- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Thank goodness for the Tigers and Warriors, who gave us a good contest to leave a decent taste in our mouths after a weekend of games decided a long way from the 80th minute. Here come your Round 4 NRL talking points.
In my opinion, one of the weakest acts in rugby league is diving onto a defenceless player lying on the ground looking to cause maximum damage.
Cheap hits like that are unnecessary, cowardly and are never properly penalised, which is why you get fake tough guy comments like this from Canterbury hooker Reed Mahoney after he slammed a diving shoulder into Sharks utility Daniel Atkinson, who’d secured a charged down kick and gone to ground.
“If someone is laying on the ground I’m not going to just lay on him… this is a tough sport, it’s Bulldog footy, we’re tough.”
“It’s just what we do.”
I’m sure there’ll be more big tough guys saying there’s nothing wrong with what Mahoney did, and referee Chris Butler (and the Bunker) certainly bottled it by not at least giving him ten on the pine.
If that’s ‘Bulldogs footy’ someone better tell Cameron Ciraldo and Mahoney’s teammates, because Mahoney wasn’t getting the head pats and chest bumps that come from a good hit. They looked almost embarrassed to have to fly the flag in the subsequent ruckus.
Your weekly talking points have defended Reed Mahoney and the way he goes about his game before, but this was garbage.
Readers, I honestly do try every week to keep referees and the judiciary out of talking points. Otherwise, it becomes all we talk about, and I’m very much on the record as a referee defender … 99 per cent of the time.
So I’m not going to run the rule over every bad refereeing decision this week, but it has to be said the judiciary has had a shocker.
As seems to be the go now, Brisbane forward Jordan Riki wasn’t sin-binned for a bad high shot on the Dolphins’ Jack Bostock, an act later deemed worthy of a two-game holiday.
We also wait to see what Jarome Luai gets for a shoulder charge on Ed Kosi.
Jarome Luai. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Shoulder charges have been sneaking back into the game this season. I wonder how closely the NRL is looking.
Canberra prop Josh Papali’i was reported twice which is apparently worth $6000 worth of fines, but no time off. Mahoney was also reported twice (including the weak ‘contrary conduct’ mentioned above), only has to pay a combined $3600 and won’t miss any time.
Raiders forward Corey Horsburgh got a fine for a hip drop on Jason Taumalolo, among many fines across the weekend for crusher tackles and high or dangerous contact.
If you don’t want dirty play, punish it properly. Minimising this stuff with fines is not a good long-term strategy for the game of rugby league.
No referee and judiciary talk next week, I promise.
Ahhh, Cronulla. Two wins, two losses. Two comfortable wins over teams expected to be mid/lower table finishers in South Sydney and North Queensland, two losses to teams they’re battling with for a top-four spot in Penrith and now Canterbury.
Canterbury played really well on Saturday night. But it couldn’t have been anything Cronulla weren’t expecting. They just couldn’t figure out a way through the Bulldogs’ defence while conceding points at regular intervals in the second half.
I know it drives Sharks fans crazy when we rip on them for losing to good teams all the time, but the data is stark now over the last few years.
Canterbury? Their form late last year showed a club starting to have faith in its structures, its defensive character and the talent at hand. Saturday’s convincing 20-6 win over Cronulla showed another pre-season had hardened that belief even more. They’re great fun to watch.
The Gold Coast? I’m wary of going in on the Titans because they let you down every time, but they were impressive running away late over the Roosters 30-12 in Sydney on Friday.
Des Hasler’s men are compiling a decent early body of work. The move of Jayden Campbell to halfback is paying off so far and he’s working beautifully with AJ Brimson at five-eighth.
NRL tipping is BACK on The Roar for 2025! Get your tips in here.
The defence looks solid and most un-Titans-like after their first-up horror show against Canterbury, they’re winning games against teams that are beatable… it’s all so unusual!
South Sydney? The Bunnies came into 2025 with mixed expectations so maybe we don’t dive in too deeply right now, but Wayne Bennett’s crew dealt with a shorthanded Penrith on Friday in a manner that befits a team looking to play finals. Lots more to see here, but this is a promising start.
