NRL Wrap: Underdogs reign, Lachlan Galvin drama and Origin buildup

The NRL is a chaotic place at the best of times, and you can double that in the Origin period.

That was written all over this weekend of footy: every favourite lost, and only one of the games was even close.

While the NRL will see this as a good thing, in that it backs their idea that anyone can beat anyone, it isn’t a good look for the competition. Calls for a standalone Origin period will certainly grow stronger after this round.

If you’re getting upsets, that’s fine, but if they’re upsets where the game isn’t close, nobody wins. It just looks like chaos.

The only game that was truly good was the Raiders’ victory over the Warriors, not coincidentally also the game with the fewest players in Origin. Canberra won 16-10 and will now consider themselves as Premiership contenders.

The whole weekend was overshadowed by a massive piece of transfer news on Sunday lunchtime, too, so let’s get the footy out of the way before the juicy stuff.

A good week for…

Underdogs, as every match of this round was won by the outsiders.

Plenty of that is down to the better teams having Origin outs, but however it happened, it shows the unpredictability of the competition, which is exactly what the NRL want.

Some games were undeniably altered by roster strength – the Dogs’ defeat to Redcliffe and Penrith’s loss to Newcastle – but others were genuine upsets.

The Sharks and Manly simply didn’t turn up in games where they would have been expected to do a lot better, while the Warriors were outplayed in the second half by a Raiders side who look increasingly like the real deal.

The upshot is a huge logjam in the middle of the ladder: if we ignore byes (and we should), there are nine teams on either four or five wins.

A bad week for…

The Sharks, who had the least excuse to lose this weekend but did anyway. They were facing a Roosters side with multiple Origin outs, with zero of their own, on the back of their best win of the season.

Yet Cronulla never showed up for a second. They were blown away by an Easts side that chanced their arm, always promoting the football in attack and being well rewarded for their endeavour.

Ronaldo Mulitalo, who gave it the biggest of big mans last week in the victory over the Storm, was perhaps the worst offender, finding himself left standing in defence and then copping a ban for a late hit.

The winger was an easy target, but really, none of his teammates turned up either. This was an excellent Roosters showing, but if the Sharks are serious, they have to win games like this.

The knock on them has been that they are flat track bullies – having gone a long way to changing that last week, they’re back to square one with this defeat.

Standout…

Referee Adam Gee, who just about managed to keep a lid on a filthy game between the Warriors and Raiders.

Officials this year (and most years in Australia) have been afraid to properly punish repeat foul play, but Gee was willing to stamp his authority on both sides when required.

Canberra have plenty of form for deliberately slowing play, especially on their own line, and Gee refused to let them do it. He gave multiple set restarts, warned captain Joe Tapine and then took decisive action, binning Corey Horsburgh for repeat infringements.

Up the other end, the Wahs tried it and Gee acted accordingly, sending Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad for a sit down after three back-to-back offences in the ruck.

The ref had to deal with both sides pushing their luck, Tapine trying to re-referee every decision and a slew of fouls that saw 17 penalties and 14 infringements, but managed the game well enough that Canberra, just about the better team, were able to win it on merit.

Rugby league isn’t always pretty and every team is trying to get ahead any way they can. Reffing is a thankless task, but Gee controlled this one well.

Washout…

Luke Brooks, who was an almost complete passenger as Manly went down meekly to Parramatta on Friday night.

The Sea Eagles ran with Brooks in the 6 and Jake Arthur in the 7, and you’d have expected the experienced man to take control.

Instead, the former Tiger delegated responsibility to the stand-in, and when Arthur was sent to the head bin for 15 minutes, he let Lachlan Croker, a repackaged hooker who hadn’t played all year, run the show.

Moreover, Brooks ran just three times in 80 minutes – and one of them was by accident when Tolu Koula overran a pass. It was insipid stuff.

The five eighth understandably plays second fiddle to Daly Cherry-Evans when available, but let’s be clear: this is a bloke with over 200 NRL appearances in the halves, often as the senior playmaker, and he should be taking the lead in these games when the main man is out.

Brooks hasn’t assisted a try since Round 5 and has scored just once all year. It’s not good enough for someone of his ability and experience.

Everyone is talking about…

You’d think it would be Origin, but instead, it’s all about Lachlan Galvin.

The wantaway Wests Tiger was given his wish by the club, who will not force him to sit out his contract until the end of next year – to the benefit of the Bulldogs, who seem to have played this one to perfection.

This was a classic Gus Gould move.

The Dogs’ Head of Football used his position as a Channel 9 commentator to publicly deny any interest – “We are not involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion and we won’t be involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion,” to quote directly – only to swoop for their man.

Their trump card is Luke Vella, who taught the teenager at school and is now an assistant to coach Cameron Ciraldo.

It’s not sure how that will work on the field, as they already have a star five eighth in Matt Burton and neither he nor Galvin have shown any interest in or aptitude for the halfback role.

Toby Sexton has been pretty good and doesn’t deserve to be dropped, but unless Burton moves to fullback (in which case you could say the same about Connor Tracey) then he’s out.

The ball is now in the Tigers’ court, as they decide when Galvin can leave. Don’t bet against a club debut on June 9 – ironically against the Eels, who everyone thought the teenager would join.

But nobody mentions…

Game 3 of Women’s Origin, which is a dead rubber following NSW’s victory in Sydney two weeks ago.

Though there is nothing to settle, there has never been a whitewash in the limited history of multi-game WOrigin, so Queensland have plenty of reasons to ensure that they aren’t the first.

The Blues have looked a cut above thus far, especially on the edges, so if there’s a dry track, they’ll be very confident.

Then again, this game is in Newcastle, which has been blasted with a biblical storm over the last week, so don’t bank on it.

Forward pass

There’s almost non-stop footy this week: Origin on Wednesday, Women’s Origin on Thursday and then a full round of NRL to take us through to Sunday.

The back-up rounds are often quite chaotic, and probably nowhere more so than at Brookie Oval, where the NRL’s two most frustrating teams will face off as Manly host the Broncos.

Amazingly, the Bronx haven’t played on the Beaches since 2014, as Manly chose to move their match to Brisbane for commercial reasons before deciding to make that occasion part of their annual flagellation at Magic Round.

Thankfully for the misfiring Sea Eagles, Brisbane are also highly dysfunctional. There’s a lot of talent, plenty of it playing sub-optimally, so literally anything could happen.