NRL Team of the Week: Papa steals the show as Knights, Raiders duos star

It’s been easy – and quite funny – to take aim at the Brisbane Broncos in 2025. They’ve got all the cash in the world but tend to collapse when it matters most.

When it works though, you remember the talent they have. Reece Walsh in full flight is one of the best sights in rugby league, and for the first time in a long time, we got that. Sure, it was against the Titans, but everyone gets to play them too.

Josh Papal’i in full flight is less spectacular, but you’ll go a long way to find a better moment than his this weekend. If you do, it might be Demitric Vaimauga’s no look pass, which was more Shaun Johnson than a prop passing to another prop.

There’s even some Pommy interest, as Newcastle finally allowed Kai Pearce-Paul to offload. The rest? Read on…

1. Reece Walsh (Broncos)

The Broncos did their best All Blacks impression on Saturday night, bedecked in a dark kit designed to raise mental health awareness.

The pass from Walsh for Gehamat Shibasaki’s opener had more than a little rah-rah about it, a 30m spiral of the sort that you rarely see in league, where players tend to be closer together.

It was a superb piece of skill from the fullback and just the first of many. His step late in the game for a solo try was exceptional, far too good for the Titans, as was his pace to close the scoring.

2. Jamayne Isaako (Dolphins)

It’s fashionable to reduce wingers to their statistics, especially when reflecting their overall contribution to the game beyond the nuts and bolts of finishing tries.

For Isaako, however, that works back to front. His build suggests a strong yardage carrier, but in truth, he’s a pure finisher more in the Alex Johnston, old school mode.

It’s taken plenty of years to work that out, and to find a team that fits. At the Dolphins, where both centres are worth hundreds of metres a game, they can carry two finishers in Isaako and Jack Bostock.

Jamayne duly delivered: two tries, including one of the sort that only the best finishers score, with a blade of grass at the corner post available. Isaako found it – then slotted the conversion off the sideline for good measure.

3. Kotoni Staggs (Broncos)

Reece Walsh was great for the Broncos, but his centre was even better. This was Kotoni Staggs’ best game of the year by a country mile, and reminded everyone of what his ceiling is when he can pull it all together.

His one try and one assist misrepresents how creative Staggs was, as the Tonga international placed himself right at the middle of everything good his side did – which was plenty.

4. Dane Gagai (Knights)

Everyone in Knights colours was horrendous in the first half, but Gagai more than made it up in the second.

He was assisted by a few backline reshuffles in the Manly ranks, but took full advantage to shred whichever of Ben Trbojevic and Corey Waddell he found himself up against.

Most of the best bits of Newcastle came from the Gagai-Kai Pearce-Paul axis on the right, and raised questions of why the Knights have so frequently ignored their most experienced back. Gagai isn’t as quick as he used to be, but the nous can more than make up for it.

5. Tom Jenkins (Penrith)

There have been more than a few occasions where Tom Jenkins hasn’t looked the part at first grade level – call it confidence, experience or whatever – but the talent was always there.

The Panthers had him, let him leave to Newcastle, then took him back, confident that the raw materials were enough to merit a second look. That’s starting to pay off now.

Jenkins was exceptional in their win over the Wests Tigers, scoring a hat trick but also battering the footy out of yardage in the trademark Panthers fashion, breaking 12 tackles en route to 240m with ball in hand.

He’s gone around the houses, but Jenkins now seems here to stay in the NRL. The Panthers are better for it.

6. Ethan Strange (Raiders)

Canberra needed some spark at 12-0 down to South Sydney. Their five eighth provided it, scoring the first two as he grabbed his side by the scruff of the beck.

Strange has been around long enough that it’s easy to forget that he is still just 20, and this was a showing of true leadership, turning the ship around. He didn’t re-invent the wheel, but relied on his best attributes: running hard, stepping close to the line and challenging defenders.

Souths were caught flat-flooted, first by Strange, then by everyone else

7. Isaiya Katoa (Dolphins)

The Tonga international underlined his reputation as the best young half in the game with another stunning showing to lead the Dolphins to a massive win over St George Illawarra.

Passing, offloading, bombs, 40/20s, this was a performance with the lot. He got three try assists in the book, but that sold him short, as several scores were as a direct result of Katoa’s actions, even if the decisive moment happened further down the line.

Like Strange, the level of maturity on display from someone so young is exceptional. He’s the undoubted leader of an NRL team at just 21.

8. Josh Papali’i (Raiders)

The most obvious pick of the week and, really, the season: on the day that he broke the Raiders’ all-time appearance record, Josh Papali’i scored twice to complete the comeback and make a grown man (specifically, Ricky Stuart) cry.

Neither will rank highly for Try of the Year, but as moments go – you can stop the count.

They even let him kick the goal – there might have been a riot had he not. Of course, Papa nailed it straight down the middle.

9. Ryley Smith (Parramatta)

Parramatta were ground into the dust over the course of 80 minutes by a rampant Bulldogs side, but their hooker never gave up.

Ryley Smith outplayed his predecessor and lookalike Reed Mahoney with a typically committed performance. He might not have wanted to have to make as many tackles as he did, but made them willingly, pushing 50 in the 65 minutes he was in the middle.

10. Demitric Vaimuaga (Warriors)

Demitric Vaimauga is a new name in the NRL, but only because he changed it from Sifakula to honour his mother.

The player has been around for a few years, but has rarely been asked to lead. With Mitch Barnett done for the year, he’ll get a lot more game time than he has before, and if Saturday’s showing in the win over Cronulla is anything to go by, that can only be a good thing.

Vaimuaga played 40 minutes in the middle and, while his involvement was about what you’d expect, there were two moments to suggest a skill level beyond the average interchange prop.

His soft hands for James Fisher-Harris to score were exceptional, as was his desire to support Luke Metcalf for his own score, not to mention his turn of pace to make it to the line.

11. Kai Pearce-Paul (Knights)

The Newcastle backrower announced his departure at the end of the year to join the Wests Tigers, and showed everyone in the Hunter how much they will miss him with a stellar showing to turn the game around against Manly.

It might be that his decision to leave impacted his performance: this was the first time in a long time that the Kai Pearce-Paul we knew from Wigan was allowed to play.

The Knights signed an elite offloader and promptly told him not to offload, but thankfully for KPP and the paying punters, he ignored that completely.

The result was a functional, unpredictable attack from a side that rarely bothers with it, with both Dane Gagai and Fletcher Sharpe able to sniff around the big man. Expect the Tigers to let him do it every week.

12. Haumole Olakau’atu (Manly)

Manly might have put the cue in the rack at half time, but Haumole never did. He’ll be unlucky not to be picked for NSW given the strength in his area of the field.

Olakau’atu made James Schiller look like an under-12, turning one edge of the field into mincemeat en route for forty minutes.

Inexplicably, the backrower barely received the footy in the second half, with 12 runs before the break for a ridiculous 130m, but just five afterwards.

13. Kurt Mann (Bulldogs)

There’s been plenty of talk about where new Bulldogs star Lachie Galvin will play: his preferred five eighth role is taken by Matt Burton, so that won’t happen, and he’s never played halfback, making that role unlikely.

Many have suggested Galvin to lock forward – plausible given his size – but he’ll have to get past Kurt Mann to get there.

The Queenslander was named for an Origin debut next week and celebrated with a typically workmanlike performance, involving himself wherever possible and allowing Burton to express himself.

There was space for some virtuoso stuff, too: his late assist for Harry Hayes was all class – ball movement, a little shimmy and the power to break the line.