- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
There were two five-eights at CommBank Stadium on Sunday – the one who’s signed a contract valued at $1.4 million a year was a non-entity, the other guy is worth a lot more over the next decade.
Lachie Galvin showed why he is considered the best young prospect in the NRL with a starring performance as the Wests Tigers’ new-look spine combined together for the first time to smash Parramatta 32-6.
Eels pivot Dylan Brown was outplayed by his much-younger counterpart and again failed to prove he can step up in Mitchell Moses’ absence despite the big bikkies shelled out by Newcastle to snap him up next season on a decade-long deal.
Parramatta’s woes run much deeper than Brown failing to have an impact but the Eels fans let him know what they thought of his defection by booing him whenever he touched the ball.
In the later game, Canterbury cantered through a glorified training run at Belmore to topple the Titans 40-24 who did little in their first appearance for 2025 to disprove the notion that they will be rolled gold wooden spoon contenders.
Bulldogs star Matt Burton lasted just 27 minutes after suffering medial ligament damage with Bailey Hayward or Blake Taaffe in line to replace him next Sunday against Parramatta while Viliame Kikau was also helped from the field in the closing stages after also injuring his knee while making a tackle.
With Api Koroisau back from suspension and Jahream Bula over his hip injury, the Tigers gave their long-suffering fans a glimpse of a brighter future.
Jarome Luai took charge at halfback and Galvin was free to follow his lead with the freedom of youth, throwing flamboyant passes and setting up spectacular tries which have not been seen since their current coach Benji Marshall wore the No.6 jersey in his first glorious stint at the club.
Galvin had two try assists, made a line break of his own and scored an early contender for try of the season when he pounced on a kick upfield after Bula burnt three defenders before Adam Doueihi booted ahead.
The 19-year-old Eels junior, who was the NRL’s standout rookie of 2024, is in Parramatta’s sights after Brown walked from his contract for a bigger offer at the Knights.
But he wouldn’t get any better reason to stay with the Tigers than the 80 minutes of evidence on Sunday – the Eels looked rudderless while Wests are clearly on the verge of a new era with their 14-year playoff drought a strong chance of ending this season.
“They executed everything we asked and for sure, there are moments we can be better, but it’s their first game as a proper spine,” Marshall said.
“We have a lot to build on there and we’re not going to get carried away.”
The good news for Eels fans, perhaps the only nugget of positivity from this match, was that they conceded 30 fewer points than their first half in Round 1 against Melbourne.
But that still meant they went to the break trailing 16-0 and were never realistically in the contest against the Tigers.
New coach Jason Ryles made it clear after their Storm shellacking last week that there would be growing pains but the lack of attention to detail was still evident in their second go-around.
Defence on the edge was a particular concern with players going in while others stayed out with the end result being eight line breaks to the visitors, translating to six tries.
Moses is due to miss at least another month and without their star half, the Eels are half as good as most of the teams in the NRL.
With the temperature soaring in Sydney, the humidity was also high, leading to plenty of fumbles in the opening exchanges.
“There is a lot of sweat on the balls,” was Brad Fittler’s expert analysis of the situation as Nine’s sideline eye.
Panthers recruit Sunia Turuva crossed for the first of his treble of tries in the 27th minute when the ball went through the spine from Koroisau to Luai to Galvin to Bula to create the space for Starford To’a to put the winger over in the corner.
To’a touched down from a similar right-side sweep before Galvin struck either side of the break.
After finishing off Bula’s kick return in style, he put the Tigers up 22-0 three minutes after the interval when he seized on a loose ball from a Luai off-the-cuff grubber to boot the ball to the wing for Jeral Skelton to cross out wide.
Turuva scooted over from a scrum move and then unveiled his Tiger’s claw across the chest celebration one more time as Wests went up by 32.
Sunia Turuva celebrates scoring a try. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Eels winger Sean Russell scrambled over for a consolation try in the final minute which annoyed Luai who said this new breed of Tiger wanted to be known as a defensive outfit despite the flamboyant style they displayed in attack.
“We’re gonna be chasing that zero every week,” Luai said on Nine.
And while the backs scored all the points to soak up the spotlight, the Tigers’ win was set up by a 65-minute unchanged stint from prop Terrell May, who gained 176 metres, 59 post contact, from 19 hit-ups, three offloads and a team-high 43 tackles.
Burton was making a tackle on JoJo Fifita and copped not so friendly fire from Reed Mahoney and immediately clutched at his left leg.
It was the kind of ugly twist that can often cause ACL tears but the Bulldogs confirmed it was thankfully not the worst-case scenario.
“Disappointing news that it’s an MCL, great news that it’s not an ACL,” said former Bulldogs hooker Michael Ennis on Fox League.
Kikau twisted his right knee while trying to bring down Titans prop Moe Fotuaika in the 74th minute and needed assistance to make it back to the Belmore sheds.
The Fijian international had been at his damaging best down the left edge, registering 140 running metres from 12 hit-ups but with Sitili Tupouniua on the bench, coach Cameron Ciraldo has a stellar replacement at the ready if Kikau needs an extended stint on the sidelines.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said skipper Stephen Crichton would shift into five-eighth while Burton is out for the next month after spending 10 minutes in the role against the Titans before relocating to centre.
“That’s what we trained for all pre-season, if one of our halves went down Critta was moving into that spot,” Ciraldo said.
“I thought he did a good job when he was there.”
Canterbury winger Marcelo Montoya is likely to be in judiciary trouble for a shoulder charge on Titans fullback Keano Kini in the opening minutes.
The NRL scheduled 15 matches to play out before the Titans got to enter a playing arena in 2025 – you’d think they were trying to hide them from the viewing public.
It certainly looked that way as they conceded three ultra-soft tries within the first 15 minutes at Belmore with Montoya, Jaeman Salmon and Mahoney crossing the stripe as the Dogs romped out to a 16-0 lead.
But worse was to come with Josh Curran scoring from a penalty tap 10 metres out despite the “efforts” of three defenders on the goal line.
Gold Coast clawed their way back into the contest with two tries to Alofiana Khan-Pereira to trail by just 10 at the break but he coughed up a high ball to gift Jacob Preston the opening four-pointer of the second half.
Kurt Mann embarrassed the porous Gold Coast goal-line defence again to make it 34-12 before Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Fifita crossed to cut the gap to 10 with 16 minutes left. before Connor Tracey iced the win in the 77th minute.
Des Hasler is out of the media glare these days at the Titans but he needs to start getting more out of this team in the middle year of his three-season deal otherwise it could be the end of the road for the Mad Professor.
“When you get the marquee money, it brings pressure.”
Andrew Johns knows a thing or two about carrying a team on his shoulders and the Immortal halfback was unimpressed with Dylan Brown’s contributions for the Eels on Sunday.
Brown is trying to show he deserves the $14 million commitment Newcastle have made in him to be their go-to guy for the next decade in the No.7 jersey that Johns made famous.
But the Knights legend said the chatter around Brown’s inability to be a chief playmaker will linger until he proves otherwise while Moses is sidelined with his foot injury.
Brown had just 45 touches against the Tigers, four fewer than stopgap halfback Ronald Volkman, broke three tackles, made a line break and put in just three kicks in a wholly ineffective performance.
Ryles said the fans were “passionate” when asked about the boos but said Brown’s switch to the Knights did not change the way they think about him in the Blue and Gold camp.
“He was steady, he improved on last week. We’re still working on some things with Dylan in his game. There’s a lot happening around him and he needs some things around him to go well so he can go well.”