NRL Conclusions: First coach sacking, PVL’s crazy comments and ominous Panthers
Brisbane Broncos were among the big winners in the NRL this weekend.
Sometimes, the post-Origin round can be a little After the Lord Mayor’s Show – not this one.
We got plenty of tight games, a few upsets and a raft of spectacular tries – some of which were even given, with apologies to Jayden Brailey’s for Newcastle that would have been one of the best of the year but for a mystery forward pass.
What we learned is that it’s awfully close everywhere. The top four are now all but sealed, but you could throw a blanket over the rest, from the Titans on four wins to Cronulla on eight.
The Panthers are now very much in the hunt, and as bad as they have been, the Broncos aren’t even close to out of it (mathematically at least), even if morally they’re miles away.
That’s just two of the big winners from the weekend: here’s how it went down.
A good week for
Penrith, who have officially ticked into ‘ominous’ territory.
They rested all their Origin stars – Perth to Auckland is a hell of a journey – but won anyway, a statement win against a properly good team.
The hallmark of peak Panthers was their ability to lean into the system even when the stars were absent, which is exactly what they did here. Nine players topped 100m, spreading the production around the team.
That was helped by their long-term system players, the guys who know it inside out, standing up. Scott Sorensen scored twice, Moses Leota battered the front door in and Mich Kenny led the lot with 55 tackles.
Off the back of that platform, Blaize Talagi stood up for his best game in Penrith colours, Tom Jenkins continued his rise and Brad Schneider did his best Nathan Cleary impression.
The win takes the Panthers to six wins and right in the middle of the finals fight. Never back against this team.
A bad week for
Cronulla, who chucked two points away against the Broncos. This is now a very worrying state of affairs for the Sharks.
A month ago, they looked to have turned a corner on their flat-track bullies reputation with a comprehensive win over Melbourne – but have lost three of their four since, with the only victory coming against the dreadful Dragons.
This is during Origin, too, when they don’t have anyone out or backing up. The Sharks were their own worst enemies in Brisbane: leading 28-12, their defence collapsed and their ball retention failed, granting the Bronx a clear path back into the game.
It was ironic, because for the first 50 minutes, that had been exactly what Brisbane were doing.
This could just have easily been the other way around, such were the hosts’ defensive failings. Every try was avoidable, and Michael Maguire was lucky to face such charitable opponents.
The truth is that, barring a major turnaround, neither of these highly talented playing groups are a threat. We knew that about Brisbane beforehand, and this result pretty much confirms it for Cronulla too.
Standout
Souths lost, but we can’t look past Alex Johnston.
The Bunnies winger moved to within a big shot of Ken Irvine’s all time record of 212 tries thanks to four against Melbourne, proving again that time is not catching up with one of the NRL’s great flyers.
He’s often lampooned as a catch and fall merchant, someone who can score but contributes little else.
There’s an element of truth in that. He’s been going for over a decade, almost since before wingers were yardage monsters as well as try scorers, and he’s never going to be Brian To’o or Greg Marzhew.
But if it’s tries you want, you can’t argue with AJ. His finishing is still up there with anyone, as evidenced by Saturday night’s tries, which all took plenty of scoring.
When he breaks the record, which he surely will at this point, he will surely tip the hat to Latrell Mitchell, who has assisted plenty of them. The fullback served up some superb passes for his winger, varying his length to bamboozle the Storm defence.
It wasn’t enough in the end, but without those too, it wouldn’t have been close.
Washout
Todd Payten, who has rocketed up the rankings for the first NRL coach to get the boot in 2025.
We’ve gone quite a long way into the season without anyone losing their jobs, but it’s a four-way sprint between Adam O’Brien, Des Hasler, Anthony Seibold and Payten.
AOB eased the pressure with a late win over the Dolphins, Seibs had the bye and Dessie would require someone to care about the Titans in the first place to actually get potted.
Payten, however, copped another bruising defeat. His Cowboys are hemorrhaging points: 100 in just the last two weeks but an average of 35.7 since the start of May.
They’ve picked up just a win and a draw in that time, losing five, and that’s sacking form in any language.
On Sunday, North Queensland were battered by the rookie Roosters, barely throwing a punch back as waves of attack came.
Losing is one thing, but the Cowboys were outenthused by an Easts side that kept the ball alive and pushed up in support. They were everything Payten’s men were not.
Everyone is talking about…
Manly, even though they didn’t play.
The Sea Eagles used their bye round to do mid-season reviews – totally planned, of course, and not at all related to their shocking form – which threw up a few curveballs.
Come Tuesday, when the team is named, Tom Trbojevic will be a centre and, chances are, Jason Saab and Lachlan Croker will be reserve graders.
Coach Anthony Seibold got the dreaded vote of confidence – “At the moment, Seibs is safe at this point” wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement from Manly CEO Tony Mestrov – and then the ever-more dreaded public display of support as the playing group turned up en masse to watch Saab and Croker in reggies, where they lost to Souths.
The next two are the lowly Wests Tigers and then the slightly less lowly, but still not great Souths at Brookvale.
Win both and the comp is close enough that Manly might be back in it. Lose them and it’s all over for Seibold.
But nobody mentions…
Peter V’Landys’ bonkers comments, even though they were – even by his high standards – the most fanciful take of his career.
Remember, this is the guy who claimed that the North Sydney Bears have 200,000 fans – more than four times the membership of the Broncos – and that the NRL could garner 1% of the US population with their WatchNRL app.
PVL was holding forth on his upcoming trip to Papua New Guinea, the NRL’s next TV deal and whatever else popped into his head, combining all three into this:
“Papua New Guinea could end up, in 10 or 15 years, to be worth more in broadcast revenue than Australia.”
It’s hard to know where to start on this.
Australia is one of the most highly-developed nations in the world, with a very wealthy, sports-obsessed, technologically-enabled population.
PNG is, economically speaking, equivalent to sub-Saharan Africa or the poorer parts of Asia.
The population is also estimated to be half of Australia’s, but then again, the truth is that so many of those people live in remote areas that nobody really knows how many people live in the country with much accuracy.
Papua New Guinea loves rugby league, but that won’t make up for a purchasing power parity that is around 8% of that of the average Australian.
If that means nothing to you, the basic point is that the PNG economy would have to improve about 12 fold to reach where Australia is now, assuming of course, that Australia itself didn’t also grow, which is an even worse thought for anyone looking to make money in rugby league.
Forward pass
It’s normal, non-Origin week next time out – and there’s a few belters in there.
It starts early with Canterbury v Penrith, which should be a real benchmark case for the Bulldogs.
They’ve been the best of the lot so far, but the Panthers are the best of the best long-term and will be fully rested.
The masters v apprentice narrative will be strong, not least in the coaches’ box, where Cameron Ciraldo takes on his old boss, Ivan Cleary. As good as Ciro has been, he’s never turned over the Panthers.
At the other end of the quality scale, the Cowboys travel to the Titans for a Spoonbowl full of XXXX.
If Todd Payten loses, it’ll be a fourth straight, and their next three are Melbourne, Canterbury and the Dolphins – assuming he makes it that far.
