NRL round 13 review

By Stephen Gallagher

Raiders 30 Sea Eagles 18

After the Raiders performance the week before, Manly were on notice of what was to come. They battled as best as they could but overall the Raiders took this match away from them early either side of half time.

Canberra hooker Josh Hodgson leads the Daly M votes and will have secured another 3 points after that performance.

This Raiders side is slowly becoming a perfectly balanced side. They need to continue to work on consistency, now with three wins in a row.

Manly suffered injury setbacks which saw them reduced to a one man bench but they never looked likely of taking the win.

Warriors 36 Broncos 18

Now here was a result that has every one talking.

It was the Warriors that people have been wanting to see. This was undoubtedly their best performance in two seasons.

Individually, each player had their best game of the season, which led to a whole team dismantle the Broncos.

Kata, Johnson, Mannering and Luke were all stand out players.

Brisbane taking a beating puts them with three losses on the trot.

Hunt and Milford have lost the go forward of their big men, and this Origin period could be deadly for them.

This Warriors win means nothing unless they can back it up next week.

Cowboys 46 Newcastle 16

It was 80 minutes of commentary wank as Queenslanders Kevvy Walters, Brent Tate, Michael Morgan joined Matt Russell in the box to talk about how amazing they are.

This result was never in doubt. The Knights were soft on D, and this disheartened side needs the season to end asap.

The Cowboys rolled on, and never got out of third gear.

Storm 24 Panthers 6

The Storm are a quality side.

Penrith struck first through Josh Mansour in a draw and pass close to the line, and the Soward conversion was the last of their points.

The Melbourne Storm typically grinded away at their opponents. The late inclusion of Cronk and Smith were obviously helpful.

The forwards in this team are dynamite. All round all stars. It is hard to compare them to the rest of the NRL, theyre seemingly a step above when theyre in their groove.

Roosters 32 Wests Tigers 18

Well amidst a heavy weekend of rain this match was played in front of a record low 3662 attendence.

Despite the wet weather, ball handling was actually pretty good and the attacking prowess from both sides saw some quality tries.

It was the Roosters to get the result, but not without the Tigers making it interesting.

Sydney Roosters are finally looking to deliver with the roster they have, which will make the rest of the season interesting.

Titans 29 Rabbitohs 28

A golden point thriller in WA went the way of the Titans.

Leading the Rabbitohs 16-0 and no continuity in the Souths side, it looked like the Titans would end up with an easy win.

Souths turned it around. Their passing game was upped and the ball through the hands was smooth, helping set up some quality tries as they surged a come back.

With the Gold Coast scoring 3 minutes from time and a six point lead led many (including me) that it was game over.

A short kick off was recovered by Souths – and Cameron McInnis dived over. Reynolds levelled and sent it to GP.

Drama unfolded – Adam Reynolds slotted a match winning field goal – but officials denied him due to an infringement by a Souths blocker.

Ash Taylor cooly nailed the winner, sending the Titans in to a frenzy!

Sharks 20 Bulldogs 18

“James Maloney, what a hero!” Warren Smith’s words reflect a memorable moment of success.

A James Maloney conversion with 30 seconds to go helps Cronulla go TEN IN A ROW!

But Canterbury Bankstown controlled this game early on. A slick side came out and took a 12-0 lead which put Cronulla on notice.

Ben Barba’s involvment increased which meant points were put on the board, but ultimately trailed 18-10 at the half.

Canterbury-Bankstown’s points stopped there, and the second half was an all out physical fest of toughness.

They repeatedly defended sets on their line time and time again, but were undone by some silky backline moves twice which cost them in the end.

The effort shown by both these two sides were immense. The 14 other clubs could learn a lot from this match.

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