NRL Conclusions: Wests’ Galvin jibes, NRLW disaster and Herbie’s fitness

Rain can be a great leveller in rugby league – and anyone looking for evidence need only to watch Round 22.

The heavens opened in Eastern Australia last Tuesday and haven’t closed since, with a biblical amount of precipitation causing havoc with the NRL, NRLW and everything in between.

As a quirk of the scheduling, this was one of the weekends where almost every game is in NSW, too. 

All six NRLW games were in Newcastle for Magic Round, as were five of the eight NRLM fixtures, leaving the competition perfectly primed for some wet weather chaos.

We got that with defeats for both of the top two to lower end sides, with the Dragons ending the Raiders’ nine-game winning streak on Saturday before the Tigers downed the Bulldogs in a cathartic clash in the throwing rain on Sunday.

The upshot is a tightening of the race for everything. 

The Minor Premiership race is now three way, with Melbourne gaining ground, Cronulla have leapfrogged the Warriors into fourth and the Dolphins are suddenly in prime position for eighth. 

That’s the top line – here’s the detail.

A good week for…

The Wests Tigers, who exerted some serious karma by flogging Lachie Galvin and his Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday lunchtime.

It was clear from the off that the Tigers were really, really up for this: for all that they have played nice with Galvin in the week, the way they started suggested that there was a point to be made.

Despite a first half in which the Dogs had all the ball and all the territory, Wests held out and, when their moments came, iced them all. 

Canterbury didn’t know what hit them. They made errors of the sort they almost never make – 13 of them – and lost their attack entirely as a result. By the end, it wasn’t even close.

There was a particular sweetness for the Tigers with Galvin unable to have any influence at all while Jarome Luai, their own superstar signing, set up the winning try. The club socials were plastered with ‘Team First’ afterwards, a reference to Luai’s post when Galvin left.

A bad week for…

The Dolphins, who pulled off a spectacular late heist over the Warriors to move themselves into prime finals position, but lost Herbie Farnworth in the process, almost certainly ruining any chances they might have once they get there.

Prior to his hamstring injury, Herbie had opened the scoring in Auckland and was generally having a stormer – so much so that he ended the game third on the Supercoach points despite going off in the 18th minute.

Now, he’s out for the foreseeable and, likely, the rest of the season. Hamstring tears are hard to pick in terms of recovery, but a month would see Farnworth back for week one of the finals – and that’s on the optimistic end of the scale.

More pessimistic might be Shaun Wane. If Farnworth doesn’t play again in the NRL this year, it’s three months until the first Ashes Test, and the Burnley Meninga is the only player England have who would walk into the Kangaroos side. 

At the very best, he’s likely to walk out at Wembley well short of a race – if he does at all.

Standout…

It’s got to be Nathan Cleary, right?

The Panthers were on the brink of the biggest embarrassments of the year, chucking a 24-0 half time lead to trail the lowly Titans 26-24…only for the world’s best player to do world’s best player thing, landing a two-point field goal to send the game to extra time, where Blaize Talagi eventually won them the match with a golden point try.

But wait: was it actually Mitch Kenny? 

Sure, Cleary had to kick the thing, but Penrith were well inside the 40m line and it was the hooker, so often the most unsung of heroes, who nailed a huge pass from dummy half to give his halfback the chance.

But double wait: what if it was the Panthers’ trainer, Corey Bocking? 

He ran right in front of Jayden Campbell as he was attempting the conversion that could have made it 28-24, throwing the kicker off his rhythm. He missed, and gave the Panthers a shot at the two-pointer.

Unsurprisingly, it’s the third aspect that has become the talking point. 

A better one might be whether this near-miss confirms the Panthers, who have now won eight straight games, as back to their resilient clutch best, or whether it proves that they’re still the sort of side that might lose to the Titans.

An even better one would be why the Titans can go and win in Auckland, then play like this against the four-time Premiers, while being so rank rotten the rest of the time. If they played with half what they showed in the second half here more often, they’d be in the finals.

Instead, the Gold Coast found another way to lose, thanks to a bit of Cleary magic, some unsung Kenny skill and, yes, a trainer running in front of their kicker.

