NRL Wrap: Seibold on the brink, terrific Teddy – and time for Origin shake-up

It could have been argued that Round 15 was lacking in spark.

It was wall to wall stinkers, a very strong argument for standalone Origin weekends, given that half the sides were missing players and the other half played like they were.

Even the close games were bad, and arguably the only good one was the blowout by the Dolphins over the Cowboys. Good football, Townsville aside, was in short supply.

Then we got that spark – unfortunately, from the sky. Sydney saw an apocalyptic storm midway through Sunday afternoon that saw the Bulldogs’ 18-0 lead over Souths halted the match for half an hour.

It wasn’t enough to stop the Doggies, though the Rabbitohs had a red hot crack. It finished 24-18 after a late comeback, lifting Canterbury back to the top of the tree again.

A good week for…

The Phins, who are very much up at the moment.

This weekend, they flogged the Cowboys 58-4, following on from a 56-6 thrashing of the Dragons last week and a 44-8 thumping of Canterbury prior to that. If you’re counting, that’s 158-18.

In a 2025 NRL that has been a little light on attacking footy, this is a side that is throwing the ball around and getting results.

Jack Bostock took the headlines with four tries, but he did so outside of an ever-excellent Herbie Farnworth and a halves pairing that is the perfect balance of control and spark.

Isaiya Katoa dominated this match again, and played the senior playmaker role so well that Kodi Nikorima was able to riff off him with total abandon.

They are now officially the top-scoring side in the NRL – and, in a beautiful piece of scheduling irony, get the worst attack in the comp, Newcastle, next week.

Redcliffe have recorded their biggest ever wins as a club in consecutive weeks – 50 points v St George Illawarra, then 54 in Townsville – and nobody would back against a hat trick next Saturday.

A bad week for…

Manly, again.

They were shocking against the Titans, failing for a second week in a row to beat the worst team in the NRL and losing Haumole Olakau’atu to injury in the process.

This was genuine season-ending stuff from the Sea Eagles. They were at pretty much full strength with zero Origin outs, but struggled badly again in attack, which used to be their superstrength.

Daly Cherry-Evans looked horrendous with the boot, kicking too long too often. Tom Trbojevic is a shadow of a footballer, running without power and playing without confidence. Is Luke Brooks even on the field?

Serious questions will now be asked about coach Anthony Seibold, because his once bright and entertaining football has disappeared completely.

The Titans were competent – which, for them, is a great week – and that was all that was required. Manly, for far from the first time, beat themselves.

Standout…

It has to be James Tedesco, who wrenched a victory out of a shocking Roosters performance with two moments of quality.

Teddy produced an offload for Salesi Foketi, who channelled old school Brad Fittler to round Fletcher Hunt like a training cone, then kicked through for Siua Wong to ground the ball with his forearm.

Those were enough to turn a 8-0 deficit into a 12-8 lead, handing Easts the point and erasing the hour or so of complete dross that had preceded it.

The Roosters had spent most of the first half attacking like they’d met that morning, but defended well enough to keep themselves in the game. That took two to tango, and Newcastle brought their dancing shoes with their now trademark nonexistent attack.

This was a dire game of football, but the Chooks won it having looked like they wouldn’t for almost all the match. That was all down to their captain.

Washout…

Last week was all about how terrible Nathan Lawson was for the Dragons – and nobody can say they’re not a balanced side, as his opposing winger, Tyrell Sloan, was arguably even worse this time around.

Lawson has the excuse of being a rugby league rookie, but Sloan doesn’t: he was just plain bad.

Cronulla worked out very early on that they could just kick aimlessly in the direction of Sloan on the right wing, confident that he’d drop it. It was only due to the Sharks’ profligacy that it didn’t cost more.

The whole game was a strong vindication for the theory that this NRL season is quite even, but low quality.

The Dragons forgot how to tackle Blayke Brailey for the first 15 minutes, constantly leaving the dummy half free, only for the Sharks to forget how to tackle everyone.

Eventually the hosts turned it around – typically for 2025, on the back of a 65% possession split in their favour – and ran out comfortable winners, but this was a game that didn’t flatter either side.

Everyone is talking about…

The gang, which is very much back together at Origin level for NSW.

Mitch Moses has done a calf, which means Jarome Luai comes into the squad to replace him. It’s a fair back-up to have, given that Luai and Nathan Cleary have played together since they were 15 and won four Premierships as a duo at the Panthers.

Spare a thought for Matt Burton: he’s stuck at 18th man, despite a player in his position going down.

It’s the fifth time he’s been called in to take the role, which NSW have never used. Felise Kaufusi’s stint after Reece Walsh was knocked out in Game 1 last year remains the only time the 18th man has been activated.

Had Moses’ calf gone a few days later when the team was already in Perth, chances are Burton would have played. Instead, Luai gets the call.

This wasn’t without controversy.

Campbell Graham, who was 18th man in Game 1, wasn’t included due to injury after withdrawing late in Round 14. He was then named for South Sydney to face a Burton-less Doggies, despite NSW having decided he wasn’t fit enough to feature three days later.

Convention is that the 18th man should be picked from a team who have the bye the weekend before – like, say, Luai’s Tigers – but Souths gambled that, if they took their man out, Burton would get called in.

By that point, it didn’t matter if Graham played or not. The work was done.

But nobody mentions…

Under-19s Origin, which has flown under the radar. That’s fine – in fact, it’s preferable.

Junior Origin is one of the best nights of the year, a proper look at the stars of tomorrow that gets the full TV treatment, and the joy of it is that punters don’t really know who anyone is.

Last year, we had Jaxson Purdue, Casey McLean and Loko Pasifiki Tonga, now breaking through as talents in the NRL.

The year before, it was Ethan Strange, Savelio Tamale and Samuela Fainu. In 2022, Paul Alamoti, Jack Bostock, Jack Howarth and Robert Toia, now in the big Origin squad.

Oh, and Teagan Berry thought she’d scored the greatest long-rangers of all time in the Women’s equivalent in 2021, only for Jada Taylor to actually do it in 2022.

This tends to be box office and gets better the less you know about it. It won’t disappoint.

Forward pass

It’s Origin on Wednesday, so let’s go straight there.

NSW are going for the early kill and are overwhelming favourites, with bookies offering nearly 2/1 on Queensland.

That’s despite Mitch Moses leaving camp with a calf injury – and probably because the Blues can lose such a key player and barely miss a beat, replacing him with Jarome Luai, who has played roughly a thousand games with Nathan Cleary.

The Maroons have also replaced a half, but that’s by choice – they dropped Daly Cherry-Evans, with Tom Dearden coming in to start and Kurt Mann onto the bench.

That was just one of several changes aimed at shaking up a side that was easily beaten on home turf in Game 1.

Much as Queensland’s famed Origin spirit has been spoken up, it probably won’t matter: their record in Perth is horrendous, with two heavy defeats in two trips.