Who quit on the season? Who went out on their shields?
St George-Illawarra kept punching after their finals chances were extinguished in Round 22, finishing the season with three straight wins. The Gold Coast were cooked months ago but still fought relatively hard to the end, while Canterbury flagged after promising signs under interim coach Mick Potter.
The less said about Manly’s second half of the year the better, while the wooden spooned Wests Tigers had a crack against the Dragons in the second last round but just weren’t in the stratosphere any other time.
Let’s quickly whip through some A-F grades for the bottom eight – interested in yours.
Brisbane: C. St George-Illawarra: C. Manly: D. Canterbury: D. Gold Coast: F. Newcastle: F. New Zealand: E. Wests Tigers: F.
Sizing up the Brisbane Broncos
Brisbane’s 16-20 loss to St George-Illawarra consigned their season to the bin and with a touch of history to boot, being the first team in the NRL era (and probably heaps longer) to be in the top four with six games to play then miss the finals.
Calls are growing to sack coach Kevin Walters, burn the joint to the ground and rebuild, you all know the drama. But before we light our molotovs let’s take a realistic look…
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
In 2020, the Broncos got the wooden spoon with three wins. Last season, they finished 14th with seven wins and were often outright disastrous. For 2022, there were literally no people outside of diehard Broncos fans who thought they’d make top four or win the premiership – they were, at best, on the fringes of the top eight in preseason predictions.
So as it ends they’ve missed the finals with a 13-11 record, built mainly on the back of a seven-game win streak leading to the season’s halfway point. The heat will come about the end to the year – it’s already here – but it’s undeniable the Broncos made decent steps from where they were.
Rugby league and pro sport is bloody hard, you don’t just rise from being complete dross to champions.
Playing finals in Cronulla and Penrith is ridiculous
The two supposedly most high quality games for finals week one, the four best teams. But they’ll be playing in decrepit surrounds in front of minimal crowds compared to other options.
I won’t go on about it, but denying tens of thousands of members, fans and interested onlookers isn’t the great move the NRL thinks it is.
Also completely mystifying is sending four NRLW clubs: Gold Coast, Parramatta, Brisbane and St George-Illawarra to Melbourne to play a ‘triple header’ including the Storm v Raiders game. If ever there was space for standalone NRLW games on Thursday night and the early Friday night game, this was it.
Who’s a genuine finals week 1 upset chance?
Penrith will have already forgotten their second team being beaten 38-8 in Townsville, Cronulla wandered around for a bit before shaking off Newcastle to get a home final and the Eels were magnificent keeping Melbourne out of the top four.
Parramatta will be stacked with confidence they can beat Penrith for a third time in 2022, and they’ve won at BlueBet Stadium already this year.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The Storm’s fifth spot is their lowest finish since 2015, if you can believe it. They’re still a bit banged up and so are the Roosters, who will go again against South Sydney after dusting them 26-16 in a convincing performance.
There’s an outside sniff for the Cowboys against the Sharks. North Queensland lost to Cronulla 26-12 without Origin players in round 18 and stayed right in the game till late. There’s plenty there to keep the Sharks’ heads spinning.
The Raiders roll into the finals after feasting on the Tigers, hardly great preparation for an eliminator in Melbourne but the green machine have been quite decent since halfback Jamal Fogarty returned from injury halfway through the season and took the load off Jack Wighton.
Canberra are gunning for their fourth consecutive win over Melbourne at AAMI park. They couldn’t do it again and knock out the Storm, could they?
Quick hits
– Credit to the Gold Coast, who trailed New Zealand 26-12 with seven minutes left then pinched it in golden point 27-26. A great last burst kicked off by a beauty from Jayden Campbell.
– Nice piece of theft from the Bulldogs over Manly too, just when it looked like the Sea Eagles might have had something to smile about.
– The Roosters are backing up their maiden NRLW title as the team to beat, flogging the Dragons 34-6 in the first game at the new Allianz Stadium.
– Other NRLW results: Newcastle got a crucial 18-16 win over Parramatta, and Brisbane got back on track over the Titans 22-4.
– Got a quick hit of your own? Whack it in the comments.
To the next
Finals week one has some great matchups full of intensity and rivalry.
It begins Friday night with Penrith hosting Parramatta, then Canberra will then head to Melbourne for a Saturday twilight contest against the Storm in an eliminator.
The second qualifier is Saturday night with Cronulla hosting the Cowboys in the Shire, then it’s off to Allianz for a Sunday afternoon belter when the Roosters and Rabbitohs front up again to send each other home.
What did you make of the last regular round of 2022, Roarers?