Damien

We are talking about SL, not the NRL. I think we all agree that the NRL is a radically different competition. I don't think the debate is the same in the slightest. Whether Penrith was the best team in the competition in 2025 is entirely subjective and your opinion. I'd disagree, I don't think they were a patch on the standards they had set, hence losing 10 games. They also lost 3 out of the last 4 so hardly hit the play offs in form. Didn't Brisbane win it from 4th? Didn't Canberra finish top and lose against Brisbane the first week and then lost against Cronulla the week after to crash out of the play offs? That hardly suggests finishing top helped them too much and is counter to what you are trying to argue.

This thread aside that is pretty startling now you mention it considering how poor Saints have been. That perhaps says more about how bad everyone else has been!

Yeah its pretty much this isnt it. There is little advantage in where you finish, naturally the better teams are going to finish higher so that makes stats around who won from where pretty meaningless. I would say that the teams that finished 1st or 2nd could have quite easily won it from 5th or 6th too in the same season.

Pretty much this. Farrimond is way off like you say. Yeah Eckersley has come on leaps and bounds and has developed into a proper winger, rather than just looking like a centre filling in on the wing. He has that size that a modern winger needs and his carries have been priceless this season.

Lets not get carried away, hes had two good games. He was pretty abysmal in the rest.

It took a pretty unique set of circumstances that were of their time and ducks aligning in a row for Origin to take off and become the monolith it has. Heck if SOO didnt exist and the NRL tried to do it from scratch now in 2026 it wouldnt be the same. We would end up with something more akin to the All Star game we see now in terms of stature.

I dont think that will be the case though.

I flagged this up a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't seem right to me.

Almost every VR decision this season has been painful. Slow, repeated views for the most obvious things, terrible camera footage and pretty awful commentary from the VR. It does the game no favours at all.

Its what all teams do and is certainly tactical. Its one of the reasons I hate 6 again.

Its not uncommon for Wigan to have a dip but its weird the way we were flying before that and since. I know there were injuries but that doesnt explain the change in speed and intensity from the same players.

He looked old in that half.

Fair enough then, missed that if he did.