature and circumstance of their blunder.
Edrick Lee’s winning try came off a pass that was clearly several yards forward from Ricky Leutele. The touch judge was less than a metre away and allowed it to go through.
The result is a crucial win for the Sharks and a crushing loss for the Warriors.
Is there a solution? Some have said the bunker should be given powers to rule on forward passes but do we really want another grey area entrusted to the perpetually underwire video refs?
They rule on forward passes on replay in rugby union and the results are seriously mixed.
Referees are always going to make mistakes and rugby league’s attitude towards officials is the ugliest part of the sport, but sometimes they need to cop it just like everyone else. This error is unforgivable at the top level.
— Nick Campton
STORM STILL THE MASTERS OF WINNING UGLY
Storm 9 Roosters 8: Smith downs Cronk in Adelaide
THERE’S a thing people like to say when a team plays badly but wins.
“Good teams win when they don’t play their best”, that’s what they say.
Melbourne live this philosophy. They have for years.
The Storm were terrible against the Roosters in Adelaide.
They dropped the ball so often it became comical — more than once on the first tackle. Their attack was toothless. They defended well but once they got the ball in their hands the struggle became very real.
But they won anyway. Cause that’s just what they do. A booming Cameron Smith field goal in the final minutes, after Cameron Munster had buggered up roughly 47 prior attempts, delivered a 9-8 win over the Roosters and kept their top four destiny in their own hands.
Of course, wearing the other jersey was the fella who steered the Storm to so many of these kinds of wins in the past.
Cooper Cronk was brought to Bondi to win these sort of games — after all, close matches and big moments were the bane of Mitchell Pearce’s existence as a Bondi lad.
Cronk had his chances, but some wonderfully timed charge downs from Ryan Hoffman put paid to them.
The Roosters still have much improvement in them — we seem to say that every week, but it’s true. If they can ever put it together they’ll be title contenders.
Melbourne may well be with them, but they don’t need to totally click. They just seem to win anyway.
— Nick Campton
CRACKS APPEARING AT PENRITH?
Sea Eagles 18 Panthers 10: Manly spring boilover on mountain men
PENRITH have looked every inch the premiership contender for much of the season despite a fair number of injuries testing their depth to its absolute limits.
For the first time, cracks are starting to appear.
Not only are Penrith still missing backline mainstays Waqa Blake and Josh Mansour, as well as fullback Dylan Edwards, they will also be without powerful backrower Viliame Kikau for some time following his knee injury in this loss.
Throw in the representative duties of Nathan Cleary, James Maloney and Tyrone Peachey, who all looked exhausted and below their best in this clash, and you have the recipe for a mid-season slump.
Since their 28-2 belting of the Dragons, Penrith have beaten Canberra by a point in fortunate circumstances and lost to the Roosters and Manly.
The errors and lack of attention to detail against the Sea Eagles were most unlike the Panthers and they've now dropped to fourth.
A clash with the Warriors, sans their Origin stars, will prove a serious test of Penrith’s mettle and defeat will put them outside the top four for the first time since Round 3.
-Nick Campton
KNIGHTS LOSS COMES AT HEAVY COST
Bulldogs 36 Knights 16: Dogs devour battered Knights
The Knights loss has come at a cost with Kalyn Ponga sidelined.
The performance showed just how valuable the fullback is to a Newcastle side who failed to score a second half point as the Bulldogs ended a four-game losing streak.
Slade Griffin’s injury also compounded Newcastle’s woes with the only glimmer of hope being the return of Mitchell Pearce for their next clash in two weeks.
They will need every bit of Pearce’s experience to guide a Knights side who are now out of finals contention.
It was a brave performance by a Bulldogs side who have been rightly maligned — even by their coach — at times this year.
They did it minus Woods and Mbye but showed there is plenty of spirit left in Belmore. The win also gives them some breathing space from getting the wooden spoon.
Their new-look halves pairing of Jeremy Marshall-King and debutant Lachlan Lewis were solid but will need to improve their kicking game.
