SuperCoach NRL: Six things we learned from Bulldogs vs Rabbitohs, Dolphins vs Storm

One premiership contender staked its title claims while another faltered in a big way. See the standouts and SuperCoach stars in our six things learned from Good Friday footy.

The upsets on Friday Night Footy continue, this time with one of the biggest of the year.

The Dolphins came back from 16-2 down to knock off Melbourne 42-22 in one of the best wins in club history.

It means the Bulldogs, who won their traditional Good Friday clash over the Rabbitohs with a 32-0 shutout, are four points clear at the top of the NRL standings.

With a big Friday of footy in the books, here are the six things we learned from today:

LATRELL IS NOT A BUY

We raised the question in the pre-game if Latrell Mitchell was a buy.

It’s safe to say the answer to that is an emphatic no. Well, not yet anyway.

It took him almost an hour to crack double figures, and with an upcoming fixture against Melbourne and uncertainty over which position he will play in the weeks to come, you can’t buy him at that hefty price.

DOMINANCE LIKE NO OTHER

We’ll get this one checked by the masterminds, but the initial SuperCoach scores are something I can’t recall seeing.

The top 12 scores in the game were all Canterbury players.

Junior Tatola’s 52 points ended the SC dominance of the Bulldogs, with 11 Rabbitohs posting scores below that of Canterbury’s 15th ranked player.

PRESTON-MANIA RUNNING WILD

Whatcha gonna do, when you don’t have Jacob Preston running wild for you?

The Bulldogs second rower with free-flowing locks posted another outstanding score of 93 points.

It comes on the back of 122 and 70 over the previous two rounds, and he is simply too good to leave out at this point.

LATE MAIL HITS HARD

It was the news 30,000 SuperCoaches did not want.

Harry Grant was a late withdrawal from Melbourne’s side and he’s expected to spend a few weeks on the sidelines.

Some were able to bring in a replacement while others were caught out.

It’s a tough blow for the HOK1 in many people’s books.

It wasn’t the only injury that caused hurt, with Jack Howarth and Max Plath both going down early in the game.

The top SuperCoach scores from Good Friday footy

KATOA SIZZLES

It was a great recovery from Isaiya Katoa.

His miss that led to Ryan Papenhuyzen’s try was ordinary – but he recovered with a dominant performance that the Storm had no answer for.

He went on to pile on four try assists and had more involvements on his way to the top score of the game.

Katoa smashed his breakeven and has a good fortnight ahead. Will certainly come into consideration with a few top-tier halfbacks failing to deliver.

HUGHES DRIZZLES

On the flip side, Jahrome Hughes finished with just 49 points, including a garbage-time try assist when the game was over.

That was well short of his breakeven of 111. Owners don’t even want to know what that number is next week.

We’re all waiting for him to explode for a century - but this year is proving so unpredictable for halfbacks.

RELIVE ALL THE GOOD FRIDAY ACTION FROM THE MATCHDAY BLOG BELOW:

Originally published as SuperCoach NRL: Six things we learned from Bulldogs vs Rabbitohs, Dolphins vs Storm