Results were again overshadowed by injuries as the NRL Round 10 fallout cast a shadow over NSW’s Origin hopes and several teams’ premiership prospects.
It was nevertheless an entertaining weekend of footy, with an average margin of just 9.6 points and three head-to-head underdogs getting the W.
Blues hamstrung by injury chaos
NSW coach Michael Maguire’s maiden Origin series preparations are in disarray after hamstring injuries rubbed two of the Blues’ trump cards out until July.
Manly fullback and likely Blues centre selection Tom Trbojevic, plus Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary, the game’s best player, both limped forlornly to the sideline in a disastrous 24 hours for their clubs – and NSW.
Meanwhile, Nicho Hynes – already a front-line contender for the No.6 jersey and the logical pick to replace Cleary – pulled out of Cronulla’s clash with Melbourne due to a calf complaint.
Mitchell Moses, who deputised for Cleary in the Blues’ dead-rubber win last year, has not played since Round 3 and will only have one game to prove he is up to the rigours of steering a team around in an Origin series opener.
Meanwhile fellow halves incumbent Cody Walker is miles off the pace form-wise.
Hynes and Moses remain red-hot chances and could be paired together, other realistic options for the vital positions include Jarome Luai (whose stocks dip without Cleary on deck), Matt Burton and Luke Keary.
Left-field picks include Chad Townsend and Luke Brooks, while burgeoning Dolphin Isaiya Katoa is NSW-eligible.
‘Turbo’s’ absence should give Bradman Best a saloon passage to retain his Blues spot in the centres alongside Stephen Crichton, though Kotoni Staggs and Joseph Suaalii are in the frame.
Surely ‘Madge’ won’t roll the dice on Latrell Mitchell…
The staggering No.7 attrition rate continued on Sunday, with the spiralling Warriors sweating on the extent of Shaun Johnson’s pec injury after he battled on gamely until the 67th minute of a putrid 38-18 defeat to Sydney Roosters.
Then his former Kiwis halves partner, Gold Coast linchpin Kieran Foran, came off with a hamstring injury with 20 minutes to go against North Queensland.
The Titans led 20-0 at the time and only just hung on to win 20-18 amid a Cowboys surge.
The Titans’ second win of the year was further soured by injuries to AJ Brimson (groin) and Harley Smith-Shields (pec), the latter expected to be season-ending.
Incredibly, 32 players have started at halfback and 31 at five-eighth across the opening 10 rounds.
Johnson, Daly Cherry-Evans, Ben Hunt and Drew Hutchison are the only No.7s to line up in every game, while Manly and St George Illawarra are the only teams to field the same uninterrupted halves pairing.
Chargedown crackdown embarrassment
Death, taxes and the NRL painting itself into a corner with absurd rule crackdowns.
Protecting kickers is necessary, but the lack of discretion applied by the Bunker in chargedown/kick-pressure situations – whether by instruction from above or not – has opened a can of worms.
An act that would not even have come close to drawing a penalty at the start of the season has suddenly become sin-binnable in its most minor, incidental and inconsequential instances.
A downfield penalty is deterrent enough. Ten minutes in the bin for Harry Grant, which proved crucial in Melbourne’s tight loss to Cronulla, was laughable.
The predictable lack of consistency undermines the overzealous NRL’s good intentions.
Angus Crichton’s far more flagrant challenge on Dylan Walker, who was in immediate distress with a leg injury and had to leave the field, late in Sunday’s game went undetected by the officials.
Then there was Luke Keary’s ugly chicken wing – seemingly long eradicated from the game – on Shaun Johnson that the Bunker deemed OK after a long, hard look.
Tripping is sure to be the next act in the firing line after a spate of them in recent weeks.
Some dangerous examples have failed to attract sin-bin punishment – despite being an automatic send-off in the fire-and-brimstone days of the 1980s.
Inevitably, though, the NRL will over-police that, too.
Sharks stand tall
Melbourne may have been without Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen – while the shocking Harry Grant sin-bin provided a crucial leg up on the stroke of halftime – but Cronulla’s 25-18 win at AAMI Park was a significant step forward.
Shedding the ‘flat-track bully’ tag to go clear at the top of the table, the Sharks did the job with a five-game NRL player at five-eighth and a hooker playing halfback for the first time in his senior career after the late withdrawal of Nicho Hynes.
Only in the team because of Braydon Trindall’s off-field snafu, Daniel Atkinson sparkled against the team he made a solitary interchange appearance for back in 2021 – capping a brilliant performance with a go-ahead field goal in the 74th minute.
Atkinson scooped the maximum six Dally M votes, while fill-in halfback Blayke Brailey earned a couple for himself.
The Sharks’ price to win the title has been slashed to $7.50 and they loom as a huge minor premiership chance – though the litmus tests keep coming over the next month with showdowns against the Roosters, Panthers and Broncos.
Other premiership market movers include the effervescent Dolphins ($26), along with the Knights ($51), who have won three straight low-scorers since Kalyn Ponga broke down with injury.
Part-time Eagles’ wings clipped
Touted as a top-four dark horse after upsetting Souths in Las Vegas and rolling Sydney Roosters and Penrith during the next four rounds, Manly now shape as little more than Top 8 hopefuls after a string of collapses and a long-term injury to Tom Trbojevic.
The signs were there when the Sea Eagles blew a 16-0 lead (and an eight-point advantage with 90 seconds left) in a draw with the Warriors.
A seesawing win on the Gold Coast and a scratchy victory over struggling Parramatta papered over cracks, with Manly inexplicably going down to Canberra at home after leading 20-0 and throwing away a handy 16-4 advantage to trail the Dolphins at halftime by conceding three tries in five minutes.
The luckless Trbojevic’s injury from the 30-24 loss to the Dolphins is the real kicker, though.
Since his horror run of injuries began in 2019, the Sea Eagles are 23-44 without their marquee fullback.
They have drifted to $34 in the premiership stakes already and face a gruelling stretch against the Broncos, Storm and Panthers in their next three outings.
Speaking of sliders, the Warriors have incredibly ballooned to $101 on the back of a five-match winless run and a worsening injury toll.
Blaize-ing fullback performance gives Eels hope
Parramatta bumbled its way to a fifth loss in six games, but there was a lot more to like about a 30-14 loss to heavyweight Brisbane than some of the blue-and-golds’ recent efforts.
The Eels were cruelled by two long-range Broncos tries directly from their own errors during the first half – the latter just a minute out from the break after clawing back to 12-8.
A 62 percent completion rate in the CommBank Stadium wet was always going to make things difficult for the hosts, but the Eels – who are battling on without leaders Mitch Moses and Clint Gutherson – otherwise went toe-to-toe with the Broncos in a frantic encounter.
The resounding positive for Parramatta was the performance of teenager Blaize Talagi.
Blooded at centre and five-eighth but unsighted since a bench appearance in Round 7, Talagi was marvellous at fullback in Gutherson’s stead.
The rookie finished with a try, three line-breaks, a game-high 215 metres and seven tackle-breaks, while his ability to bounce straight back from an error was also hugely encouraging.
Brad Arthur has a key decision to make about where to squeeze the gifted Talagi into his line-up when it’s at full-strength, but he has at least another three games in the No.1 jersey.
The 3-6 Eels – $101 to win the comp and apparent longshots for the Top 8 – are in need of a roster reset. The off-contract Talagi has to be part of it.