Will Hopoate was brilliant at fullback showing there is hope at Canterbury despite all the off-field uncertainty.
— Michael Carayannis
JEKYLL AND HYDE BRONCOS CANNOT CONTINUE
Broncos 26 Raiders 22: Milford caps comeback win
THE Broncos may have claimed the two points over the Raiders on Saturday night but their Jekyll and Hyde performance is something they will not be proud of.
While their 26-22 victory showed they had plenty of fight in them, their first half display was concerning.
Coach Wayne Bennett labelled it some of the worst football they have played this year and no Broncos player would disagree with that.
They made a number of errors and appeared to struggle with communication.
What the Broncos are lacking is consistency across the full 80 minutes.
While they are sitting comfortably in the top eight at the moment, the Broncos do need to string together some strong and convincing wins if they are true finals contenders.
Their comebacks this year have been impressive but Brisbane can be better.
Yes, they are missing Matt Gillett and Jack Bird.
They did not have Tevita Pangai Jr or Joe Ofahengaue on Saturday either.
But they still have the personnel to be one of the best teams in the competition and they have nine games to prove that.
— Rikki-Lee Arnold
JAMES COULD MAKE HISTORY
Titans 30 Tigers 12: Gold Coast spoil Farah’s homecoming
TITANS prop Ryan James could finish his career as one of the most prolific try-scoring props in history.
The fringe Blues player crossed for his fourth try in three games against the Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday, taking his career tally to 28 four pointers in 128 appearances.
James has spent time on an edge throughout his career, but the majority of his football has been played in the middle of the park.
His greatest year for crossing the white stripe came in 2016 where he barged over on 11 occasions.
It’s this attacking threat possessed by so few middle forwards in the game that has James within a whisker of cracking Brad Fittler’s Origin side.
At just 26-years-old, James is on track to join the game’s elite try-scoring forwards.
Steve Menzies bagged the most meat pies for forwards with a whopping 180 tries, but these all came playing on an edge for Manly.
Frank Burge is top of the props having notched an incredible 146 tries, a record that will likely never be beaten.
Ruben Wiki (72), Eddie Burns (61), Neville Charlton (50) and Bruce Walker (50) round out the top five.
Most of these men spent time switching between back-row and prop which skews the figures, but all spent the majority of their football in the blockbusting role.
Paul Gallen deserves a notable mention having jagged 62 tries.
The Sharks stalwart has played his entire career as a middle forward, but technically he’s a lock forward.
James is a chance to crack the 50 barrier should his body hold up in future years.
— Tim Williams
LOW END IN SIGHT FOR THURSTON
Rabbitohs 21 Cowboys 20: Souths shot a man in Cairns just to watch him die
THE reality has been staring us in the face for some time and now we have no recourse but to accept it — there are nine games left in Johnathan Thurston’s rugby league life.
The 21-20 loss to South Sydney all but ensures North Queensland won’t be playing finals football this year. It marks the first time since 2010 the Cowboys won’t play in September and just the fourth time they’ve missed the playoffs since Thurston came to town in 2005.
Not every legend gets to ride out with a premiership. Andrew Johns lost his last game 48-18 to the Raiders in 2007 on a forgotten Monday night early in 2007. Reg Gasnier finished up in front of a tiny crowd playing in Avignon on the 1967 Kangaroo tour. Arthur Beetson wrapped it up with a grand final defeat for Redcliffe against Souths. Wally Lewis played his final match in Tweed Heads of all places.
Even Immortals don’t win every time, and North Queensland may let the shackles go now that the finals are essentially beyond their grasp.
They will not give Thurston the finals send off he would have so richly deserved, but he’s still a future Immortal and there are still games to be played.
Perhaps with the pressure of the situation removed, North Queensland and Thurston can begin to play some of the football of the past so our last memory of Thurston is not of disappointment but more in tune with the glittering precedent he set when he made his NRL debut all those years ago.
— Nick Campton
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