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Opinion
The Raiders are riding high as the NRL’s unlikely benchmark following their astonishing victory over Melbourne for the most magical of Magic Round victories.
Canberra at the top of the Power Rankings? Why not?
To be the king you have to beat the kings and they have continued defying their season-long trend of not only proving they are not easybeats but a team that has surged into top-four calculations.
Like the Warriors of a couple of years ago, there is an air of destiny about Ricky Stuart’s ragtag bunch of old-stagers and young guns who keep shooting down big names left, right and centre.
Canberra’ scalps for 2025 now include the Warriors in Las Vegas, the Broncos, Sharks and Storm as part of their 7-2 start to the season which has them just two points adrift of first-placed Canterbury.
Here’s how the teams stack up after Round 9.
1. Raiders (Last week 3): Well, we couldn’t have them below the Storm now could we after they beat them in Magic Round.
No, it won’t last but Canberra right now are the little team that could, chugging their way up the ladder to the point now where if they were up against the Storm, Dogs, Warriors or any other team you’d care to name, they would be more than a fair chance of beating them.
By the way, they host Canterbury in the top-of-the-table Round 10 clash that no one predicted, particularly the NRL schedule makers who buried it in the 3pm Saturday slot.
Everyone who thought they would be finishing among the also-rans this season can join me in a darkened corner where there will be plenty of humble pie to go around.
Morgan Smithies, Jamal Fogarty and Tom Starling celebrate winning. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
2. Bulldogs (2): Without Matt Burton, Sitili Tupouniua and Josh Curran, they were nowhere near their best on Sunday.
But if you are going to be well down on form any given weekend, you want to be playing against the Titans, and the Dogs were still able to rack up a comfortable 38-18 victory.
Max King probably won’t break into the Blues squad for State of Origin game one but he is the kind of workaholic forward that every Origin team needs. A younger version of captain Jake Trbojevic, who may be surplus to Laurie Daley’s needs.
3. Storm (1): They should have beaten the Raiders except for a couple of their forwards giving away the dumbest of penalties, in possession, right in front of the posts to cruel match-winning field goal opportunities.
And then one of those two carelessly gave away a high tackle penalty up the other end to lose the match.
Pray for the window cleaners who have to clean the spittle that flew from Craig Bellamy’s mouth in the coach’s box at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night as his side threw two competition points away.
4. Warriors (4): They nearly blew it against the Cowboys on Saturday night after holding an 18-point lead and then letting their opponents score three straight tries to get within four points.
The Warriors proved they are a team that keeps turning up with a couple of brilliant pieces of scrambling defence late in the match, which snuffed out the North Queensland comeback.
5. Sharks (7): Even though they were playing against a team near the bottom of the ladder in Parramatta on Friday night, their win was a huge step in the right direction for Craig Fitzgibbon’s team.
The Eels came ready to play on the back of Mitchell Moses’s brilliance but Will Kennedy and Nicho Hynes were instrumental in the 28-18 victory, which gives them a bump back up to fifth in the rankings.
6. Broncos (5): Michael Maguire’s team is another one with a 5-4 record and plenty of question marks over whether they are legitimate contenders.
They couldn’t have been more impressive in flogging the Bulldogs in Round 8, but their Magic Round display lacked resilience and the common theme of not enough support for Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan reared its ugly head again.
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
7. Tigers (9): In some ways they were a little bit lucky to beat the Dragons 34-28 given that they were gifted a 12-point turnaround on the stroke of half-time after Jaydn Su’A made his forgettable try-line blunder and Jahream Bula raced 100 metres the other way.
Even though they have had a tumultuous season so far and there are still plenty of rough edges for Benji Marshall to smooth over, the Tigers are in the logjam of seven or eight teams in the middle of the pack who have formed a clear second tier ahead of the bottom five or six teams in these rankings who look like the finals will be beyond them.
8. Sea Eagles (8): They had the bye in Magic Round and return to the comforts of Brookvale next Sunday against the Sharks looking to show that their last return-to-form victory over Penrith was not just another Tom Trbojevic-inspired flash in the pan.
Morgan Smithies, Jamal Fogarty and Tom Starling celebrate winning. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
9. Panthers (10): Even though they turned back the clock to their previous four seasons of premiership glory in smashing the Broncos 32-8 on Sunday it is still premature to give Penrith a nudge back up into the top eight.
Nathan Cleary continued his habit of tormenting the Broncos with a five-star display and Ivan Cleary’s line-up is starting to get some cohesion about it after a few high-profile comings and goings over the off-season.
10. Roosters (11): Yet another team that is impossible to predict.
When they’re good, they’re very good. A few weeks ago they looked like they were headed for their first season out of the playoffs since 2016 when they were thrashed at home by Penrith but they have since strung together dominant victories over the Dragons and Dolphins to re-enter the playoff conversation.
They’ve got the bye this week and should get a couple of troops back the following week for a true litmus test against the Bulldogs.
11. Cowboys (7): It’s probably a bit rough to knock them back four spots in the rankings on the back of a narrow defeat to the Warriors but that just highlights the slender difference between the teams on the periphery of the top four and the ones sitting above the also-rans.
Although they came home with a wet sail and the Cowboys were unlucky to lose when a potential match-winning try was denied by a foot on the sideline from Murray Taulagi, they should be more concerned with some of the defensive lapses earlier which led to the Warriors racing in five first-half tries.
12. Dolphins (12): only stay in 12th spot because most of the teams directly below them didn’t put up much of a fight either. Kristian Woolf’s team has dropped to a 3-6 record after their defeat to the Roosters on Friday night.
The 36-26 scoreline flattered the Dolphins with the Roosters running in seven tries to four. The absence of Max Plath for the next month due to injury could be a huge body blow for the Dolphins in their bid to remain in the playoff hunt.
13. Dragons (13): They are another side teetering between the edge of playoff contention and sinking to the bottom of the ladder with their 3-5 record.
They were polished a few weeks ago in thrashing the Titans and upsetting Manly but since then they have had 46 and 34 put on them by the Roosters and Tigers – not the hallmarks of a team bound for the finals.
14. Knights (16): After being in freefall they get a bump up the rankings by a couple of spots on the back of their 30-4 annihilation of the Rabbitohs on Saturday.
Fletcher Sharpe has the pace and acceleration to be a game breaker at five-eighth but Newcastle shouldn’t kid themselves into thinking they have suddenly solved their attacking woes as Souths fielded a heavily depleted line-up.
15. Eels (15): They remain at 15th spot even though they lost to the Sharks because Parra are now showing they will not be pushovers.
Their young forwards are green but they don’t care about reputations and they took the fight to Cronulla’s experienced big boppers.
But the young Eels have a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot at inopportune times which is part of the growing pains under Jason Ryles which will result in the odd loss in the short term but will be beneficial down the track.
16. Rabbitohs (14): They get Latrell Mitchell back from suspension this week but with Peter Mamouzelos dislocating his shoulder and Jye Gray picking up a hamstring problem, Wayne Bennett’s injury woes are now even worse.
It’s hard to see the Rabbitohs regrouping in the near future after losing four straight matches.
17. Titans (17): There’s not much more to say about the Gold Coast’s ongoing struggles.
They have lost five in a row exceeding 30 points or more on each occasion.
In fact, of their eight matches this season they have only held a team under 30 twice – during their two wins way back in rounds three and four.
The Titans have only collected the wooden spoon twice despite missing the finals in 14 of their 18 seasons but a third last-placed finish is looking likely as Des Hasler’s second season threatens to be much worse than his first one.