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Opinion
With the Panthers’ premiership hopes hanging by Nathan Cleary’s damaged shoulder joint, the Roosters showed why they can go all the way on Friday night.
And while the Sea Eagles are far less likely to get their hands on the trophy, the best-case scenario for their 2024 campaign is higher than some of the other teams occupying the lower half of the top eight now that Tom Trbojevic is firing on all cylinders again at fullback.
The Roosters converted a 24-4 half-time lead into a cruisy 38-14 victory over Parramatta at a rain-soaked Allianz Stadium while Manly polished off the Warriors 24-10 at Brookvale.
Trent Robinson’s side is just two points behind Penrith for second spot and with the Titans, Raiders and Rabbitohs on their schedule and a huge for-and-against advantage, they could leapfrog the Panthers to get a home final first up if the premiers slip up without Cleary.
Sam Walker had already developed into a very good player last year but this season he has become one of the top performers in the competition.
He’s certainly the most influential Rooster on their chances of victory.
Walker schemed to his heart’s content to dismember the Eels in a superb example of how a halfback can dictate terms in wet-weather footy.
He is only 22 but after growing up with a dad and uncles living and breathing rugby league, he is wise beyond his years and will only get better.
Why would he be in any rush to ink a new deal with the Roosters or any current team or potential expansion franchise.
Joseph Suaalii is tackled. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
At this rate the longer he keeps his signature off a contract, the more zeroes it will contain.
It’s hard to make a case for any other player who has improved more this year – Shawn Blore or Tyran Wishart at Melbourne, Connor Tracey at Canterbury, Isaiya Katoa in steering around the Dolphins, Zac Lomax finally living up to his potential at the Dragons perhaps?
Walker’s short kicking game is the best in the league, as evidenced by his chip kick for Sitili Tupouniua to score in the second half.
The Roosters romped out to an 24-0 advantage via Spencer Leniu, Dominic Young Daniel Tupou and James Tedesco tries.
They were helped by Wiremu Greig rightly being sin-binned for a high shot which ended Connor Watson’s night early.
Young’s second and third from Walker shifts and Tupouniua’s touchdown gave the Tricolours a 34-point buffer to run out the final 25 minutes with nothing to worry about apart from any injury scares.
If breakdancing is an Olympic sport then Slip ‘n’ Slide can’t be far away.
Dylan Brown could be New Zealand’s nominee for the event after he took a bigger slide in the first half than his team has done in going down the ladder this year. Sorry, not sorry, Parra fans.
Hurtling back to clean up a kick ahead from Joey Manu after a Roosters break down the right edge of the soaked Allianz Stadium surface, Brown pounced on the ball around eight metres out from his in-goal area and ended up on the dead ball line.
Greg Alexander described it as a 15-metre slide on Fox League commentary but he was probably under-estimating the Brown streak across the turf, as it were.
The ingredients are there for Anthony Seibold.
A clever halfback, a hard-working pack, speed to burn out wide and the class of Tom Trbojevic.
It’s highly unlikely but not impossible for Manly to make their way all the way to Grand Final night, particularly with Penrith’s title claims hampered by Nathan Cleary’s shoulder injury.
The Sea Eagles were far from at their best at Brookvale on Friday night but despite the Warriors footing it with them for most of the contest, there was an air of inevitability about the result even when it was 10-10 at half-time.
Trbojevic is hardly a secret weapon but the Warriors seemed continually surprised by his pace off the mark as he cut through the defence up the middle off an inside pass or on the edges.
Reuben Garrick and Lehi Hopoate notched classy tries in the second half to seal the result for Manly and they are all but a minor mathematical chance of having their playoff berth locked in.
The loss means the reverse for the Warriors who are not even a theoretical chance of scraping into the top eight at season’s end.
“The guys kept fighting, it wasn’t the prettiest win,” Seibold said. “But that’s probably where we want to get to, finals footy. We have to win ugly, and that was it tonight.”
Luke Brooks made his NRL debut way back in 2013 and he is now just three weeks away from finally playing a final.
The veteran playmaker endured a decade of going no higher than ninth at Wests Tigers.
This season he no longer looks like he’s carrying the weight of the world (or the incompetence of a dysfunctional club) on his shoulders.
From the word go at Manly he has shown he is ideally suited to the secondary role alongside Daly Cherry-Evans.
He’s a Robin, not the Batman that the Tigers desperately wanted him to be.
Brooks and teammate Tommy Talau have not looked back since changing their stripes and will be crucial components in Manly’s finals tilt.
With 225 matches without a finals appearance, Brooks has played nearly a hundred more games than the player who is set to inherit his unwanted mantle. And of course that player is his long-time former teammate Alex Twal, who remains mired in the Wests Tigers’ malaise.
Addin Fonua-Blake’s arrival next year could be the catalyst for turning a very good side into a premiership-winning one.
The Warriors prop is one of the NRL’s premier metre eaters through the middle of the ruck, particularly post contact, and he also has the ability to offload in traffic.
There were question marks over the around the corner pass he unfurled for Shaun Johnson to score early but whether it was flat or forward, it’s the kind of silky skill that will have Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon salivating.
AFB is a carbon copy of Andrew Fifita in his prime, who was the best player on the field in the Sharks’ 2016 Grand Final win even though he didn’t get the Clive Churchill Medal.
Clint Gutherson’s worsening whingeing seems like a cry for help from a player who has been captain for too long.
King Gutho has carried a heavy burden by leading Parra for several years and he was instrumental in their charge to the Grand Final two years ago.
But this season, as the losses have piled up, he has garnered a reputation for constantly complaining to the referees.
He was at Grant Atkins all night at Allianz and was lucky not to follow in the footsteps of Brendan Hands on his way to the sin bin early in the second half.
Atkins warned Gutherson that just because his team was already down to 12, it did not give him immunity from getting further players in the bin.
But even that blunt message didn’t seem to get through to Gutherson as he disrespected the whistleblower in a manner not befitting a first-grade skipper.
Incoming coach Jason Ryles has shown he’s not afraid to upset the applecart at Parra by telling Ryan Matterson, Maika Sivo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard they are free to leave.
His next awkward conversation should be with the captain to tell Gutherson it’s time for a change of leadership with Mitchell Moses the standout candidate to take over.