The Broncos continued their title surge on the back of Reece Walsh and Ezra Mam’s brilliance, while an issue has emerged with the evolution of the Storm.
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Read on for all of the big talking points to come out of Round 22.
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RYLES’ GOOD ‘HEADACHE’
This will be the third straight season that Parramatta miss the top eight, but if you’re an Eels fan, there’s plenty to like about your club right now despite the lowly ladder position.
It has been clear that rookie coach Jason Ryles wanted to make a fresh mark on the club this season.
In what has been a rebuilding year under Ryles, several players were shipped out while many inexperienced young guns were blooded.
While there have been some growing pains, the last few weeks have shown that Ryles’ plan is starting to come together.
Ryles made the huge decision a few weeks ago to drop Dylan Brown, who is leaving for Newcastle at season’s end.
Given Brown is on nearly $1 million a season, it’s a fair chunk of the salary sitting on the sideline.
In Brown’s place, Ryles entrusted 20-year-old Joash Papalii in the No. 6 jersey. Papalii impressed in two games in the halves.
When emerging superstar Isaiah Iongi suffered a season-ending injury a fortnight ago, it appeared Brown would win back his spot.
Instead, Ryles moved Papalii to fullback and Dean Hawkins shifted to five-eighth to placate the return of Moses.
Iongi has been a breakout star in 2025 and could win Dally M Rookie of the Year, but has Papalii’s recent form at the back given Ryles something to think about.
“I think Rylesy has a bit of a headache though at fullback with Papalii. He’s had two games at fullback and he’s impressed,” Eels great Nathan Hindmarsh opined.
“I know Iongi has been very good as well.”
“Well he’s been their best player this year Iongi,” Matty Johns responded.
“If you can make that work, if you look at some of the very best sides, the six and the one are interchangeable. You just have to work out who picks up the defensive responsibilities.”
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‘You can see the green shoots are there’ | 01:56
STORM’S ‘YIPS’ ISSUE EXPOSED AS FINALS APPROACH
North Sydney Bears legend Billy Moore has cast doubts over whether the Storm can win a “grindathon” against the likes of the Bulldogs and Panthers at the business end of the season.
Melbourne had a less than convincing 16-10 victory over the struggling Eels at CommBank Stadium on Thursday night, and observers are beginning to question their chances of lifting the premiership trophy in October.
“They have always been the most pragmatic team to evolve with the rules but at the moment, they’re off the pace,” Moore said.
“With that said, they’re running second, so the bar for them is different than most other clubs.
“You talk about the lack of the grind, to me the Storm have always been a team that can win the comp with just their defence. At the moment they’re trying to flick it to attack.
“I just think it’s the most open season I’ve seen and coming to the back end of the finals, they’ll be against sides like the Dogs and Penrith where it’ll be a grindathon and I’m not sure if they can (match) them.”
Matty Johns believes the Storm have become a team more focused on attack in 2025, which is the opposite of the big three era when their priority was their defence.
“They’ve evolved in a different direction,” Johns said.
“If you look at the history of the Storm sides under Craig Bellamy, this side has the most points in them. On a dry day they just rattle off the points, it just happens but they can’t graft and grind like the other teams. They’ve moved in different directions.”
Bryan Fletcher said the Storm aren’t the same team at night as they are during the day.
“It’s a different Melbourne,” Fletcher said.
“At night they are a totally different team. I don’t know if they have the yips at night or what it is but against the Chooks last week, it wasn’t until the last sort of 10-15 minutes they poked their nose in front.”
Coates helps scrappy Storm overcome Eels | 01:43
WALSH AND MAM BACK TO BRILLIANT BEST IN BRONCOS ROUT
Reece Walsh had an error-riddled night in the loss to the Eels, while Ezra Mam was quiet, but the star duo were back to their freakish best in the 60-14 rout of the Rabbitohs.
Walsh finished with four linebreak assists, four try assists and a try, while Mam ran for nearly 200 metres to go with two linebreaks and two tries.
Former Broncos coach Kevin Walters had no doubt the pair would bounce back after an off night against the Eels.
“Mam was quiet, but these sort of players don’t stay quiet for long,” Walters said.
