NRL Wrap: Sin-bin shambles, coaching casualties and the terrific Tigers

It’s never fun talking about refereeing, but it’s unavoidable after a round dominated by the high contact rules.

Well, not so much the rules, which are generally a good thing, but the application of them: almost every game saw the Bunker bin someone ages after the fact, going back several tackles into a set to pick someone out and send them for a break.

Take the Tigers. After surviving multiple sets on their line in the second half, they repelled the Sharks and forced an error on the last – only for the Bunker to find a high tackle several plays back, returning the ball to the Sharks and giving them another set, this time against 12 men. Obviously, they scored.

It wasn’t that Fonua Pole, who was the man sat down, didn’t deserve it. By the standards of the weekend, his tackle was in the ‘seen ‘em given’ section. It was that the Tigers had done the defending legitimately, drained the tank and came up smiling.

If you’re going to sit blokes down, that’s fine, but the fabric of the game is ripped apart when the Sharks essentially got multiple free plays, penalising the Tigers twice for one offence.

That was just one example, but there were many. Moreover the absolute worst offences of the weekend – the most dangerous, most egregious – didn’t get the punishment they deserved anyway.

Sitili Tupouniua had a nailed on sent off, raising a knee directly into the face of an opponent while carrying the ball, and nothing happened.

Angus Crichton, also a ball-carrier, punched Lachlan Ilias in the face twice and didn’t even get penalised. Latrell Mitchell recklessly, off-his-feet, high tackled Sua Fa’alogo and was only binned.

In general, the crackdown on high shots is a good thing, and well overdue. But when it comes so haphazardly, with the Bunker reffing instead of the person in the middle with the whistle, it’s a big problem.

That’s the rant over. Let’s get to the footy.

A good week for…

The Wests Tigers.

This has been a particularly turbulent time for the NRL’s most turbulent club, but if there were any questions about the commitment of both the team and their wantaway young star Lachlan Galvin, they were comprehensively answered on Sunday afternoon.

Galvin set up the first try and saved one in the final moments to send the game to golden point.

Jarome Luai, Fonua Pole and Sunia Turuva, the ringleaders of the so-called ‘team first’ backlash against Galvin, were excellent and right around their teammate.

The defence to keep a rampant Sharks at bay in the second half was heroic, as was the effort to block a Nicho Hynes effort that could have won the game.

The Tigers fought this one into the ground, blocked multiple field goals and got themselves a chance from a penalty goal. Adam Doueihi iced it for a memorable victory against all the odds.

A bad week for…

The Bulldogs, who lost their unbeaten record in the most spectacular fashion to kick off the round on Thursday.

You’ve heard of everything that could go wrong going wrong, but this was next level. Jacob Preston dropped the ball in yardage in the first set and the Broncos scored, Reed Mahoney tackling like a saloon door.

Josh Curran got binned and was lucky it wasn’t more for a clean shoulder to the head of Payne Haas. Sitili Tupouniua did too in almost identical circumstances.

The only piece of luck the Dogs got was that Matt Burton clocked Billy Walters with a direct shot to the jaw and somehow stayed on.

Even when Canterbury got into the Brisbane end, they gave away a yardage set penalty – five of them in the first half.

They kicked the ball to the fullback on the full twice. When it was going dead at their own end, they touched it anyway. Brisbane kicked two 40/20s with Connor Tracey helpless.

This was just the first half, too. All of it. The hosts enjoyed a full 70% of the ball in that time and, even if you have the best defence in the comp, you’re not a hope in those conditions, especially not with 12 men for a chunk of it.

The rain belted down, but the points rained more. Six tries in the first half, 34-0, game over and unbeaten record in the toilet.

Canterbury did at least win the second half, but by that point it was miles gone. The positive will be that they can flush this as a night where everything went wrong.

The negative, scoreline aside, is that Curran, Burton and Tupouniua are all looking at suspension next week – including seven weeks for the backrower for his shoulder charge and knee raise duo, plus loading from a previous ban this year.

Standout…

Sandon Smith, who masterminded the Roosters’ victory on Anzac Day with a real coming of age performance.

The playmaker has been in and out of the side since debuting in 2023, and wasn’t a first choice at any point until Sam Walker went down injured late last year.

In 2025, with Walker yet to return and stand-in Chad Townsend dropped, Smith is now the senior half alongside rookie Hugo Savala.

