Rugby League 2023

skully wrote:Apparently* Ex-Cronulla Premiership winning coach Shane Flanagan has been signed by the Dragons on a 3-year deal.

At this stage I would say it is a good outcome, something I railed against when Griffin was signed. Time will tell.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/breaking-flanagans-nrl-exile-over-as-dragons-finally-settle-on-new-head-coach/news-story/93e19f040b887ae8c9d771485f9f56a5

official. at least SGI can't get any worse, right?

Hope so, Nath.

Appointing James The Hird as assistant?

Fair criticism, h. But NRL forgave him some time ago.

Thankless start to Shane Flanagan's tenure at the Dragons. Ben Hunt wants out immediately!!

Good win by the Pennies tonight v Storm - 34-16.

Storm started fast and jumped out to 14-0 but Penrith hit back to lead 16-14 at Oranges.

And they looked very good in the 2nd half with the Squall falling away.

And the Drags are pus. Got smashed by the Sharks last night. Not letting Hunt go is gonna end in tears all round.

North Queensland Cowboys 74
Wests Tigers 0

Club record & one of the biggest margins in history.

WideWally wrote:North Queensland Cowboys 74
Wests Tigers 0

Club record & one of the biggest margins in history.

Surprise but very good win by the Eels v Panthers last night, 32-18.

Slimeys chucked the ball about with abandon, resulting in 4 tries to big winger Sivo.

Panther 5/8 Jerome Luai dislocated his shoulder attempting to score a try, in a real worry for the Premiers with just 2 games to go before the Finals.

St George ...fastest disallowed try ever 

also St George ...tried to pick the ball up instead of grounding it and then letting the Warrior score a try

Bunnies bow out of the race in 2023, courtesy of a last round loss to the R00ters.

R00ters need one of Raiders or Cows to lose to seal a top 8 spot.

Penrith ahead 38-12 over Cows with 10 mins to go, locking up the Minor Premiership.

Warriors were earlier flogged by the Dolphins 34-10 to gift 3rd spot to the Storm. Not a great hit-out leading into the Finals.

So the top 4 playoffs next week will be Penrith v Warriors, and Broncos v Storm.

5-8 order still to be determined.

so Penrith and who for the GF?

1st Qual Final - Fri 8th Sep 7:30pm
Broncos vs Storm

2nd Qual Final - Sat 9th Sep 4pm
Panthers vs Warriors

1st Elim Final - Sat 9th Sep 7:50pm
Sharks vs Roosters

2nd Elim Final - Sun 10th Sep 4:05pm
Knights vs Raiders

Nath wrote:so Penrith and who for the GF?

Storm, I'd reckon.

skully wrote:

Nath wrote:so Penrith and who for the GF?

Storm, I'd reckon.

After tonight's effort, I retract that.

Nags absolutely dominated the Storm, who haven't put in as bad a performance as that in a long time.

Melbourne would be favourites to go out in straight sets next week after that.

After returning only recently from a shattered kneecap, Ryan Papenhuyzen suffered a compound fracture of his ankle in last night's Storm loss to the Broncos.

Unfortunate for the young man.

Penrith dominant v Warriors this arvo.

Exciting game between Cronulla and the R00ters tonight.

The turning point appeared to be at 6-all with the R00ters attacking at the 50 min mark in the 2nd Half. Cronulla intercepted, Teddy transgressed (off side, not marking properly, yada, yada) after the saving tackle, to be sin-binned. The Sharks added 6 while he was off.

But they regrouped, squared up with a converted try, then Sam Walker dropped a field goal with 7 mins to go. The Sharks twice tried to reply with a FG but were charged down.

Exciting game. Easts now play the Storm in Melbourne for a shot at Penrith in one Prelim Final.

The other Prelim Final will be between the Nags and the winner of tomorrow's Nits v Raiders.

Coal miners get up courtesy of a Jack Wighton high shot on Ponga in Extra Time.

28-all at Full Time. Nits go thru to play Melborne for a shot at Penrith.

Jack " Bitin' " Wighton

so are we expecting the losers of the qualifying finals (Storm/Warriors) to rebound in week 2?

I think both will be much more competitive.

Knights will have to stiffen their defence v Melbourne.

Nath wrote:so are we expecting the losers of the qualifying finals (Storm/Warriors) to rebound in week 2?

Their opposition as missing a few players.

Exciting but very error-prone game tonight between Storm and R00ters.

R00ters made far too many errors to win but almost did. Leading by a point thanks to a Sam Walker Field Goal, they just had 2 mins to survive, with "The Grub" Munster twice stuffing FG chances, when Mr Dogshit came good, dropping a pin-point bomb in the right corner for the opposing wingers to contest.

Find of the season, Will Warbrick, won the AFL marking contest and slammed the winning try down for the Storm.

Oh, and Ashley Kline missed a stone-cold knock-on by Harry Grant at 6-0. Shortly after, Melbourne scored to go 10-0 up.

It's hard to see Melbourne troubling the Panthers on the Storm's form of the past 2 weeks, but in a knockout match anything's possible.