NRL Round 16 looked pretty straightforward on paper but turned into carnage for teams with finals dreams as the bottom clubs ran amok – let’s work through it in your talking points.

That were diabolical

I went in pretty hard at New Zealand last week – but maybe it wasn’t hard enough. The Warriors were horrific against the lowly Gold Coast Titans.

Just as we thought they were getting back on track to their 2023 output, a 66-6 pounding comes along and ends their top-four dreams, possibly even their finals chances, too. This was a huge opportunity for the Warriors to get right onto the fringes of the top eight and they choked on it. Many of us were waiting for Andrew Webster’s men to get themselves together, but maybe this is just what they are in 2024.

Well played to the Titans, who bounced back from a shocker last week to surprise us all with this belting. There’s plenty to take from it for the team, and although finals won’t be featuring for the Gold Coast, Des Hasler will have better ideas about what can work better going forward.

One team has an excuse

Only one team gets a small pass, and it’s Manly who pretty much had one hand tied behind their back for their 14-0 loss to the Rabbitohs. The Sea Eagles had 12 regulars unavailable through injury and also were without Jake Trbojevic, Haumole Olakau’atu and Daly Cherry-Evans who are in Melbourne for State of Origin. That’s tough sledding, I don’t care who you are.

The Bunnies, on the other hand, did what they needed to do and find themselves sneaking upwards after four straight wins. They’ve got winnable games ahead, but it’s still hard to pick Souths’ form because they were so poor early on and are now cashing in during the Origin period. I think they’ll end up around the finals mix but a brutal for and against of -112 is going to cost them.

The Tigers show how bright their future is

Manly’s plight with so many players missing did actually serve to highlight just how incredible the Wests Tigers were in a 48-24 rout of a dishevelled, uninspired Canberra.

For all the unfair heat coming his way, Tigers coach Benji Marshall has been juggling a team that has just been decimated by injury and untimely suspension throughout the year. Wests had 14 of their best squad unavailable on Sunday, were playing four teenagers and rolled out half a game day 17 who’d barely played NRL first grade football.

Lachlan Galvin was incredible, and Api Koroisau is a genuine ‘Raiders killer’ who does as he pleases every time he plays the Green Machine. But special mention for five-eighth-turned-centre Adam Douehi, playing his first game in a year and a half after rehabbing a third knee reconstruction. Tigers fans were dancing in the aisles at Campbelltown when Douehi took a late intercept 70 metres to pile another cherry on the cake.

As for the Raiders, I’m constantly baffled by how a team coached by one of the game’s best-ever on-field minds plays so stupidly. So many Canberra efforts showed zero game awareness or clear-headed decision making.

Is it time to dive fully into playing the kids? They probably won’t, with halfback Jamal Fogarty and forward Zac Hosking due to return from injury, but there’s plenty of hard decisions to make in the capital.

Do they want to straggle around the bottom of the eight, or do they want to get games into their future stars? Can they do both? Canberra has huge potential for the next couple of years – what would you do?

More ‘regular’ games happened, too

Canterbury saw the rain tumbling down and decided they’d go after the Roosters like it was a dry track in blazing Gosford sunshine… and the rest went the way you’d expect. The Roosters took the 26-8 win without too much drama and they continue on their way to the top four. They’re doing well without looking too ominous at the minute.

Cameron Ciraldo raised some eyebrows by switching regular five-eighth Matt Burton to the centres to cover Bronson Xerri, but he tells it that Burton asked for the change himself. To quote the Bulldogs coach post-match: “Really happy he put the team first with that decision but it was forced as well.”

The best game of the round was Melbourne and the Dolphins, a seesawing, back and forth outing where both teams looked like they might win it before the Storm took it 30-24.

Melbourne’s 18 unanswered points either side of the half-time break were the difference, but the Dolphins are a genuinely good team who fight to the end. A few other clubs might do well to adopt that kind of mentality for themselves.

Good games this week

State of Origin game two for the men is the dominant force this week, Wednesday night in Melbourne. Can New South Wales keep things alive? Probably not but we hope for the best, and why shouldn’t we?

Thursday night is in Townsville for the women’s Origin decider and that should be a belter. Don’t miss it – this one will set even more ratings records.

NRL Round 17 features seven games as Gold Coast, Manly and South Sydney take the bye week.

We start on Friday with what should be a barn burner as Cronulla and Canterbury go at it, ideally their best players come through Origin ok and we get two sides at full tilt.

Three games on Saturday starting with New Zealand hosting Brisbane, a genuine must-win for both. Newcastle and Parramatta play the twilight game which can generously be branded as ‘members only’ and Saturday night might be even more of a bludger as the shocking Raiders head to Melbourne to play the ruthless Storm.

Sunday also has three games in a good old rugby league smorgasboard, although the matchups might not set our hair on fire. St George Illawarra return from the bye to host the Dolphins, needing a win to get closer to finals spots.

Penrith welcomes the Cowboys to the Penrith Stadium abattoir in the late afternoon and Sunday night is Roosters and Tigers, which you’d think would be straightforward for the Chooks but these young Tigers are giving everything a crack.

Round 16’s random thoughts

– It’s a joke Roosters centre Junior Pauga gets away with just a four-week suspension for his horrible high shot on Canterbury’s Connor Tracey. The charge of a Grade 2 Reckless High Tackle was manifestly inadequate.
– Been good to see Andrew Johns more vocal about high shots and their weak punishments in the media lately. It’ll be a test to see if he keeps it up if it happens during State of Origin this week.
– A rough weekend for Parramatta, who had a restful bye but dropped two spots to the bottom of the table as the carnage played out!
– South Sydney hooker Damien Cook signed with the Dragons for two seasons during the week, he’ll likely pair up with Jacob Liddle who has been going ok this year.
– Shocking but not surprising news this week about a 19-year-old dickhead who sent threatening messages to referee Adam Gee on Saturday. Happily, the moron was arrested. We need to change the ref-hating culture around our game, we truly do.
– Two teams won this weekend while they were on the bottom of the table, the Titans first, then the Tigers.
– Don’t miss Origin two and the Women’s decider this week and remember to keep your eye on The Roar’s League tab for the best coverage and opinion.

What caught your eye this weekend, Roarers?