A pair of NRL semifinal blockbusters petered out as contests, with both featuring 20-point margins – but leaving no shortage of talking points in the most wide open premiership race in years.
The Raiders and Bulldogs created unwanted history as both top-four losers bowed out in straight sets in this finals format for the first time since 1996, while No.7s at opposite ends of the malignment scale steered their teams to rousing victories.
Big-time Hynes sparks Sharks
Nicho Hynes’ perceived penchant for going missing in big games since his 2022 Dally M Medal success has gone hand in hand with Cronulla’s flat-track bully reputation during the same period.
But consecutive finals upsets of Sydney Roosters and Canberra have garnered long-awaited respect for the Sharks, who have held teams that both averaged over 27 points per game in the regular season to just 10 and 12 points, respectively, when it matters most.
The oft-maligned Hynes almost singlehandedly saw the Sharks head to the break at GIO Stadium with a 12-6 lead, courtesy of two tries in the last six minutes. He delivered a peach of a pass for Ronaldo Mulitalo to stroll in, then plunged over himself one play after sending KL Iro through a gap on halfway.
After conceding the first try of the second stanza, Cronulla dominated the rest of the match to win 32-12 in a clash where virtually every important statline finished even.
Any question over marquee prop purchase Addin Fonua-Blake’s value was put to bed – outpointing the Raiders’ vaunted middle-forward contingent – while hooker Blayke Brailey would be a walk-up start for the NSW No.9 jumper if the Origin series was played at the end of the year.
Arguably the least talked about team pre-finals now looms as a genuine dark horse, despite remaining on the last line of title betting at $7.50.
With a newfound belief and three wins from their last six games against the mighty Melbourne Storm, the Sharks are $2.90 underdogs to cause a prelim boilover at AAMI Park on Friday night.
Five-peat Panthers purr
Penrith muddled its way to a tough 24-8 qualifying win over the Warriors in the Auckland wet, but on a dry Accor Stadium track on Sunday afternoon the four-time champs produced one of slickest attacking displays witnessed on the finals stage to set up a 46-26 win over Canterbury.
After barging through the front door twice and bagging two fortuitous long-range tries to get the Warriors, the Panthers destroyed the Bulldogs on the edges to race to a 24-8 lead inside half an hour.
A pair of Brian To’o tries bookended right winger Paul Alamoti’s try and assist, after which the Bulldogs crumbled all over the park. Two more tries followed before halftime and another after the break created an unbelievable 40-6 scoreline against the best defensive team of the regular season.
The Panthers took the foot off the gas to concede three late tries (meanwhile, Alamoti completed a hat-trick) but the first hour of the match left no illusions about their ability to claim a fifth straight title from as unprecedented seventh-place finishers.
The fulcrum of Penrith’s 14th consecutive finals win was, inevitably, Nathan Cleary – but the Panthers were humming across the park.
They’ve slipped into the second line of title betting at $3.20 behind the Storm ($2.80) and opened as $1.73 favourites to prevail in a mouth-watering Sunday prelim against the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
Minor premiers, major disappointment
Canberra joined the 2009 St George Illawarra Dragons as the only minor premiers to fail to reach a preliminary final during the eight-team finals era, bowing out in extraordinary meek fashion to Cronulla.
Losing strike five-eighth Ethan Strange to a virus was a savage blow for a team looking to regroup from a shattering golden point loss to Brisbane, but after getting back to 12-all early in the second half in front of a packed house at home a prelim was in the Raiders’ grasp.
You could have heard a pin drop as the Sharks piled on 20 unanswered points, including three shockingly soft tries that belied the heart the Green Machine showed all year to finished two wins clear of the field.
The Raiders, pre-season wooden spoon favourites, unequivocally overachieved with 19 wins and the club’s first minor premiership in 35 years – but back-to-back finals capitulations at home send Ricky Stuart’s squad into the summer looking at the campaign through a different lens.
Veteran halfback Jamal Fogarty’s departure – with four-gamer Ethan Sanders his likely successor – shapes as a massive personnel hurdle for a youthful squad confronting psychological
September scarring.
Dog gone
On the surface, Canterbury made big strides again in 2025 to achieve the club’s first top-four finish in 13 years.
But the Bulldogs’ search for a finals win will now extend beyond a decade after following up a gutsy loss in Melbourne with a semifinal steamrolling at the hands of the Panthers.
Cameron Ciraldo’s team sat atop the NRL ladder at the end of Round 16 with an 11-2 record, but they won just five of their remaining 13 games – and only one of their last six, against a second-string Penrith outfit.
Captain Stephen Crichton’s injury absence on Sunday was a monumental setback, but the 46-26 defeat to the Panthers underlined the fact that the Bulldogs are a key piece or two away from being genuine premiership material.
Scrutiny over the club’s controversial decision to draft Lachie Galvin into a ladder-leading team may be unfair – the teenaged playmaker was central to most of the Bulldogs’ constructive play against the Panthers – but the timing of that call and their fadeout is hard to ignore.
A Galvin-Burton combination still looks very much like two five-eighths teaming up in the halves, while the Bulldogs look a quality prop short of being able to match it with the big dogs when it counts.
Sunday best
The crowd figure of 56,872 at Accor Stadium – when a near sellout was touted – would have been a disappointment for the NRL (in particular serial cross-code baiter Peter V’Landys) after the AFL attracted almost 100,000 fans on back-to-back nights for MCG prelims.
But the return of Sunday finals beyond week one is an undisputed winner, adding atmosphere and nostalgia to blockbuster showdowns, and encouraging free-flowing, attacking football.
This weekend’s barnburner between Brisbane and Penrith at Suncorp Stadium will be the NRL’s first Sunday preliminary final since 2005.
Continuing to hold the other prelim on Friday – giving either Melbourne or Cronulla an extra two days’ rest for the grand final – justifiably raised eyebrows, but it’s worth noting that 11 of the last 18 premiers had one day less to recover for the decider than their opponents.