NRL 2020: Daniel Saifiti, Newcastle Knights v Brisbane Broncos
Are the Brisbane Broncos broken? The fallen powerhouse is facing missing the finals for just the third time since 1991, and the actions of one player more than any other explains the decline.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
STAYING: Ponga sticks with Newcastle
GO FOR IT: Why it’s Parra’s time
The Knights are flying! And one of the main reasons behind their transformation is the form of the Saifiti twins.
Daniel, in particular, is making Brad Fittler’s choice for one prop position in the Blues side for the State of Origin later this year an easy one.
The Broncos are trending in the opposite direction. Another Thursday night, another hefty defeat. Here are five things from a big night in Gosford.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 NRL Telstra Premiership. Watch every game Live & On-Demand with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
1) Saifiti stands up
There have been many big improvers at the Knights this season but few players have taken the leap like the Saifiti twins, and Daniel, in particular, has enjoyed a remarkable rise. Saifiti played Origin last year, but he is currently operating at a higher level than any he has shown thus far in his first grade career. Once again, he was the main man for the Newcastle pack and his try early in the second half was a measure of the dominance he showed upon this fixture. He is playing like one of the best props in the league — and he just might be.
2) Knights get ruthless
Going into this game, Newcastle were deserved favourites and they played that way throughout the 80 minutes. However, the difference between being favourites and playing like favourites is what those favourites do when they are on top. Newcastle had the game well in hand at 21-6 to with five minutes remaining, but to twist the knife as they did and score another try to condemn Brisbane to the ultimate misery they must endure was the mark of a good team playing against a bad one. Anybody can win, but only the best discarded their foes with the disdain that Newcastle showed in this one. They won, and they didn’t even have to play their best.
3) TPJ is running wild
There was much fanfare and expectation attached to the return of fiery Broncos forward Tevita Pangai Junior but the Tongan international had a rough time of it on return, making a number of errors and possibly facing the wrath of the match review committee following a shoulder charge on David Klemmer. Pangai Junior is emblematic of the troubles that currently engulf the Broncos - he is a furious and untamed talent, who requires direction and leadership and to his discredit he currently has none.
4) Pat Carrigan’s struggles
On a developmental level, Pat Carrigan’s shot on Mitchell Pearce is totally understandable. Sure, it was the wrong play at the wrong time but such moments of madness are to be expected from a player with only 24 first-grade games to his name. He needs to make these mistakes to learn from them, and be better. But when such a player is forced into the co-captaincy, and is burdened with a leadership role when his own career is still in such a nascent state, it creates a whole new dichotomy, one which sends player and club on a downward spiral of mental lapses which neither can afford. Carrigan should not be asked to be better, but because he is a co-captain the club demands it of him. To be frank, it is not a demand that should be made of Carrigan at this time.
5) Are the Broncos busted?
Brisbane have only missed the finals twice since 1991, but the time draws near when we must ask the question if 2020 will be added to the list. The Broncos have now lost four matches in a row and have been well-beaten in all but one game. This is a shortened competition and there is no time to waste. If Brisbane want to keep their imperious finals record alive they need to get while the getting is good and kick this losing form to the curve - otherwise it could result in an extremely tough look for one of the NRL’s flagship clubs.
Why Parra are haunted by their premiership ghosts
Parra are back, they’re going straight to the top and there is nothing anybody can do about it.
Yes, believe it friends. It’s blue and gold time. Let’s fill the stands at Bankwest Stadium with cardboard cutouts of Brett Kenny and Mick Cronin. Let’s crack a Tooheys and talk about the 1980s. Let’s remember all the old legends and the four premierships between 1981 and 1986. Let’s burn down Cumberland Oval all over again.
Five straight wins to open the season, if you don’t mind. After their entrance to the competition in 1947 it took Parramatta 34 years to win a grand final. It’s been 34 years since their last title in 1986. Yes, it is on. It is so on. No more waiting and wishing and hoping and dreaming, it’s time for this to happen. It’s Parramatta’s turn. It’s Parramatta’s time.
The hype train has departed Parramatta station and it is heading to grand final glory, an express service with no stops because why would you ever, ever want this to stop? What? The finals are still months away? We’re just five games into the season? Come on, don’t be like that. Let them dream.