“They get themselves back in the game and he has got a lot of talent Ezra.
“He’s so fast and I think he is playing a more physical game this year. He seems to be able to put more into his contact.
“He’s a quick player and likes to play short sides well. He is a great asset for the Broncos and when he gets in this sort of form, he is very hard to stop, him and Reece Walsh.
“They are like two bandits robbing the bank, they just keep going and they take as much money as they can get.
“That’s what they did tonight. They robbed the bank and took a lot of money home.”
Cooper Cronk thought Walsh showed the best and worst in his game against the Eels, but by underplaying his hand against Souths, he was able to do more for the team.
“He was rocks or diamonds last week and came up with a couple of plays that got his team back in it and almost won it, but then caused a lot of issues at the start of the second half and put his team under pressure,” Cronk said.
“But tonight he was much better. There were a couple of plays early on where he could have pulled the trigger and thrown the pass, but it showed the maturity and mindset that Reece Walsh was in during the second half.
“Every time he touched the ball he had space and time and when he gets on the edge, the skill and execution and footwork and he is the most dangerous player in the competition when he is good.”
However, Cronk believes there is still some issues the Broncos need to iron out, especially with Xavier Willison sidelined with a broken arm.
“The Broncos have these dynamic outside backs and they have great halves,” Cronk said.
“If their forward pack can throw some punches against the Storm, Panthers and Raiders, the Broncos have the attack to go and do some things.
“But it’s their defence and long game mentality that needs to improve.”
Walters believes the real test for the Broncos will be facing the Storm twice in the last five weeks of the regular season.
“We always knew they had the talent,” Walters said.
“That’s clearly always been there. But the big test will come in the next few weeks against the Storm.”
Broncos blow away injury-ravaged Bunnies | 02:30
TIGERS CAUSE MAJOR UPSET IN LACHLAN GALVIN CUP
It was dubbed the Lachlan Galvin Cup, but it was the underdog Tigers that got one over their old teammate in a convincing 28-14 win over the Bulldogs.
The scoreboard even flattered the Bulldogs slightly because the Tigers led 20-0 and always looked like the better side in wet and wild conditions at CommBank Stadium.
Matty Johns labelled it the best win by the Tigers in years after they led the Bulldogs from start to finish.
“It is the best win from the Tigers for a long, long time given all the circumstances of the game and the Lachlan Galvin situation,” Johns said on Sunday Night with Matty Johns.
“Talk about flying under the radar, the Tigers have won three of their last five. Cleary a much better side than last year.”
Bryan Fletcher noted Benji Marshall’s late decision to drop Latu Fainu to the bench and bring in Adam Doeuihi at halfback as the catalyst for the win.
“It was a masterstroke by Benji Marshall to put Adam Doeuihi in the halves,” Fletcher said.
“He had a stormer. Set up the first two tries and scored one himself.
“The motivation for the Tigers was pretty evident with the Galvin stuff. I know the crowd were looking forward to it.
“The Tigers players were up for it and they just frustrated the Bulldogs out of the game. Their defence was great.
“They took every opportunity that they got, which sometimes has been their Achilles heel.”
Johns noted the Bulldogs have a poor record in the wet this season and it continued against the Tigers in driving rain.
“It is one thing about the Bulldogs is they struggle in wet weather football,” Johns said.
“A lotof the football they play is a lot of short passing before the line, which can be difficult to do in these conditions.”
Nathan Hindmarsh believes the Bulldogs needed to go through the Tigers and not around them in horrendous conditions.
“A lot of long passing as well, which I think gives the defensive side time to slide and get up,” Hindmarsh said.
“They didn’t want to try and take on the middle for the Tigers. They were trying to force it wide the whole time and the Tigers had it covered the whole game and that just made them more frustrated.
“The Bulldogs gave away penalties and they didn’t handle it well.”
“I don’t think it rattled him!” | 04:06
FLANAGAN WEIGHS IN ON RAIDERS’ TITLE CHANCES
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan believes the Raiders will still be a force in this year’s premiership race, despite a shock 18-12 loss to St George Illawarra on Saturday night in Wollongong.
