NRL Round 8 was short on competitive contests – until a pair of Sunday thrillers delivered – with the league’s high-tackle crackdown destined to dominate post-match conjecture and column inches.
With almost one-third of the regular season in the books, the 2025 premiership looks as wide open as any in living memory courtesy of its band of unconvincing heavyweights, unlikely overachievers and staggering week-to-week unpredictability.
Sin bin mania overshadows lopsided weekend
The NRL continues to keep reinforcing the rod for its own back with its doomed-to-fail high-tackle crackdown that has left players, coaches and fans exasperated.
An eye-watering 18 players were sent to the sin-bin in Round 8, predominantly for innocuous incidents where a penalty would have been more than sufficient.
The procession started on Thursday night with three Canterbury players among the four binned at Suncorp Stadium. The Warriors’ Marata Niukore and Newcastle’s Leo Thompson were both sat down inside four minutes in Christchurch on Friday.
The overzealousness flowed on throughout the weekend with teams consistently disadvantaged in dubious circumstances.
One of the myriad problems with the crackdown is that genuinely nasty incidents that earn 10-minute spells now seem like a slap with a feather, when the punishment is the same as for the mildest of high shots.
Nevertheless, the resultant furore provided the headlines in a round where five matches were decided by 14-plus margins and only one was closer than eight points at fulltime.
Tough times at the top and bottom
Competition-leading Canterbury’s bid to go 7-0 for the first time in its history fell dismally flat in the face of a first-half Brisbane blitz, going down 42-18 at Suncorp Stadium after trailing 34-0 at halftime.
The rejuvenated Broncos had powered past the Bulldogs’ 2025 defensive average of 9.7 points per game inside 10 minutes, consequently joining the shellshocked visitors on the second line of title betting at $6.
Meanwhile, ailing champs Penrith sunk to its sixth loss in seven games, a flat 26-10 defeat to inconsistent Manly at CommBank Stadium.
The tightness of the competition and the lack of genuine top-shelf teams plays in the Panthers’ hands, but pressure is unquestionably piling up as the four-time premiers find themselves the unlikeliest bottom-placed team after eight rounds since Melbourne’s 2010 salary cap punishment.
Perhaps even more jarring than the Panthers’ ladder position is their 14th-ranked defensive record, leaking 26 points per game. But it does set the stage for the club’s most remarkable triumph yet – and they remain cautiously priced at $11 for a fifth straight crown.
Dragons run out of puff on big occasion
Few times in the past decade or more has St George Illawarra been better placed to make an Anzac Day statement against perennial heavyweights Sydney Roosters.
The Dragons have put away Melbourne and Manly among three wins from their previous four games, while the depleted Roosters had just two wins on the board from seven outings and were lapped the previous week by battling Penrith.
Yet the Saints turned in easily their worst performance of the season in a 46-18 defeat (their other three losses were by eight points or less) to put a massive dent in their credentials as the club seeks to end a seven-year finals drought.
The result was a massive fillip for the Roosters, however, with five-eighth Sandon Smith producing a breakthrough 22-point, ANZAC Medal-winning performance, scoring two tries, making three line-breaks and coming up with a try assist to negate his second-half sin-binning.
Warriors, Raiders consolidate unlikely top-four spots
As would-be contenders stumble and struggle to string wins together, the Warriors and Canberra keep chalking up victories and sit alongside Melbourne in equal-second – just two points off the competition lead.
The Warriors’ task in Christchurch on Anzac Day was made easier by a consistently awful Newcastle side, but their 26-12 victory was nevertheless clinical and by far their most comfortable of 2025.
That Andrew Webster’s side is 5-2 despite missing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak for long stints, and James Fisher-Harris for their last two games, is hugely encouraging as the likes of Luke Metcalf and Leka Halasima grow in confidence and authority by the week.
The Raiders made it four straight with a magnificent comeback against the in-form Dolphins, climbing off the canvas at 24-4 down to win 40-28.
A classic Ricky Stuart halftime spray sparked the revival that garnered a 30-0 second-half performance with standouts across the park for the freewheeling Green Machine.
The Raiders ($26) and Warriors ($29) find themselves among the top eight premiership contenders and have laid an outstanding platform, despite heading into 2025 with low external expectations.
Galvin-ised Tigers back on track
Putting a horror week behind them, Wests Tigers pulled off one of the most notable victories of their tortured history on Sunday – and one that might just put them on a trajectory to ending their agonising 14-year finals absence.
Wantaway playmaker Lachlan Galvin justified his recall – from a form perspective, at least – with a crucial role in a nerve-shredding 20-18 golden point win over big dogs Cronulla at Leichhardt Oval.
The Tigers were a few coats of paint off defeat with Nicho Hynes’ 45-metre field attempt thundering off the upright with three minutes to go, after the Sharks fought back from 18-6 down to level up.
But the hosts rode their luck to grab the result via an 88th-minute penalty goal and improve to 4-4.
The precocious Galvin had played a massive role in putting the Tigers in a winning position during the first hour of the match, laying on two tries. If the squad can remain harmonious in the face of that delicate situation, there’s no question the Tigers are Top 8 material.