Close your eyes and I’ll bet you can see it – Clint Gutherson hoisting the trophy, Peter Sterling holding back the tears in commentary, the blue and gold faithful who have waited and waited and waited some more will be absolutely losing their minds because what they have wanted for so many years has finally come to pass.
It’s a nice picture. It’s also one that Parramatta fans have been tempted into seeing many, many times before. The Eels are not on the same trajectory as Souths, who were trapped in an uninterrupted plummet to rugby league’s lowest depths for decades before their drought-breaking title in 2014. Nor is it like Canberra, who never rose too high or fell too far before they came within touching distance of a title in 2019. They’re not even like North Queensland, who had no glory days to fall back on until they created one of their own in 2015.
The Parramatta way since 1986 has been to alternate between two vastly different but equally upsetting states – they have either been trapped in a cage of abject hopelessness (three wooden spoons, finals droughts that went over half a decade or more) or they climbed to within touching distance of the top of the mountain only to lose their footing, plummet back down and land on the point of a particularly jagged and sharp bit of rock.
After 1986, Parramatta did not return to the finals for 11 years. Here’s how their best chances at adding a fifth premiership have gone since.
*In 1997 they finished third, only to go out in straight sets after losses to the Knights (where they led 18-0 after 20 minutes) and North Sydney.
*In 1998 they finished fourth and beat Norths and, incredibly, Brisbane in back to back weeks. It was the only defeat the Broncos suffered in their final 15 matches. In the preliminary final the Eels lead Canterbury 18-2 with 11 minutes left and lost 32-20 in extra time in the Paul Carige game.
*In 1999 they were equal premiership favourites and led Melbourne 16-6 with 25 minutes to go in the preliminary final before totally collapsing and losing 18-16.
*In 2001 they lost just three regular season games all year and scored an all-time record 943 points. They even made it to the grand final, and had they won they would have been talked about as one of the best teams ever to play this sport. But they lost, so they’re not.
*In 2005 they won the minor premiership and were title favourites for much of the season but crashed to a 29-0 defeat to North Queensland in the preliminary final.
*In 2009 they finished eighth but rode Jarryd Hayne all the way to the grand final where they were beaten by Melbourne 23-16. If it was a fair fight there would have been no shame in losing, but given Melbourne were over the salary cap the honour being committed opposition was somewhat lost.
*In 2017 they pushed another otherworldly Melbourne team right to the edge in the first week of the finals before going down 18-16. Then they crashed out 24-16 to the eighth placed Cowboys.
*In 2019 they smacked Brisbane 58-0, the biggest win in finals history, but were muzzled 28-0 by Melbourne. It was hard to believe they were the same team as the week before.
Once you see it all laid out in front of you like that it makes you want to find the Eels fans in your life and give them a hug, or at least a pat on the back and a cup of tea. When Parramatta lose the big games they lose them in utterly traumatic fashion, and they have done it in so many different ways. From 1997 to 1999, they were built around tough and experienced forwards like Dean Pay, Jarrod McCracken, Jim Dymock and Jason Smith but – and there is no other word for it – choked. In 2001 they were a whirlwind of glorious attacking football containing the likes of Jamie Lyon, Brett Hodgson, Jason Taylor and Michael Buettner that, inexplicably, failed to fire when it mattered most. In 2005 their heartbeat was Tim Smith, the greatest rookie in the history of rugby league, who vanished as soon as he appeared after the Cowboys gunned them down in the centre of town.
In 2009 they had Hayne doing his best messiah impression and he might have walked on water but he couldn’t tame the duplicitous Storm. Parramatta have found just about every single way a team can be successful without ever taking the final step.
MORE NRL NEWS
With each of these teams, the same platitudes have been rolled out. Things are different this time, promise. This team is the olden days again, not like all the other times. The false dawns of the past, it’s not going to be like that this year. This is the year. This is it. I just know it.
There are few teams that capture the rugby league public imagination when they are successful like Parramatta. Sydney only turns up for winners, and unlike the Roosters and Sharks (the only Sydney based premiers of the past five years), there is no baggage from years of success nor an ongoing willingness to play the villains. People like Parramatta, even if they don’t go for Parramatta, and Parramatta have a lot of fans regardless, more than any other Sydney club bar, perhaps, South Sydney.
