NRL Cobras: Impostor Broncos keep finals hopes alive” refs ‘don’t know what they’re doing’ as lucky Dogs sink Warriors…
Brisbane has maintained their aspirations of making it to the finals, but if they think they can cause any harm if they get that far, they are deluding themselves. The Broncos were below average for the majority of their Friday night matchup with the cellar-dwelling Eels. Despite falling behind 16-0 at one point, they managed to rally and win the game 30–24 thanks to a couple of soft tries in the last minutes.
Canterbury kicked clear of the Warriors to win 34-18 on the back of a dreadful decision to spare Stephen Crichton the sin bin despite knocking Roger Tuivasa-Sheck out of their contest in Auckland.
The Bulldogs joined Cronulla and the Roosters, probably just for the weekend, on the third rung of the ladder to keep their top-four hopes alive but will likely be without Crichton for next Friday’s crucial clash with Manly if the match review committee does the job that rookie referee Wyatt Raymond failed to do and comes down hard on the skipper.
I’m struggling to understand how a shoulder can go into Roger’s head and the Bunker’s got ages to see it and we lose Roger for the game and we’ve got to reshuffle our team,” he said.
“When it happens like that and nothing gets done to them … we’ve got to protect our players. And I just don’t see the consistency one little bit around that.
They just need to know what they’re doing. I actually don’t think they know. The wording around what they say isn’t clear.”
1. Broncos alive but only just
Brisbane are just two points off eighth spot and will be cheering Cronulla to knock over the Dragons on Sunday in Wollongong.
But even if the Broncos can defeat the Dolphins in next week’s derby and upset the Storm in the final round to sneak into the finals, they will be cannon fodder.
They were diabolical to start their must-win match-up with Parramatta – their defensive line looked like they had only just been introduced to each other pre-game as they were all over the shop while Will Penisini, Joe Ofahengaue and Maika Sivo crossed inside the first 10 minutes.
A Tristan Sailor individual effort turned the momentum in the 31st minute and when Josh Rogers slid over before half-time, the Broncos were back in it.
Selwyn Cobbo equalised when he sprinted onto the end of a right-side raid before Adam Reynolds benefited from a Blaize Talagi panic pass to put Brisbane up 24-18 to finally hit the lead with 13 minutes left.
Even after Kotoni Staggs claimed a scrappy try from a poor Parra bomb defusal, the Broncos’ line was broken again when Shaun Lane made it a six-point gap heading into the final stages.
2. Eels slip back into spoon territory
Parramatta looked like they could have been returning serve to the Wests Tigers in their back-and-forth late-season rally to avoid the wooden spoon.
On the back of the Tigers joining them on 16 points 24 hours earlier when they upset Manly, the Eels appeared to be hurtling towards an upset of their own after racing in three tries before the 10-minute mark at Suncorp Stadium.
But they ran out of puff in the second half with the inexperience of fill-in halfback Daejarn Asi and Talagi with a rookie error for Reynolds’ try proving costly.
As it stands, they will slump to last spot next week when the Tigers have the bye unless they beat the Dragons with all signs pointing to their trip to Campbelltown in the final round deciding who gets the wooden spoon.
The JJ Giltinan Shield for the minor premiership will be presented to Melbourne at some stage in the closing rounds, perhaps a wooden memento needs to sit on the sidelines when Parra meet Wests as a reminder to the players about what’s on the line in an otherwise meaningless last match of the year.
3. Dumped duo dazzle for Parra
Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Maika Sivo have been told they are free to leave Parramatta next season despite being under contract.
Incoming coach Jason Ryles could be reconsidering that viewpoint given the way the veteran duo performed at Suncorp Stadium.
RCG wound back the clock to charge into the Broncos’ defence through the middle of the ruck, generating tough yards to build momentum for a pack lacking injured stars Junior Paulo, J’maine Hopgood and Ryan Matterson.
Sivo was a colossus on the left wing, scoring a try, denying another one to Tristan Sailor with a superb last-ditch tackle and knocking the Brisbane fullback onto his haunches with a thunderous run in the second half.
The granite-like Fijian is 30 and his best days may be behind him but he has still managed 11 tries from nine appearances in 2024 and is just one off a century for the Eels in just his sixth season.
Unfortunately he spilt a bomb to gift Staggs a late try but the Eels could do worse than keep him around next year.
4. Lucky Dogs looking fatigued
Canterbury look like they could be this year’s version of the 2023 Knights.
Newcastle got their act together in the second half of the regular season to surge into fifth spot but they were out of gas by the time the playoffs kicked off.
Canterbury need to refuel somehow in the next fortnight after sealing their first trip to the playoffs since 2016.
The Dogs are showing signs of fatigue – they were sluggish for large parts of their win over the Warriors.
Tries to Marcelo Montoya and Kurt Capewell exposed Canterbury’s dodgy defence early in the contest before the visitors sprung to life at the renamed Shaun Johnson Stadium for the retiring Warriors half’s final home game.
Bronson Xerri showcased his blistering speed to get the Dogs on the scoreboard, Crichton touched down and then Viliame Kikau set up Kurtis Morrin for a 16-12 lead.
But another soft try to Wayde Egan put the Warriors ahead at the break and the Bulldogs were lucky that Crichton avoided the sin bin in the second half when he took out Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, kicking clear in the final half-hour with Harry Hayes, Josh Addo-Carr and Jacob Kiraz cashing in.
5. Warriors have let Johnson down
After he starred in the Warriors’ run to the 2011 Grand Final in his rookie year, it’s hard to believe the team never made it back that far for the duration of Shaun Johnson’s career.
He was rarely the best halfback in the NRL but he was usually in the top five but the Warriors struggled to build a competitive roster around him, culminating in his abrupt exit to the Sharks for three years at the end of 2018.
Johnson finished back home on his own terms after a career-best year in 2023 but the Warriors are finishing in a familiar position – just outside the finals equation after a season of hot and cold performances.
Between Luke Metcalf, Chanel Harris-Tavita and Te Maire Martin, the Warriors have a few decent halves options to fill the void left by Johnson’s retirement but there is not a genuine superstar in this trio.
They have poached Jett Cleary as a long-term prospect but he is a year or two away from being a year or two away from being a top-notch NRL playmaker, if he ever does rise to anywhere near the heights of his older brother Nathan.
The Kick: Crichton sin-bin call should’ve been a no-brainer
Stephen Crichton dishes out a shoulder to the head of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in the 46th minute.
The Warriors centre can’t stand up without the wobbly boots taking over.
Although it wasn’t a classic shoulder charge from Crichton in that he didn’t pin his arm to his side and lead into the contact, he definitely whacked the veteran Warrior.
What should have been an obvious sin-binning suddenly became not so clear-cut.
There’s a high level of mitigation involved in the tackle. And that’s why it’s just on report,” referee Wyatt Raymond tells Warriors skipper Mitchell Barnett.
There will be a high level of litigation coming the way of the NRL if the officials continue to allow such contact to go virtually unpunished.
The upshot was RTS’ season was brought to a premature end after he suffered the category-one concussion which will also rule him out of the Warriors’ match next week before their final-round bye.
It was sheer lunacy that Crichton was allowed to stay on the field without even a sin bin as punishment while his fallen opponent was wiped out for the rest of the match and the Warriors could not even enact their 18th player because the ref took the soft option of placing the Canterbury captain on report.
We’ve seen players getting sin-binned for less than that,” said Cowboys legend Johnathan Thurston on Nine. “I think he might be in a bit of strife before the finals.”
Storm legend Cameron Smith added: “You could clearly see that Tuivasa-Sheck was in a pretty bad way. It was direct and forceful.”
