England star shines, Australia details confirmed, refereeing controversy: NRL 7 Tackle Set

The NRL enters the final straight with just two weeks left in the regular season and, for once, plenty is on the line.

We saw the NRL Minor Premiership settled this weekend as Melbourne thrashed the Dolphins, so that’s done, but the race for the all important final places in the playoffs and top four are far from over.

Cronulla put a score on rivals St George Illawarra to keep their place the four, but Canterbury are breathing down their necks following a win in Auckland.

Penrith, who were almost top, are now in fourth, though with two gimmes to finish the year at home to Souths and the Gold Coast, they won’t be worrying too hard. Manly lost so can’t go higher than fifth and the Cowboys, currently sixth, had the bye.

That Dragons defeat throws the race for 8th wide open, so let’s get into it.

A good week for…

Canberra and, especially, their departing captain Elliott Whitehead.

The Bradford-born star’s post-match interview following the Raiders stunning upset of Penrith showed it all, with the level of emotion on display that laid bare how much this win meant.

Canberra, more than any other team, run on emotion. Ricky Stuart has done it that way for years.

That makes life hard for them as the level of turmoil they go through isn’t sustainable over a season, but every so often, it comes up big. They had no right to win on Saturday and, 99 times out of a 100, probably lose.

In milestone games, they tend to fall flat on their face as the whole club gets caught up in the occasion, exhausting themselves and ultimately collapsing in a heap. This time was the exception. They got a bit lucky, but the commitment was there and the result came.

It’s likely too late to matter in the grand scheme of their season with a series of unlikely events required for them to make the finals, but as moments of the weekend go, Whitehead’s interview was hard to beat.

A bad week for…

Manly, who lost to the Tigers and pretty much gave up a home final in the process.

They need to now beat the Bulldogs away and the Sharks at home to get a post-season match at Brookvale Oval while hoping the Cowboys lose to both Melbourne and the Bulldogs. The Storm have already said that they will rest players, so that is likely that.

The Sea Eagles did plenty enough in attack to win, but one cannot give up 34 points to anyone in the NRL, even the bottom of the ladder Tigers, and expect anything.

Three sin bins didn’t help, but this was a side that lead 16-0 after 25 minutes. They’ve also lost to Parramatta and Canberra from similar positions..

Based on the ladder as it is, Manly are seventh and have lost to every team beneath them except the Titans and Warriors, the first of whom they should have lost to and the second they drew with.

There might be a positive spin in that they’re the opposite of flat track bullies, which should help come finals time, but the points dropped from winning positions and against the poorer sides in the comp will mean they finish top 8 rather than top 4 and on the road, where they are poor, rather than at home, where they are incredibly strong.

Standout

Angus Crichton, who scored a hat trick on Sunday lunchtime to cement himself as one of the comeback stories of the season.

His career arc has seen the highest highs and the lowest lows: after winning the World Cup with the Kangaroos in 2022, the Roosters backrower was hospitalised with mental health issues.

He took the long way round back to the NRL, with a long time out of the game and a stint in NSW Cup before finally getting back to first grade. Even then, his club tried to shop him out to rugby union before, eventually, deciding that he was worst persisting with.

How they have been rewarded: Crichton was best on ground in Origin, one of the most dynamic edge forwards of 2024 and nailed on to regain his Kangaroos jumper come October.

As an extra frisson, his triple came against David Fifita’s Titans – the very man that Easts tried to buy as his replacement.

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Washout

Referees, again.

The NRL dialogue is almost about referees and, more importantly, the Bunker, but this was another week where it was unavoidable.

Manly lost to the Tigers on Thursday and, to his credit, coach Anthony Seibold didn’t go too hard at the officials that sent three of his men to the sin bin.

Sitting at home on Friday, however, he might have wondered why, given Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton was not binned for a high shot that left Kiwi centre Roger Tuivasa-Sheck concussed out of the game.

Warriors coach Andrew Webster, who has never gone for the refs in the past, was compelled to in the post-match presser after such a game-changing decision, which saw one of his stars’ night ended and his opponent’s best player unpunished. Moreover, had Critta sat down, the Wahs would have been able to activate their 18th man.

Fast forward to Saturday where all hell broke loose. Both Cameron Murray and debutant Sebastian Su’a were binned in the Souths-Newcastle clash, but only well after the incidents in question.

It was rugby union-esque, and when your officiating can be compared to that sport, you know something is wrong.

Whether you think the Bunker was correct to, err, correct the original decision or not, it was glaringly obvious at the time and shouldn’t have needed much of a second look.

Patience is wearing thin with the inconsistencies in video officiating, and it’s not hard to see why.

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Everyone is talking about…

The Bulldogs and their rise to the top.

We’ve mentioned it a lot in recent weeks as Canterbury have moved from finals possibles to probables and now to top four contenders.

Their defence is exceptional, as it has been all year, but since getting Toby Sexton into the halves and Connor Tracey to fullback, the attack is just about there too.

Whether it lasts long in the finals is yet to be seen but the Doggies have put themselves in the best possible positions with a five-game winning streak.

The best part has been their fans, who are right up there with the most passionate in Sydney and have been starved of success for years.

Cameron Ciraldo’s men look set to break the record for the unloved Friday 6pm kick off when they face Manly this week and, if they win that, get the Cowboys at home the week after. The top four is very much on.

But nobody is mentioning…

The Kangaroos, who finally announced that they will play games of rugby league football.

That’s the Pacific Championships again, though we don’t know where or exactly when, so in truth, it’s not really anything more than we could have assumed last week when nothing was confirmed.

It was always likely that some games would take place, but traditionally, if one wants to do a launch and make people care, it does help to have a vague idea of where matches might be and when people could buy tickets for them.

For non-Australians, some context is needed: what they like to do here is sell games off to the highest bidder, generally a tourist board of some sort, and seen as NSW is coming down in rugby league events, Sydney never bids and therefore never gets any games.

Essentially, the biggest rugby league market in the world doesn’t get to see the biggest name in world rugby league, even though half the players are from there, because there is too much rugby league so why pay for more.

Inevitably, the games will be in Townsville or Melbourne, who will stump up the cash, and the final in Parramatta, so if Australia do make it, they’ll finally be forced to play in Sydney.

For the record, Leeds has hosted more Kangaroos games in the last 15 years than the place where half the Kangaroos’ fans live.

Forward pass

The top 7 are now locked in but, thanks to the Dragons’ defeat on Sunday, we have a four-way clash for the final spot in the post-season.

The Dragons are in pole position but travel to Parramatta in the early Saturday game. The Eels would love to salvage some pride from their bin fire of a season and knock them out of that spot.

Should they do so, the Broncos-Dolphins derby that kicks off directly afterwards suddenly becomes a huge fixture, with the loser out and the winner up into 8th.

Canberra have to win at the Roosters, which is unlikely, but if they do, they stay alive too.

Newcastle also have to win and, with the Titans at home on Sunday, have only themselves to blame if they don’t.

Casting even further forward, the Raiders play the Dragons and the Knights play the Dolphins in the final week of the regular season, true narrative fans want St George Illawarra to lose and Canberra, Redcliffe and Newcastle to win to have four sides on 26 points going into the last round.

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