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What a weekend! Fantastic fun across almost every game with some incredible individual performances.
Let’s make the most of it with some NRL talking points.
There was a trend this week of teams going on big scoring runs before copping their own back.
Incredibly, Gold Coast, South Sydney and Canterbury all won after being down double digits and scoreless at halftime.
St George Illawarra were also down 14-0 against New Zealand, coming back to tie things before Luke Metcalf’s field goal saw them off 15-14.
The Warriors continue to win without fanfare, sitting clear in second with a points differential of +1. They’re setting their season up well.
Premiers Penrith were twice up by 12 and had to settle for a draw against the Cowboys.
Horror shows for Newcastle, Brisbane and Canberra as they blew what should have been impregnable leads, particularly for the Raiders.
Canberra were incredible in the first 40 and probably should have been more than 20-0 ahead before they collapsed in a heap under the pressure brought by Canterbury once they cleaned up the errors in their game.
Newcastle have no excuses for being run down by the Titans. Even Gold Coast coach Des Hasler looked like he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen as his players celebrated a 24-20 win.
Brisbane played like they expected a walkover against the injured South Sydney, and they had plenty of chances to put the game away before paying the price.
Stephen Crichton played possibly the best 15 minutes of anyone this year as he dragged his Bulldogs from 20-0 down at half time to waltz past Canberra 32-20.
His opposition centre, Seb Kris, will be having nightmares for weeks after being walked through time after time as the Canterbury captain willed his team back into the contest.
We saw the best of Latrell Mitchell on Friday night – a great covering tackle to snuff out what was to be the game-breaking Broncos score, before smacking a 49-metre field goal to take the win and taking a cheeky try on full time as Brsbane switched off, confirming Souths’ 22-14 win. It was some of 2025’s best theatre.
Some joyless types had a problem with that try.
I can only assume because it was Latrell Mitchell who did it. I loved it.
Any thoughts the Tigers could stay with Melbourne were blown away in the first three minutes as Ryan Papenhuyzen scored a sensational try, then proceeded to rack up 36 points in the Storm’s 64-0 massacre.
The fullback outscored every team except his own in Round 10 as the Storm trounced their overwhelmed opponent.
Two games didn’t involve incredible comebacks, but were still good to watch.
A great contest in Townsville between Penrith and North Queensland ended 30 apiece, bringing a good amount of chaos to the ladder for the rest of the season.
The Panthers will be bitter about letting in two tries in the last 10 minutes of regular time when you might have imagined the game was under control, but that’s underselling the effort of the Cowboys.
It was an entertainer back on Thursday night as well when Parramatta and the Dolphins locked horns.
Herbie Farnworth was great, while Jordan Samrani played well for the Eels. After a few blowouts and bludgers over the last few weeks it was good to settle in and see the Dolphins’ 20-16 win.
Manly’s 30-14 loss to Cronulla at Brookvale was a shocker – their second loss in five weeks to a team they’d expect to compete with for a place higher in the top eight.
They sit eighth with a 4-4 record and there hasn’t been much to hang their hat on so far this year.
It’s hard to get a read on what they’re trying to do on the field, and the results have duly been all over the joint.
Manly’s next month is North Queensland, Parramatta, Brisbane and Newcastle. If this is a serious team, they win at least three of these.
Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui bafflingly escaped being punished for a clear shoulder charge to the face of Newcastle’s Leo Thompson on Friday night, then Canterbury half Matt Burton got nothing for a similar hit on Canberra winger Xavier Savage.
Considering it was shoulder charges that kicked the NRL ‘crackdown’ into gear, it’s curious once more to see what’s going on.
Round 11 is the last weekend clear of State of Origin impact, multiple byes, and messy fixturing for the next few weeks. Let’s enjoy it while we can…
No Thursday game, so we’re straight into the Friday double-header with the 6pm pub game a wooden spoon classic between Newcastle and Parramatta. That rolls into Canterbury and the Roosters, which might be a lot of fun.
Saturday’s slate gives us the Dolphins hosting New Zealand in another sneaky good clash, then a quality match up in Townsville with North Queensland and Manly, before Melbourne head to the Cronulla industrial pit to match up with the Sharks.
Sunday is an interesting day – Brisbane supporters will be bewildered by the sunlight as they host St George Illawarra at 2pm, while Canberra must prove that second half was an aberration against a tricky Gold Coast.
Sunday night games are back with Wests Tigers and South Sydney in Campbelltown.
Penrith have the bye and two free points which puts them right up in the thick of the top eight challengers.
– Todd Payten complains about the referees too much.
– Panthers hooker Mitch Kenny reportedly copped abuse from some loser in his DMs after they’d lost a bet on the draw in Townsville – don’t be that person. Get better at life.
– Fantastic turnout of 23,827 (including thousands of rowdy Canterbury fans) in Canberra for the top of the table clash. What an afternoon to go through!
– A couple of weeks ago your talking points raged against wingers leaping high for the corner when staying low was safer – this week’s pet hate is players coughing up the ball after making a break downfield. It’s wild how often the ball is spilled at the end of a break either through attempted miracle offloads or poor ball control – just take a tackle and run the next play, you’ve got them on the ropes!
– New Zealand are the only team in 2025 who have won the week after playing Melbourne.
– Since 2022, the Storm score an average of 37 points the week after a loss… and that was before Sunday’s slaughter.
– Penrith once again show they’ve got the cheating-est trainers in the game, this time carrying the ball up to the golden point kickoff and dousing it in water before the Cowboys received it. If Tim Gore was still here, he’d be putting a week’s worth of articles together… I miss him.
What did you make of round 10, Roarers?