Souths must stop paying for reputation and start building to win
Grand final acts have held the game to ransom
Scrapping grand final entertainment could be the circuit-breaker rugby league needs. Tones and I rejected the NRL because she was performing with Macklemore that weekend, while the NRL claimed she would not perform the song it wanted. Somebody is spinning rubbish.
I think V’Landys made his declaration that the NRL does not need entertainment in passing, but he said it, and now the game has a chance to rebalance the whole arrangement. Acts have demanded more and more while receiving enormous exposure from rugby league. The cost is well into six figures, yet NFL performers generally appear for free and cover their own expenses because the worldwide audience is the prize.
Entertainment still has a purpose. It attracts younger people and casual fans. Teddy Swims was brilliant last year. But if Shannon Noll will perform for free, put him on and let him sing. Stop allowing an arms race with the AFL to inflate the bill.
The bigger insult is scheduling. A final beginning near 10pm and running towards midnight is disgraceful. Broadcasters pay $5 billion and need advertisements, but the NRL should have demanded earlier starts and fewer ads, even if that meant accepting less money. Otherwise all this talk about growing the game is hollow.
Christchurch makes sense. Papua New Guinea does not
Christchurch is a serious option for the 20th team because the NRL appears to be thinking geographically, and a South Island presence would open another rich development market. I have not examined the bids, but the logic is obvious.
The claim that another New Zealand club would wipe out rugby union is overstated. Rugby would still run junior clubs and pathways, and rugby league would continue picking off the best talent after somebody else paid to develop it. That is already an extraordinary advantage.
Toowoomba also makes more geographical sense than Ipswich, with cattle and mining money capable of sustaining the venture. Papua New Guinea remains the crazy option. Expansion must strengthen the competition, not become an expensive political adventure dressed up as strategy.
Premiership windows punish clubs that stand still
The Roosters’ window is open, but it can slam shut quickly because Daly Cherry-Evans, Angus Crichton and another key player are guaranteed to leave, while Sam Walker is testing his market value. The Roosters retain and recruit better than almost anybody, yet they may still slide before climbing again.
Penrith built the model. They kept their window open by replacing departing players with emerging ones, which is why losing Brian To’o is not automatically fatal. He has been a very good winger, but I do not think he has been vital. Penrith let Jarome Luai leave because another player could fill the role. Ruthless clubs separate sentiment from roster value.
Cronulla have done the opposite. They reached preliminary finals and made the finals again, but brought no top-level fresh blood into the NRL side. They desperately need an X-factor player capable of breaking a game open. Their results look respectable; their ceiling does not. They are further from a premiership than they want to admit.
Newcastle must also beware the hangover. They have had a great year regardless of what happens next, but the Raiders showed how quickly a breakthrough season can become a trap. Newcastle’s young players will help, provided confidence and weekly hunger survive the summer.
Luai cannot fix Parramatta’s biggest problem
Parramatta’s recruits will help, but I cannot see enough improvement because Jarome Luai is not the organiser they need. He left Penrith wanting to become the leading man, yet the Tigers discovered he could not steer a side around the park like Nathan Cleary, Sam Walker or Daly Cherry-Evans. He is a running five-eighth. A dangerous individual. A support act, not the conductor.
There will be afternoons next year when Luai looks magnificent, particularly if Mitchell Moses is inside him, while Spencer Leniu will add aggression. The problem is that Leniu does not play huge minutes and Parramatta remain hopeless without Moses controlling the side.
North Queensland’s Scott Drinkwater dilemma is different. Moving him would not mean the Cowboys reject him as a player; it would be a salary-cap decision designed to retain their juniors. That is painful but defensible. The Titans show what happens when clubs refuse to hold the line: AJ Brimson is reportedly on $900,000, cannot command his preferred position and has been permitted to look elsewhere, yet serious interest has not arrived because the money is too heavy.
Bennett is preparing to cut Souths clean
South Sydney are not winning the premiership next year, and Wayne Bennett knows the rebuild cannot begin while the club pays yesterday’s stars tomorrow’s money. Cody Walker has been offered $300,000 and Latrell Mitchell $800,000 for 2028. Those are valuations, not insults.
Bennett will publicly protect both because he must coach them next season, when they remain contracted. That does not guarantee their future. Bennett moved Wally Lewis, Gorden Tallis and Allan Langer when he believed the club needed something different. He puts winning first and has clear salary ceilings for every position.
Latrell is not a fullback anymore, and a centre cannot consume fullback money when the ball might reach him once in a set. At his best he is devastating, but he has not produced it often enough in the biggest games. No leading club has publicly charged towards him since the November 1 market talk began.
Bennett will be coaching Souths in 2028 even though he is not presently signed for that season. Cody certainly will not be there, and I reckon Latrell is less than an even chance. Bennett’s job is to keep them happy and productive next year while quietly building the side that replaces them. That is not betrayal. That is coaching.
The Warriors lost their heads when the pressure arrived
The Warriors’ collapse was not bad luck. Their halves lost control, their fifth-tackle options became terrible and the side played like it had lost its head. Two consecutive defeats before packed home crowds ended the season, and I reckon that exit can scar them next year.
Mitchell Barnett tried to fill the vacuum with short-side plays and creative efforts because the halves were not getting the job done. I will not bury him for that. His mistakes were positive mistakes, made while trying to rescue a system that had stopped functioning.
The officiating still failed. James Fisher-Harris turned into a crusher tackle, dropped the ball and only then grabbed his neck, effectively inviting the bunker into the play. It should never have produced a penalty. Newcastle also received bad calls, including decisions they had to overturn through the captain’s challenge, so the errors cut both ways.
That is the problem. A flowing finals game is worthless if the referee misses rules and the bunker rewards theatre. Moving that referee into the bunker the next week does not fix anything. It merely relocates the confusion.
The Dolphins can crack the Roosters
The Dolphins will beat the Roosters because they have energy, danger and the enormous benefit of last weekend off. They were leading 26-6 when the sides last met before Little Sammy was injured, and they were doing it against a full-strength Roosters side. The Roosters’ defence has improved considerably, but this game is supercharged and the Dolphins are in the right mood.
Penrith should end Newcastle’s run. The Knights’ only route is to explode early, ride the emotion and defend as desperately as they did during the Warriors’ late charge. Sandon Smith’s late effort and Phoenix Crossland’s 55 tackles captured their refusal to fold. Courage gives Newcastle hope. It does not erase Penrith’s class.
