The NRL 2024 Round 1 Thread - Part 1

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Las Vegas

South Sydney v Manly Sea Eagles

Now or never for South's Premiership hopes against a Manly side that of the four Vegas teams oped not to play their first grade players in Round 1. Will that prove to be a wise choice?

Brisbane Broncos v Sydney Roosters

Brisbane's first grade looked slick against the Cows and with pressure coming from the Baby Broncos they need to perform. The Roosters reserve grade also looked slick against Souffs but the first grade looked Ccunky against Manly's reserrves in steamy Gosford. Slow start again for the Roosters ?.

Back in Australia (several days later)

Newcastle Knights v Canberaa Raiders

Ricky's Raiders come to joust with Adam O'Brien's Knights. a clash of two sides who looked better in their first trial game than there second. Will a packed and expectant Marathon Stadium put more pressure on the home side than the away team?

New Zealand Warriors v Cronulla Sharks

The Wahs are on a high and at home, and looked good in the trial matches. Sharkies looked anything but good in their first trial and lacking a cutting edge in their second. a game centering on the clash between the Wahs attack and the Sharks defence. Who will have more bite?.

Melbourne Storm v Penrith Panthers

Game of the round, The Storm looking more like.. the Storm in the second trial game and with Cameron Munster to be added. Penrith lost their only pre-season game. It's always difficult to repeat, let alone three-peat and a four-peat would be uncharted waters. So will the Penny Panthers find their claws or be brown away by the Storm?

Paramatta Eels v Canterbury Bulldogs

By no means a forgone conclusion, even a poor doggies side has made the Eels work for the points in this derby. the current Canterbury crop I reckon will be better, Injuries permitting, in the second half of the season. and with the Eels facing a less challenging schedule than last years killer opening run of games. The time for excuses for a talented Parra team is running out.

Gold Coast Titans v St George-Illawarra Dragons

Expectations high on the Gold Coast for another side whose reserve grade looked better in their first trial game than the first grade did in the second. By contrast, SGI have looked much more like it in defeat against souffs and then crushing the Tigers. Titans to be cut down to size?

Dolphins v Cowboys

I still do not know what to make of the Dolphins, struggling against the Gold Coast's reserve grade and flattered by the score against the Wahs in the second up against a Cows team that by contrast won more convincingly in the Capital. Cows ring the bell here?

[THE RED ROOSTER]

The NRL never fails to deliver with two upset wins in Vegas.

The first game was a match Souths lost as much as the Silvertails won it. The Wabbits had a lot of posession, but failed to turn it into points then went through a phase in late in the first half with the Saab interception try and thrice in succession in the second half where once they had established a two score lead of three successive turnovers giving good field position  capitalised on by Manly. That combined with Latrell missing three conversions as opposed to Reuben Garrick's "dead eye dick" performance, made the scoreline an emphatic win for the Sea Eagles.

Now I am not getting out the golden crank here when I say that Souffs aging side have a closing window on which to secure a premiership. On commentary it was noted that Souths kick chase was noticably slower than Manly's and the aging legs were wilting towards the end of the game. The plus points for South's was the performance of Damien Cook and Latrell looking fitter than he has done for a couple of seasons. Nevertheless,South's reserve grade was unimpressive when being tonked by the Roosters and if the departed Sam Burgess finally unlocks the potential of Warrington Wolves, I can see Jason Demitriou coming under pressure to keep his job.

On to the Roosters, and boy was it a vintage performancer from Teddy, Victor and Joey Manu among others, and it needed to be against a side of the qualify of the Bronx. A superb game for the neutral spectator. Though the Broncos missed Farnworth and in particular Thomas Flegler. They do have some quality reserves coming through in reserve grade and they will be there or thereabouts coming the end of the season.

The three standout clubs in the NRL are Penrith, Melbourne and Roosters on reputation, Brisbane are now the fourth with a lock on Queensland talent and  I am reliably informed that the best source of juniors these days is New Zealand and Queensland. So the future's bright for the Bronx.

Roosters showed discipline in this game that was sorely lacking last year and dare I say it benefited from JWH not playing (though coming to Super League). The point was also made on commentary about Sam Walker that though there are those who consider him too lightweight they ignore the career of Alf Langer who was of similar build.

There is however one cloud on the Roosters silver lining and that is with Teedy heading for the end of his career his two most obvious replacements in Manu and Sua'ali are both going to Rugby Union. Now in the northern hemisphere, I can understand why players would go to a sport with a higher profile and more money, but this does not apply in the southern hemisphere, so their decisions are to say the least disappointing in that if they want a big money offer there is always Super League.

40,746 in attebndance at Allegant Stadium, so NRL in vegas undoubtably a success, and an event that is now a lock until 2028.

[Irish Saint]

Haven't watched the game yet. Watched the Broncos after game press conference. Ezra Mam reported he was the victim of a racial slur. A quick search showed that Spencer Leniu is on report for the alleged slur. 

Edited March 3 by Irish Saint

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Irish Saint said:

Haven't watched the game yet. Watched the Broncos after game press conference. Ezra Mam reported he was the victim of a racial slur. A quick search showed that Spencer Leniu is on report for the alleged slur. 

Unfortunately yes. It marred a superb spectacle.

[DavidM]

Two very enjoyable games . You’d never have thought it was round 1 . Brooks looks a good fit out of the  headlights now at Manly , and Tedesco looked fantastic after a bit of a lull last year