That’s why everyone is so eager to see the Eels take their place as true premiership contenders. That’s why, in 1997 and 1998 and 1999 and 2001 and 2005 and 2009 and 2017 and 2019, as soon as there was a sniff, a hint that Parra might be back, the crowds swelled and the newspapers ran out of ink describing why it was time to party like it was 1986. That is why, when Parramatta played Manly two weeks ago, we were inundated with nostalgia for a rivalry that has been dormant for 30 years (Parramatta have played Manly in the finals just once since they met in the 1983 grand final, and rarely have the two sides been dominant at the same time since). That is why some Parra fans, in their heart of hearts, think this is all too good to be true and are waiting for the blow to the gut they are certain is coming. After everything that’s happened, who could blame them for not bracing for yet another stomach-twisting defeat to end a season which has promised so much. They want to believe so badly, but they’ve been hurt so many times..
It doesn’t matter how many times Parra have been here before and failed – that all gets swept under the unstoppable force of remembering the sleek, dazzling veneer of the 1980s and all those premierships and how it is to feel the old feeling again. Brisbane are trapped by the legends of their past, but Parramatta are so haunted by their ghosts their ancient triumphs dwarf the modern failures. Parramatta have gone down this path so many times over the last 34 years and it has always, always had the same ending.
None of this is to disparage the 2020 Eels. The expectations and hype are not of their design, nor is the weighty history of the club. Fans and pundits feel those things, but players not as much.
The 2020 Eels are well-rounded and versatile, capable of matching just about anybody in the middle of the field, but they’re also fully prepared to run and gun and rack up the points should the need arise. They have muscle and craft and the hunger of the contender. The premiership should absolutely be their goal. Their win over Penrith last Friday was their most impressive performance of the last 12 months because of how they managed to win it. Racking up huge scores on bad teams has never been an issue for the Eels, but staying on the job and winning the grind and managing to break down a tough opposition has not always been their strength. Last year they managed just one win over a full-strength top four side. They were better than most, but not as good as the best, and if a team withstood their early haymakers they could grind them down into the mud.
Compare their win last week to their previous meeting with the Panthers, in Round 11 of last year. Penrith were 15th on the ladder and on the back of a six-match losing streak, while the Eels were on the cusp of the top eight. In one of the worst games ever played, Penrith got up 16-10 because they were willing to fight harder for longer. The Eels had the weapons to blow them off the park, but they couldn’t pull the trigger.
This time, against a much-improved Panthers side, the Eels were frustrated and denied again and again by their stubborn rivals and had to wait much longer than usual to break the game open, but break it open they eventually did. That’s what the best teams do – they stay on the job until it’s done, never losing interest or discipline or letting up on the pressure. The 2019 Eels couldn’t do what the 2020 Eels did last week. That might be the difference between looking up at the top four and looking down at all the rest.
This week Parra play the Roosters, and the winner will assume outright premiership favouritism. We’ll learn a lot about them in victory or defeat but a win won’t make the champions and a loss won’t condemn them. Premierships are not won in Round 6, nor are they lost and the finals, of course, are still many moons away.
Next week they play the Raiders, the beaten grand finalists from 2019 and, until recently, the favourites to win it all this year. If they beat the Roosters and lose to the Raiders it would be very Parramatta-esque indeed. If they lose to the Roosters and beat the Raiders the hype will stay at its current levels. If they beat them both? Then batten down the hatches and all hands to the boats, because if you think things are heavy now you have no idea what is coming. They can beat the Roosters. It won’t be easy, and will take yet more improvement, but they can. The Tricolours haven’t had a serious test since before quarantine and they might have put up 100 points in the last two weeks but those two games can best be described as especially strenuous training sessions. They are a very good team, maybe the best in the competition, but if Parra want to do the damn thing these are the games they need to win and the tests they need to pass. These are the stepping stones to a premiership, to that fifth title that has eluded them for an age. Otherwise it’ll be just like all those other years that weren’t what they wanted them to be.
