NRL Team of the Week: Katoa shines, Storm steal the show and usual suspects feature

We could have shut the book on performance of the week just 40 minutes into the first game after Connor Tracey’s heroics, but the hits just kept coming.

Elie Katoa’s backrow display for Melbourne, Herbie Farnworth’s routine brilliance for Redcliffe and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow’s four try haul were just some of the big showings – so let’s get to the team.

1. Connor Tracey (Bulldogs)

If there’s a player who has had a better half this year than Connor Tracey’s first against Penrith, we haven’t seen it.

The Dogs fullback was conservatively worth +3 tries for his team, producing the key intervention for his side to open the scoring in the tightest of matches while also denying the Panthers twice with two exceptional tackles on Blaize Talagi that he had very little right to make.

Tracey was the best in a very good Bulldogs side and absolutely did not deserve to lose.

2. Josiah Karapani (Broncos)

There were huge wraps on Karapani coming through at South Sydney, but a bad injury and a strong backline in front of him stunted his ability to get through to the NRL.

Moving to Brisbane was a big call, and he was again behind some big hitters, but has now ousted them to become a feature in the Broncos team.

This was his best game in first grade, making Ed Kosi – who was also in front of him in the Warriors system, once upon a time – look very silly indeed.

3. Casey McLean (Panthers)

Facing Stephen Crichton is an intimidating prospect for any young centre, but even more so when you’re the kid that essentially replaced him at the Panthers.

Casey McLean isn’t just that, he’s also a teenager who would have spent much of his formative years looking up to Critta.

Yet when they faced off for the first time in Thursday night’s blockbuster, it was Casey who came out on top. He shut down his more illustrious opposite number in defence and caused him plenty of problems in attack.

The last month or so has been a coming-of-age for McLean and his winger, Tom Jenkins, who now look like fully fledged first graders. On the evidence of Thursday, McLean might go a lot further than just that.

4. Herbie Farnworth (Dolphins)

A permanent fixture in this side, Herbie is clear as the best centre in the game and proved it with another killer showing on Saturday night.

The Burnley Meninga was worth 145m, broke seven tackles, set up a try and generally bossed his edge throughout.

5. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Dolphins)

We’ll include the Hammer on a wing, as that’s where Queensland will waste him in Origin, because he has to be in somewhere.

Tabuai-Fidow scored four against the Bunnies, running riot through the middle and making Souths look very slow indeed.

With Kalyn Ponga injured, he should be picked at fullback for Queensland, but don’t hold your breath.

6. Lyhkan King-Togia (Dragons)

Much of the chatter around the Dragons has been around their halves, with plenty sticking their heads above the parapet to question why the coach’s son continues to get picked. Nobody is asking about the five eighth.

Kyle Flanagan went pretty well on Saturday, by the way, but he very much played second fiddle to rookie Lyhkan King-Togia.

This was the 20-year-old’s best game in the NRL, setting up two tries for his side and challenging the line constantly with his running game.

7. Jahrome Hughes (Storm)

Perhaps the best sight of the weekend was Hughes, having just put Elie Katoa through a gap for Melbourne’s first, turning around to celebrate before the ball had even been put down.

It was a great moment from a player who knew exactly what he was doing. That was just four minutes in, but it didn’t stop there.

Hughes dominated his side’s victory over the Sharks, creating another and scoring one himself while posting a huge ten tackle breaks.

8. Jake Trbojevic (Manly)

The Manly middle has been well down in 2025, but put in one of his best showings of the year to help his side over the Wests Tigers on Friday evening.

It was typical Jurbo: only three runs in the game, but a huge 42 tackles and lots of link play, moving the attack wider and wider when the bulk of his teams appeared to want to play exclusively through the middle.

With Nathan Brown now injured, the Sea Eagles will need their linkman to have a lot more games like this.

9. Mitch Kenny (Panthers)

There were a lot of good performances on Thursday night from the Panthers, but none were so emblematic of the collective effort than that of Mitch Kenny.

He’s often overlooked as a bloke who, while decent, isn’t as good as Api Koroisau, who he replaced.

In the statement win over Canterbury, Kenny showed exactly why his club has had so much faith in him: the hooker managed, depending on your stats provider, with 64 or 69 tackles in the match. Whatever number, it was a mammoth performance.

10. David Klemmer (Dragons)

St George Illawarra lost three forwards in their win over Parramatta, and were down to one man on the bench for most of it.

They needed huge showings from their remaining big men – and got them from David Klemmer and Emre Guler.

Either could have made this team, but Klemmer edges it for 39 tackles with just one miss, as well as over 100m of hard yards in the middle.

11. Eliesa Katoa (Storm)

As good as Hughes was, he had some great help from his backrower. The pair have a great combination on the right edge, with Katoa running hard off his halfback’s hip and providing a kicking target too.

The rose well above Will Kennedy for one try, flicking on to Nick Meaney, then repeated the trick to return Hughes a favour.

12. Zac Hosking (Raiders)

The Raiders missed their backrower big time when he was injured last year – and again when he broke a hand in Round 4.

Now, with Hudson Young rested and Matty Nicholson out, they needed some spark from Hosking. He delivered big time.

There was a killer offload that got Kaeo Weekes over, plus a huge 45 tackles in the back row.

13. Corey Horsburgh (Raiders)

Big Red made his best case for an Origin recall with another superb showing for the Raiders, making a massive 20 carries in just an hour on the field and getting through 34 tackles without a miss.

Ricky Stuart prefers his locks to go heads down, bums up, run hard and make their tackles. Horsburgh is one of the best at that, and should get a Maroons jumper for it.