Notwithstanding his ability to pass an HIA after getting totalled and wobbling across the field, the Roosters stalwart once again is hurt from high contact.
Radley will miss 1-2 weeks with a broken cheekbone but has had to leave the field for an HIA in every game he’s played this year.
Your weekly talking points are, frankly, tired of repeating this. Players need to make tough decisions that affect the rest of their lives, and they’ll almost never make the call themselves. Someone at the Roosters, or in Radley’s trusted inner circle, really needs to ask him to reflect on whether this is all worth it.
Victor Radley. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
Melbourne blew what they would have reasonably expected to be two points against St George Illawarra, but to credit the Dragons, they worked hard to get the game just how they wanted it and didn’t let the Storm out of their grip for a well-earned 14-8 result.
With 11 minutes left in Townsville, if a flying Xavier Savage passes to a flying Owen Pattie with Canberra down 22-18 and well and truly on the charge, do Canberra complete a comeback win? We’ll never know, because he didn’t and they went on to lose 30-20. North Queensland were good value for the win in the wet, while the Raiders blew themselves up yet again with errors and sloppy play.
The Dolphins had a chance to get themselves on some kind of footing against Brisbane but just fought no fight as the Broncos wandered to a simple 20-12 win.
Wests Tigers blew a huge chance to sneak past the Warriors but two genuine winger brain explosions late in the game proved their execution is lacking. Firstly Solomona Faataape refused to pick up a glorious Jarome Luai kick, instead toeing it ahead out of bounds. Then, Sunia Turuva didn’t pass after taking a glorious Lachie Galvin kick, before playing the ball to no one, only for it to be gleefully stolen by Chanel Harris-Tavita to seal New Zealand’s 26-24 win in a really entertaining one.
Week five gives us games with varying excitement levels. Some look good on paper, some don’t. We hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Thursday, we’re off to Bruce Stadium for the Raiders and Sharks, who have owned this contest lately. Cronulla have won the last three, scoring a neat 100 points in doing so.
Friday’s pub game sees dozens of Penrith fans pack Western Sydney Stadium for the battle with North Queensland, with a pretty important two points up for grabs.
Primetime, it’s the Rabbitohs and Roosters at Stadium Australia – a matchup that used to mean something but to be honest hasn’t given us neutrals much enjoyment for a while.
Saturday, the Eels host the Dragons in the arvo, the Titans can keep on this roll against the Dolphins and Brisbane can keep banking points if they’re good enough against the new, improved Wests Tigers.
Manly and Melbourne get into it Sunday afternoon in what should be some fun, and Sunday night Canterbury and Newcastle go about their business.
New Zealand has the bye and two free points to keep them in the top eight.
– Is the NRL actively doing away with written match reports on their website? They’re getting harder and harder to find.
– Should Tom Trbojevic have been playing? What are Manly’s medical folks seeing that we don’t, ’cause he looked like he was going at about 30 per cent capacity against Parra even before he hurt himself yet again, now likely to miss 4-6 weeks with a medial ligament problem.
– 12,220 at Campbelltown on Sunday night for Tigers and Warriors. Not a bad crowd in some pretty ordinary conditions at a bad kick-off time.
– It’s always humorous to see a professional team having to read the words to the victory song in the rooms like the Gold Coast did on Friday. How does this happen? Even pub grade teams know pre-season booze-ups are when you learn the song and if you get it wrong, you cop a fine!
– Sad to see wrecking ball Wests Tigers centre Justin Olam has had to retire after being unable to recover from a knee injury he sustained last year. It’s brutal the toll rugby league takes on a body – if you have time, here’s a really old column of mine that sums up my thoughts on the NRL grinder.
– Parramatta are getting slightly better each week.
– Maybe Manly’s CEO Tony Mestrov needs to hold off on the media leaks and his constant presence in the NRL crisis merchant pages trying to paint himself as the good guy in the ‘DCE saga’? Have a spell, Tony. No one’s listening anyway. Daly Cherry-Evans spoke brilliantly to the ABC post-game. If you can find it, check it out.
We’re a month into the season proper… What’s got you talking, Roarers?