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE BEN HUNT?
Poor old Hunt became the game’s most expensive bench hooker in St George Illawarra’s win over the Sharks, and ignited lengthy debate over whether dummy half was his best spot for the future.
Paying $1.2 million a year for a bench hooker sounds like a bad joke, but Hunt is well-suited to the position – after all, he played there for nearly six years in Brisbane before he started feeding scrums instead of packing down in their centre.
Hooker accentuates some of the things Hunt does well – running the ball, knifing in and around the ruck – while putting less pressure on areas he sometimes struggles – leading a team around the park and having the right touch on his last-tackle options.
Hunt is much-maligned, often unfairly, and his move to hooker is a by-product of those criticisms. Leaving Hunt’s massive contract aside, it is telling that it is he and not Corey Norman who wears the bulk of the blame for the Dragons struggles. Such scrutiny and extra pressure comes with the territory of a massive contract, but that does not mean it’s justified. The Dragons paid Hunt like he was Cooper Cronk or Johnathan Thurston, but he isn’t like that and never has been. Nobody in the competition is like that any more, and it’s no use expecting them to be.
Apart from the brief time he was partnered with Gareth Widdop, Hunt has never really had a halves partner who complements him in all this time with the Dragons. Even with Norman there, Hunt still did almost all of the kicking and was never permitted to truly play to his strengths. His on-field shortcomings are as much a product of the roster around him as anything else, and the Dragons should have known that. If you are going to spend $1.2 million a year on somebody, you should understand what you’re getting.
Hunt will do well as a bench hooker, and might even start at dummy half at some point in the future given how well Cameron McInnes did at lock. For a player who often cops far more stick than he deserves it’ll be a nice change of pace.
SHORT SHOTS
*A critical juncture approaches for North Queensland. They have a big decision to make on Paul Green and his future. The Cowboys have a roster capable of competing for the premiership and in Jason Taumalolo they have one of the best players in the world, but they look stale and stiff, and they have for some time. With a number of crucial calls on the horizon – not least of which is figuring out what to do with Scott Drinkwater, Michael Morgan and Jake Clifford, North Queensland must decide if they want to commit to Green or move on after two (and unless things improve it will become three) years out of the finals.
*Newcastle might have lost to Melbourne, but they’ll be better for it. The Knights were a little shell-shocked early but fought back strongly, and only went down after a number of refereeing decisions went against them. The old Knights would have collapsed entirely once they trailed 18-0, but not these guys. Adam O’Brien is doing an excellent job.
STUFF I KNOW
And now, in honour of Canadian international Ryley Jacks scoring a try on the weekend, here’s some other guys who played for obscure rugby league nations and some things I know about them.
Blake Austin
The tryscoring pride of Doonside laced up the boots for Portugal as a 16-year old in 2007, kicking two goals in a loss to Malta. This was despite Austin’s only Portuguese heritage coming via trips to Oporto. That is king behaviour, my friends.
Jarrod Sammut
The former Panther became a journeyman playmaker across England and Wales once he headed over in 2010 and has pulled on the boots many times for Malta. Could the tiny Mediterranean island become league’s new powerhouse? Possibly.
Braith Anasta
The former Bulldogs, Roosters and Tigers playmaker played a single Test for Greece in 2013, scoring four tries and kicking 15 goals for a personal haul of 46 points in a 90-0 win over Hungary in Budapest.
GOLDEN HOMBRE
In these troubled times we must take comfort in the things close to our hearts. For some, it is family and friends, and the feeling of community. For me, it is front rowers taking shots at goal, or putting in ill-advised chip kicks or perhaps throwing totally adventurous, almost foolhardy cut out passes.
The Golden Hombre is the only thing left to believe in anymore, and Campo’s Corner will hand it out each and every week to the big man moment of the round. Big Man Season lives forever in our hearts.
A lean field for the big fellas this week, which has raised the existential question of whether Brandon Smith (180cm and 94kg) counts as a big man after his burrowing try against the Knights. Smith is by no means a hefty fellow, but he plays with the spirit of someone twice his size and has packed down at prop in each of his last two games. Gonna need Mark Tookey to make a ruling on this one.