Washout…

Anthony Seibold, who has deviated so far from what made Manly good that it’s hard to remember that they ever were.

The Sea Eagles lost meekly to the Roosters, all but ending their season, amid a monsoon on Saturday night. 

The conditions were not conducive to attacking footy, but the Chooks did it anyway, because Trent Robinson sides always do. They know that you win by scoring more points than your opponent, and you win in the wet by maximising your opportunities.

Manly, who used to be the most attacking side in the comp, barely moved the football. They had better field position for most of the game, but did next to nothing in attack. 

The best they looked was when Tom Trbojevic was forced back to fullback to cover Lehi Hopoate’s HIA break, largely because it was the only time Turbo got the ball. 

The Sea Eagles have had a bit of a revival since moving Tommy T to the centres, but much of that has been in spite of themselves. Against the Tigers, they barely passed their star the footy. The same happened against Souths. Turbo is empowered to roam across the field and get involved – he’d have to be, because if he didn’t, they’d never pass it to him.

It’s a million miles away from the freewheeling footy that made Seibold’s side great to watch in previous years. If they’re not attacking, what are they? They’re certainly not a finals team.

A moment, though, for the Roosters: they attacked with adventure, Sam Walker kicked superbly and they deserved to win.

Everyone is talking about…

Rugby union, not least because a lightning storm gave everyone a chance to watch it for once. 

Lions fans have been all over Sydney this week, and when the Manly v Roosters game finished on Saturday night, NRL fans were surprised to see that the rugby union was still going on the other channel due to an electrical storm in Western Sydney.

Though the media gets a lot of mileage out of rugby union coming for rugby league players – almost like player agents have a lot of journalist friends – those that did flick over would not have been worried for a second about the competition.

The conditions probably precluded the best of rugby union getting a showcase, but the same could be said for any of the league matches that took place in NSW over the weekend, all of which were infinitely better.

Anyone who tuned in for a semi-regular check-in on the state of RU got to see a lot of pushing and shoving, constant, confusing penalties and not much running at all. 

If that’s the best they’ve got, they should be very concerned indeed, and for all the hype around the tour, the TV ratings have been lower than the Women’s Origin series.

But nobody mentions…

The NRLW, which had a bit of a disaster over their Magic Round, even if it wasn’t really anyone’s fault.

The idea to host it in Newcastle, which is arguably the home of women’s footy, was perfectly sensible – right up to the moment we saw the weather forecast.

Fans in the Hunter Valley are a hardy bunch, turning out when the Knights have been dreadful and packing in for Women’s Origin despite similarly soaking conditions. 

But six games across two days in the throwing rain was too much for even the most dedicated of fans. 

Nowhere at McDonald Jones Stadium has great overhead coverage, meaning that those who did show up were often out of shot on the TV, huddled at the back to avoid a drenching.

There was 78mm of rain clocked on Saturday: for reference, the wettest month of the year in Manchester, a famously soggy place, sees 84mm of rain. It’s a lot.

The temperature gauge was under ten degrees at half time of the Saturday showpiece between the Broncos and Sharks, positively arctic for Australia, with a ‘feels like’ temperature listed under 2.7°c.

It was a shame for a showpiece, but these things happen. Those who braved the wet got some decent footy, all things considered – particularly the first game, a thrilling 14-14 draw between the Titans and Bulldogs.

Forward pass

We’ve got two bellringers due next Saturday evening, both with major finals implications.

The main event comes first as Redcliffe take on the Roosters at Suncorp, running back their inaugural match but with their first ever finals appearance on the line.

Win and they pretty much secure 8th spot, as it would put two clear wins (and over 150 points’ worth of differential) between themselves and their opponents with just four rounds to play. Assuming Manly don’t beat Canberra on Friday night – and they won’t – then that should be that.

Then again, if Easts get up, they’ll draw level with the Phins on wins, albeit not on points difference. The cat would be right among the pigeons.

When that one finishes, we’ll move to Sydney where the Bulldogs, fresh off losing to the Tigers, face up against a Warriors side grimly clinging to fourth place following two straight defeats.

A Wahs loss opens the door for Cronulla, who are already level in wins and ahead on points, to overtake in real terms on the ladder.