Canberra’s defeat brought their nine-game winning streak to an end, but Flanagan doesn’t believe the loss will mean much as far as the Raiders are concerned.
“They’ve done outstanding this year. Tonight, we did a few things better than them,” Flanagan said.
“But they’re going to be there at the end of the year.
“I know Sticky’s a good coach. He’ll have them ready.
“This loss for them, I’m not speaking for Sticky or Canberra, it’s just a pimple on their backside really when the big picture comes around.
“They’ve just got to get to the end of the year, be in that top four, Sticky’s been there before, and he’ll get them ready.”
Flanagan wouldn’t go as far as to say the Raiders can win the premiership though.
“Whether they can win it or not, I don’t know,” he said.
Dragons put end to Raiders winning run | 00:47
WERE THE TITANS ROBBED?
The Titans can rightfully feel robbed in their loss against the Panthers.
While two moments of Nathan Cleary brilliance brought the reigning premiers back to level, and the won the game in golden point, it was another instance that overshadowed his performance.
The actions of Penrith’s trainer disrupted Jayden Campbell’s conversion attempt, which would have put the Gold Coast out of reach of a two-point field goal.
Michael Ennis delivered a damning prophecy after Campbell missed the goal, which came back to haunt the Titans.
“It brings a Nathan Cleary two-point field goal right into play,” he said.
There’s an argument that if Campbell had actually attempted his kick with the trainer in front of him, and missed, he’d have been given a second opportunity.
However, that isn’t fair to place the onus on the kicker in this situation.
Penrith’s yellow shirt will likely earn himself a fine and a breach notice for his actions and the club themselves will also likely be hit with a monetary penalty.
It’s not the first time a Panthers trainer has been sanctioned by the NRL this season, with Shane Elford earning a one game ban and a $10,000 fine.
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary also issued an apology post-match, revealing the incident was purely an accident.
“I didn’t see it, but (we were) just chatting about it in there. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Cleary said.
“We had a sub that we were going to do and I changed it at the last minute, that’s what he was doing, he was trying to communicate with the bench.
“Because it was a late change, there’s a lot of stuff going on to make sure we didn’t make that change we were going to. That was why there was a bit of confusion.
“In the end it was just an honest mistake, he apologised straight away. Anyone around him would have seen that, the Titans would know that.
“I am happy to say we apologise for it, because it’s not something that anyone set out to do. It was just an honest mistake.”
Regardless, the Titans have a right to feel like they were hard done by after missing out on two competition points.
Trainer drama overshadows Cleary magic | 00:54
SEIBOLD’S BIG FULLBACK CALL
The Sea Eagles’ finals hopes are hanging by a thread.
So is it time for Tom Trbojevic to return to the No.1 jersey?
Manly suffered a loss to the Roosters in Round 22 that saw the Tricolours join them on the fringes of the eight.
A win would have handed Anthony Seibold’s side a huge boost, and in attempting to secure two competition points the embattled coach showed his hand.
Lehi Hopoate left the field for a HIA early in the clash and Trbojevic filled his place for that period, but also reverted to fullback in the dying stages.
Seibold was questioned why he made that decision post-match.
“We went down 20 points to four with 20 minutes to go, we were chasing three tries,” he said.
“We had to try something.”
The Sea Eagles coach was then pressed on whether he was considering shifting Trbojevic back to his natural position full time.
“I‘ll have a think about it, it’s 10 minutes after the game,” Seibold said.
“We just needed to try something, what we were doing, we weren’t getting any field position and we just tried to get Turbo on the footy and start moving the footy.
“It’s hard moving it in that sort of weather, so we were three tries behind so we were trying to chase.”
After returning from a hamstring injury in the centres, rugby league legend Cooper Cronk delivered a damning claim.
“If Manly want a genuine chance of winning a trophy at some stage, Turbo has got to be the fullback,” Cronk said at the time.
“If they want to take down the big teams, he has to be at fullback.”
Now with Manly’s finals hopes dwindling, Cronk looks to be proven right, with a shift back to fullback for Trbojevic seen as a last resort in their bid to feature in the post-season.
