The NRL 7-tackle set: Turbo Tommy takes off, Wests Tigers woes, Origin III build-up
State of Origin is the great draw card for a lot of the NRL – not to mention about half the TV deal – but on behalf of paying punters everywhere, it cannot be over soon enough.
This was the final Origin-affected weekend, with one more backing-up round to get next time out, and no amount of heartwarming debutant stories can make up for what was objectively some bad rugby league.
It distorts the competition, too. Nobody seriously thinks that a full strength Dragons would have got close to a full strength Broncos, for example – and that’s with Brisbane in freefall.
It’s hard to draw formlines when half the league doesn’t have a game and the other half is forced to play the kids, but here goes nothing.
A good week for..
Those Dragons, who are up to nine wins despite not being that great after a stirring win at the Broncos.
Yes, this was a Brisbane that had to dip into the depths of the Queensland Cup to even field a team, but St George Illawarra arrived without Ben Hunt and Zac Lomax and still got the job done.
Under Shane Flanagan, they’ve made not getting beat their goal and, while that hasn’t always been possible, they’re certainly better at not losing than they used to be.
At the start of the season, Flanno openly said that he didn’t really care about results this year, but has produced some anyway.
It’s all fools gold given the opposition, but even fake form is better than none at all, which has been the case for many years at the Dragons.
A bad week for..
Newcastle, who failed to fire a shot en route to a thrashing at Manly.
Will Pryce and Kai Pearce-Paul were on hiding to nothing from the start with outside backs who, thanks to Origin call-ups and injury, had barely played together at NRL level and were faced with a fit Tom Trbojevic running off the shoulder of Luke Brooks all afternoon.
Manly can rack up points quickly and attack from very deep. That’s priced in to every team that visits Brookvale Oval, which was sold out on a sunny afternoon despite the Origin outs.
What isn’t acceptable to Knights fans, who travelled to the Northern Beaches in big numbers, was how little their team offered in attack. Manly are absolutely there to be got at, but did next to nothing until the game was well over.
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Standout
From the same game, it’s hard to look past Tom Trbojevic.
There’s been plenty of positional chat surrounding the Manly superstar, who is arguably the best fullback in the game when he is able to put together a run of games in his best position.
The stats will tell you that he’s about the second best yardage style 1, behind Dylan Edwards, and about the second best creative 1, behind Latrell Mitchell, which might well make him the best overall.
Manly coach Anthony Seibold chose to play Turbo in the centres on his return from his latest hamstring injury in an effort to limit his workload, but after replacement Tolu Koula got injured, the call was made to move him back and put Lehi Hopoate, who had been filling in, on a wing.
That was vindicated twofold.
Turbo shredded the Knights, produced a trademark high leap for a try and laid on a ridiculous five line break assists, while also Lehi topped the metre count, scored twice and produced one of the assists of the season with a no-looker to send Tommy Talau over.
Washout
Benji Marshall, whose Wests Tigers side are looking increasingly frayed.
Nobody expected much from a team that consistently runs last, is in year one of a massive rebuild and is playing the kids pretty much every week.
The young blokes have largely been great, but it’s clear that Benji struggles to command respect from the older heads, who seemingly cannot maintain discipline for any length of time.
The Tigers picked up their 14th sin bin in 17 games in Friday night’s hammering at Cronulla with captain Api Koroisau sat down in the first half.
When he went it was 12-6 and a relatively even game. It ended 58-6. “There’s no one in our team that could say they played well,” opined the coach afterwards. He wasn’t wrong.
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Everyone is talking about
Origin, which goes to a decider on Wednesday at Suncorp Stadium, but somehow also seems a little subdued.
It’s been a strange series: New South Wales didn’t stand a chance in Game 1 due to Joseph Suaalii’s early sending off and then were comically superior in Game 2 as Queensland fell apart.
The upshot is that nobody has the first idea how this one will go. Are the Blues actually good? Were Queensland actually bad in Game 1, but won anyway thanks to the man advantage? How good does David Fifita have to be to get picked anyway?
The betting lines will tell you that Queensland are favourites, and being that they’re at home and will get all the inherent advantages that come with that, maybe that’s fair enough.
The truth is that nobody really knows. Maybe that makes it a better game – not that you’d know.
But nobody mentions
The stupidity of the league table, which currently has Canterbury in fifth despite having a worse record than Manly in seventh.
The NRL doles out points for byes, which are treated like wins, so at this time of year where every team has played a different number of games, the ladder is entirely out of whack with results.
Manly have nine wins plus a draw and the best points differential, but are behind both the Bulldogs and Dolphins by dint of having played more games.
The Raiders are ahead of the Warriors, who have the same wins but fewer losses. Penrith are ahead of both the Roosters and Sharks but have a worse record. Work it out if you can.
It all works out in the end, but could be worked out right now if they stopped giving points to teams that haven’t played.
Forward pass
Next weekend is another, thankfully final, edition of Dumb Origin S**t as the Storm meet the Roosters in what should be a marquee match – but a significant chunk of the players will either be missing or knackered.
These two seem to meet every Origin period, and with this tie taking place four days after the conclusion in Brisbane, it’ll be interesting to see who backs up.
If the Maroons win, you might expect some of their talent – Lindsay Collins, Harry Grant – to be on the XXXX until very late and be pulled from the match. At least the Raiders and Warriors aren’t troubled by Origin – only one out, Mitch Barnett – and are given the Friday night.
Historically the games get better as the weekend goes on, almost as if playing club footy soon after the most intense game of the year wasn’t a good idea, which means by Sunday night, we might be onto something. The Cowboys v Bulldogs should be a belter.