The opening round of the 2023 NRL premiership was one for the ages.
A golden point season opener. Two matches decided by a field goal. A pair of colossal boilovers, including one of the greatest club debuts of all time. Competitiveness and physicality across the board as eight absorbing encounters completely overshadowed the early-season rust.
Here’s how the NRL landscape has changed with the competition’s first weekend out of the way.
All thriller, no filler
The past few bottom-heavy NRL seasons have had a clearly defined batch of haves and have-nots. The initial signs are for a much more even minor premiership race in 2023, however, with some of last year’s also-rans making early statements while big guns were slow out of the blocks.
For all the customary lack of cohesion and crispness, it was a spellbinding Round 1 weekend with all but one match in the balance until the dying stages. Manly’s 31-6 defeat of Canterbury was the only match decided by a 13-plus margin.
Unders punters cashed in with only one game going over the total line and the eight fixtures averaging just 35.25 points scored, while the Sea Eagles’ tally was the second-lowest team high score for a round since the opening weekend of 2020.
Five underdogs covered – three despite being on the road – with Brisbane and the debuting Dolphins snaring memorable upsets after being afforded giant starts against the pre-season grand final favourites, Penrith and the Roosters.
Contrasting fortunes for legendary coaches…
Wayne Bennett (891 games) and Tim Sheens (669 games) are the two most experienced – and in the top bracket of most successful – rugby league coaches to hold a clipboard. But their respective NRL comebacks garnered vastly different outcomes on Sunday.
Dolphins foundation coach Bennett delivered the ultimate smackdown to the critics as his widely-criticised line-up of veterans, journeymen, fringe first-graders and rookies battered the hotshot Sydney Roosters into submission for a 28-18 triumph at Suncorp Stadium.
The newcomers – whopping 18-point underdogs – went on a 22-0 run from late in the first half to set up one of the great NRL-era upsets, but the victory was built on ferocious defence, led by inaugural Arthur Beetson Medal winner Felise Kaufusi’s seek-and-destroy display.
The Dolphins’ maligned spine also outshone their blue-chip Roosters counterparts.
Jeremy Marshall-King gave the heavyweights constant headaches from dummy-half, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow put his stamp on the No.1 jersey and five-eighth debutant Isaiya Katoa overcame a rocky start to have a big hand in Jamayne Isaako’s second-half double.
The euphoric result provided the ideal platform for Bennett to toy with his adversaries in the media post-match.
Meanwhile, aside from the packed house at Leichhardt, there wasn’t much of 2005 about the return of Wests Tigers’ premiership coach Tim Sheens with playmaking wizards-turned-assistants Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah in tow.
The big-spending Tigers crashed 22-10 to a Gold Coast Titans side that had conceded less than 16 points just once in 2022. The hosts dominated every important stat category – possession, run metres, missed tackles, line-breaks, penalties – except for errors.
Luke Brooks, Daine Laurie and Isaiah Papali’i were particularly guilty of momentum-crushing handling mistakes as the Tigers failed to accept the Titans’ generous invitation to run them down in the second half.
Sheens, back in the hot-seat for the first time since 2012, will be under some early pressure if his charges lose to the Knights at home next Sunday – particularly as rumours have already emerged he’s butting heads with Marshall.
…and Cleary’s rookie proteges
Canterbury and the Warriors pinned their rebuild hopes on the assistants to Ivan Cleary’s back-to-back premiership success. But while Andrew Webster helmed a stirring Warriors win in Wellington, Cameron Ciraldo’s Bulldogs crumbled in the face of a DCE- and ‘Turbo’-led onslaught at Brookvale.
Webster enjoyed a dream start, his compelling off-season rhetoric of resilience and defensive commitment coming to early fruition in a 20-12 defeat of Newcastle.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was the standout of the seven recruits the Warriors fielded, though Dylan Walker, Mitch Barnett and low-key pick-ups Jackson Ford and Brayden Wiliame all did their new jersey proud.
Wayde Egan was a clear man-of-the-match in a performance that oozed marquee hooker.
Ciraldo, though, appears to have considerably more work to do to turn the Bulldogs around. They had some bad luck on Saturday – headlined by the farcical sin-binning of Kyle Flanagan – but were nevertheless alarmingly brittle in a 31-6 loss to the Sea Eagles.
Canterbury’s lack of a quality halfback or fullback was magnified by an inability to combat Manly counterparts Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic, while the Bulldogs’ skinny front-row stocks could stymie their bid for a Top 8 return before it has even begun.
The Warriors head to Sydney in Round 2 with their tails up to take on the tardy Roosters, while the Bulldogs face a crunch road trip to Melbourne.
I guess that’s why they call it the Blues
In a historic first, four Queensland clubs all carved out wins on the same weekend. Meanwhile, the NRL’s sole Victoria- and New Zealand-based outfits both started the season with a dub. Naturally, that spelt inevitably bad news for teams that reside in New South Wales.
The only victories by NSW clubs came at the expense of other NSW clubs, Manly thumping Canterbury and Souths outlasting Cronulla.
In a memorable weekend for fans of the Maroon persuasion, Brisbane and the Dolphins pulled off heroic upsets against the top two teams in the premiership market.
The gutsy Broncos, 13.5-point underdogs, held off an uncharacteristically sloppy Penrith 13-12, while the Roosters were the undisputed flops of Round 1 as the Dolphins powered to an unforgettable victory.
Newcastle – and more specifically Adam O’Brien – can already feel the blowtorch after being overwhelmed by the Warriors. The Knights’ next opponents are Wests Tigers, whose dismal home defeat to Gold Coast makes next Sunday’s clash doubly important for both 2022 battlers.
The Eels, who fell agonisingly short against the Storm, and the injury-hit Raiders (technically not NSW), who clawed back valiantly from 18-0 down only to lose by a point in Townsville, received a Round 1 pass mark despite their losses but face big Round 2 tests against the Sharks and Dolphins, respectively.
The premiership market has reacted already with the Rabbitohs ($8), Cowboys ($10), Broncos ($15) and Sea Eagles ($17) all shortening significantly, while the Roosters ($7) have drifted slightly and the Eels and Sharks both ballooned to $15 for the title.
The Warriors ($4.50) and Dolphins ($5.00) have come in a touch in the Top 8 market, with the Knights now occupying the last line in premiership ($67) and Top 8 ($6.00) betting.
Time to get Ilias
A stack of players hit the ground running with superb displays in Round 1. Daly Cherry-Evans was a class above the Bulldogs, Wayde Egan produced a career-best performance to sink the Knights, and Felise Kaufusi instantly etched his name into Dolphins folklore.
But the individual showing that could potentially have the biggest bearing on the premiership race came from Lachlan Ilias.
The South Sydney No.7 had an arduous rookie-season education in 2022, with modest peaks countered by troughs such as being hooked in the first half against St George Illawarra as he struggled to fill Adam Reynolds’ prolific boots.
But Ilias came of age to lead the Rabbitohs to a 27-18 win at Cronulla, exhibiting a newfound confidence as he scored the first try, laid on another, called the ball with authority and astounded with his Toovey-esque defence.
Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell floated in and out of the contest, as they tend to do, but if Ilias can consistently perform the role as Souths’ undisputed general, the pressure comes off the mercurial match-winners and allows them to pick their moments – and the Rabbitohs firm as genuine title hopes.