Sandon turned in a performance for the ages on Anzac Day, a proper breakout moment as a top-level player.

He challenged the line with his running, kept the ruck honest with darts in behind and shepherded his partner through the match against an experienced Dragons side.

Best of all, Smith has given coach Trent Robinson a real headache: it’s well known that the Roosters are interested in Daly Cherry-Evans for next year, and Walker is the future of the club, so you’d have to imagine he’s going nowhere.

Now, Robbo has to fit Smith in somewhere as well. He’s made himself indispensable.

Washout…

Des Hasler and the Titans.

This club are a total washout, but even by the standards of the Gold Coast, Hasler has lost control. The defence – with the Titans, it’s always defence – is horrendous, both disorganised and uncommitted.

In the past, one could have pointed at the roster, but there’s no excuse with the players that the Titans are putting on the field. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, AJ Brimson, Beau Fermor, David Fifita, Mo Fotuaika…these are all really good players.

Collectively, however, they are far less than the sum of their parts. Hasler looks increasingly like yesterday’s man, looking for a wrestle to slow the game when everyone else speeds up.

The Titans were actually half decent to start the year: they pushed the Bulldogs more than most, then beat Newcastle and the Roosters.

Since, however, it’s been back to usual programming. They were rotten against the then-winless Dolphins, didn’t lay a glove on the Dragons, then threw away 16-0 and 18-6 leads against the Raiders and Cowboys to lose heavily.

Most worryingly for the coach, his side have chucked it twice in two weeks, turning salvageable situations into blowout defeats.

Nobody will care because it’s the Titans and this is what they do, but if Hasler were at a Sydney club, serious questions would be being asked.

Everyone is talking about…

The Bears, who are back in the big leagues after decades in the doldrums.

The big story, really, should be Perth and the expansion of the game into Western Australia for the first time since 1997, but Perth isn’t in Sydney so instead, the narrative is about the sliver of the North Shore that matters.

The deal was never really off the table, but both sides – Peter V’Landys from the NRL, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook – had to make it look like it was to win the argument with their own constituencies.

Assuming Love Rugby League readers don’t care about WA state politics, we can focus on PVL, for whom this is a major feather in his cap.

He already has the successful addition of the Dolphins to the comp and can now add a double whammy that pleases both the boomer nostalgics and the expansionists.

More consequently, a Bears in Perth combines the sponsorship potential of Australia’s richest state with red meat for the richest people in Sydney, who were cut off from rugby league when the North Shore lost its team in the 1990s.

Throw in an extra time zone for the TV deal – likely 6pm Sunday – and the potential to open up another market to combat the AFL and you’re talking about a big success for the NRL’s most important person.

But nobody mentions…

The Knights, who were out of sight and out of mind for most of the NRL this weekend.

They were sandwiched between the Anzac extravaganza in Sydney and the late kick off in Melbourne, not to mention the general distance that comes from playing away in New Zealand.

It suits Newcastle that another defeat passed under the radar. Coach Adam O’Brien sent out another new halves pairing and got no result, with the competition’s worst attack again misfiring.

Newcastle are going nowhere fast, playing horrendous football and losing against anyone with half a defence.

The play 5, in particular, is awful: the plan appears to be to kick the ball directly to the opposition fullback and never contest it, which doesn’t seem too great an idea when you also can’t score from hand.

The next month is softer than soft for the Knights, who get Souths, Gold Coast, Parramatta and Penrith. If the club don’t see something, O’Brien will be toast.

Forward pass

It’s Magic Round, which should be exciting, but the fixture computer hasn’t been kind. The best game is the last one, where the Storm will take on the high-flying Raiders, and the Tigers-Dragons headliner on Saturday could be sickos-only fun, but there’s a fair few mismatches in there as well.

Instead, let’s focus on the Thursday night, where Women’s Origin will take centre stage.

The first game can be a little clunky at times, with the best of the best coming in a little cold. It’s an imperfect time to play, as the NRLW hasn’t yet started and the state-level Women’s comps have shifted to late in the year to match the first grade.

There’s not really a good time, however, so it’s something that we just have to deal with.

The three-game series will end the day after the Men’s Origin starts, so the trade off is clearly to have maximum eyeballs on the Women at this time of year before changing focus to the NRLW later in the year.

Those caveats aside, these games are generally great and, as a Magic Round addition, there should be a bumper crowd.