Bris Vegas aye! The city that lives and breathes rugby league has delivered once again with a terrific display of NRL magic. The fans made the weekend with Caxton Street buzzing, lagers being poured into the early hours of the morning, it’s the dream weekend for the punter and dribbler.
Close matches and blowouts still kept the crowd on their seats with an expressive 3 days of Suncorp being sold out, totalling more than 147,000 fans in attendance. Queenslanders don’t have a reason to cry with all 4 Sunshine State teams winning, notably the two biggest upsets of the round were the Cowboys defeating the Chooks, and the Dolphins convincingly defeating the Sharks. Phins up baby!
BULLDOGS VS RAIDERS
The opening game of the magic round was a high-scoring match with the green machine just holding on to get two points.
The Raiders have been in fine form winning 34-30. The emotional news of Jack Wighton departing for South Sydney in 2024 clearly hasn’t affected their consistent form on the field. They have claimed their fourth straight win. It’s great to see Jarod Croker out there doing what he loves pushing for 300 NRL games!
The Bulldogs had a crack but there wasn’t enough in the tank to get the dub, Matt Burton played solid kicking sensational bombs all night, up and comer Jacob Preston is cementing his name in the squad claiming two tries and becoming a great ball runner. In a year or so, you’ll definitely see the Dogs of war playing finals.
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SEA EAGLES VS BRONCOS
A home game for Manly definitely was strange being on Broncos’ soil, leaving the Manly boys feeling far away and lost from their real home!
The addition of Reece Walsh returning to the Broncos this year has taken their attack to the next level. Currently sitting first on the ladder, morale is high, and the wins keep coming. Selwyn Cobbo was a fine standout claiming a hat-trick off of a flamboyant attack. It’s a pleasure to see Adam Reynolds age like fine wine, steering the ship around to claim an impressive 32-6 win giving Manly no chance.
Anthony Seibold’s men aren’t in the prettiest spot at the moment. Tensions at the club are notable with talks of Josh Schuster being shown the door as in-house rifts are made public. The biggest issue I see is Tom Trybojevic. Tom clearly isn’t in fine form at all. He is getting through games but optically he must be carrying niggling injuries. Returning from his hamstring injury there is no doubt there would be self-doubt for Tommy to play at his highest level in case of re-injuring himself, respectively his in-second gear and I wouldn’t pick him for the Blues come Origin 1.
WARRIORS VS PANTHERS
The back-to-back champions must have gone into this match feeling that they could suffer three consecutive losses.
Penrith played solid claiming an 18-6 win against a defence-orientated Warriors who never threw the towel in. Dylan Edwards was a star out the back as he had an impressive performance, having the most run metres and line breaks. It’s going to hurt Penrith when inbound Chook Spencer Leniu leaves. He showed why he was one of the premier impact players. Coming off the bench he had thirteen impactful runs while claiming a try in the 74th minute.
The Warriors have improved tenfold in 2023. They are defensively switched on and Shaun Johnson has the form of old displaying solid rugby league. Coach Andrew Webster has kept the Warriors in the game for 80 minutes. It will be a considerable improvement this year. The only downside I see is them falling short of the better teams seeing them just outside the top eight come October.
SHARKS VS DOLPHINS
This was by far the upset of the round! Arguably the greatest rugby league coach of all time Wayne Bennett coached his 900th game and that fired up the Dolphins.
After coming off a close golden point loss to the Raiders, it was clear the Dolphins wanted to bounce back. However, against Cronulla, many punters wouldn’t have thought so… winning 36-16 was a great display of fiery attack. Young gun Isaiya Katoa is finding his footing every week setting up some fantastic tries. Valynce Te Whare’s debut is what dreams are made of. The steamroller got the crowd cheering. He was on fire scoring two tries and has no doubt cemented his centre position.
Cronulla had an absolute shocker against the Dolphins. Countless errors and poor defence resulted in a poor loss, but it was the loss they needed. Having won three in a row with Hynes flying in fine form it’s a positive wakeup call and reality check on where they stand.
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STORM VS RABBITOHS
The most talked about game of the round has definitely answered the question of whether or not Souths are genuine premiership contenders. After winning 28-12, I for sure regard them as my premiership favourites.
Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker once again displayed a fantastic duo with four try assists between them. They performed at their finest gifting Alex Johnston two tries. Old bull Thomas Burgess shows he still has what it takes by having a significant impact off the bench with 139 metres from fourteen runs. If Souths keep up with this winning form, I don’t see how they won’t be in the top four, knocking on a grand final appearance.
Melbourne significantly wasn’t good enough, there was no rhythm and communication between the boys leading to a loss of note, it left Craig Bellamy scratching his head at stages trying to figure out where to next. Munster loves playing at Suncorp, but Saturday night wasn’t his night, when his not on Melbourne aren’t on, he didn’t give much in attack. I expect a huge game from Munster when they take on the Broncos at AAMI Park on Thursday night.
WESTS TIGERS VS DRAGONS
The battle of the merger clubs was meant to be the poo-slinger game of the round, but I saw it as an entertaining fixture resulting in a close fixture with Dragon’s coach Anthony Griffin’s job on the line.
Wests Tigers are on cloud nine after winning 18-16! Having now claimed two wins in a row for the first time in 379 days, confidence is building within the squad. That’s all it takes just one win to get on a roll. It’s great to see Luke Brooks playing solid footy, they’ve all simplified their roles to essentially run, tackle, and attack hard. You can see the fire in them with their defensive display to end the game by saving a try in the corner. It’s the one percenters that win you rugby league football. They face South Sydney this Saturday which will be their biggest challenge all year.
The Dragons were extremely poor! A flat Ben Hunt at full-time torched his own side as ‘dumb,’ leading all eyes to Griffin who no doubt has one foot out the door for departure. Having now lost five straight matches, it has got to be a concern for the Red V. When will they get a win on the board and how long does Griffin have left as coach? In the pre-season, I tipped them for the wooden spoon, and I won’t change that at all.
ROOSTERS VS COWBOYS
A must-win game for the Cowboys is what they desperately needed. Having only won three games all year and coming off a thumping by the Sharks they had to win.
The Cowboys showed glimpses of their electrifying 2022 season, getting their form back on track. They gave the star-studded Roosters nothing, beating them 20-6. Chad Townsend, Valentine Holmes, and Reuben Cotter were back to their best. On Fox Sports, Cooper Cronk said, “The way the Cowboys are defending, there’s shades of their defence from last year.” Fuelled with confidence now, this game will propel the Cowboys in the right direction.
For my boys, the Roosters. Where do I start? It was challenging to watch 80 minutes of football as the Chooks gave nothing in attack or defence. This game leaves more headaches for coach Trent Robinson who has to figure out the team’s spine quickly as they have Penrith this Friday night. The forwards are 100% giving their all on the field, this comes down to the halves and backs. Walker was unfairly dropped, he needs time to develop consistency with Luke Keary. The Manu experiment in the halves hasn’t worked and needs to be moved to his natural position, the centre. It’s concerning that with all the stars in the team, it’s clear the attack isn’t working at all. The one positive was the long-awaited return of Billy Smith who had a cracking game running riot!
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TITANS VS EELS
The Goldy boys are no doubt flying under the radar after claiming a gutsy 26-24 win over Parramatta.
Gold Coast held on to win back-to-back games as veteran Kieran Foran scored two tries in the first-half spelling magic on Suncorp. The powerhouse of David Fifita was again on fire and will no doubt be looked at by Queensland coach Billy Slater for this year’s Origin series. Young Gun Jayden Campbell was my standout. Having no fear, he flew through the sky taking absolute screamers under the high ball, consistently took runs and most importantly put the icing on the cake for the Titans, delivering a beautiful cut-pass to Philip Sami to seal the game.
What’s the matter Parramatta? It seems that just as things look favourable for the blue and gold, they claim a loss. Consistency has always been the biggest killer for them, and it hasn’t changed this year. In theory, the squad could have easily beat Gold Coast today, but costly errors, Guthersons stupid sin bin, and Moses missed conversions were sufficient reasons. Positively, Sivo scored three tries, and it was great to see Andrew Davey claim a try in the final minutes of the game, coming from a man who bounced from Manly to not starting at the Bulldogs to finally earning time at Parra.