NRL NRL 2025 - Round 8

[balmainforever]

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/pickem/picks/2025-official-bigfooty-nrl-tipping.183/?week_id=431

Thursday 24th April
Brisbane vs Canterbury-Bankstown (Suncorp Stadium - 19:50)

Friday 25th April
Sydney Roosters vs St.George-Illawarra (Allianz Stadium - 16:00)
New Zealand vs Newcastle (Go Media Stadium - 16:05)
Melbourne vs South Sydney (AAMI Park - 20:10)

Saturday 26th April
North Queensland vs Gold Coast (Queensland Country Bank Stadium - 17:30)
Penrith vs Manly-Warringah (CommBank Stadium - 19:35)

Sunday 27th April
Canberra vs Dolphins (GIO Stadium - 14:00)
Wests Tigers vs Cronulla-Sutherland (Leichhardt Oval - 16:05)


Bye: Parramatta

 

[PhatBoy]

I was singing at the pub an had a screen in the distance to watch the Panthers game and got to ‘see’ the first half.

Every time I looked up it seemed they were turning the ball over and give up possession or getting penalised. I had no idea of the actual ‘detail’ of the game, so wasn’t sure what was going on as it was hard to see. I assumed before this match that against an out of form manly side, and on the back of last week’s mini resurgence they would be back to something approaching ‘form.’

I listened to the second half on the way home and they had that ten minute burst where they looked like they would maybe run over the top of the Eagles.

And then it just sounded like one disaster after another. I lost count of the errors - and this was with manly actually coughing up a fair few penalties to give them opportunities. Sommerton sounded like every pass he gave was at head height or around players’ knees; I was a 120kg prop and even I knew how to throw a dummy half pass. Shoddy offloads, Moses Leota sounds like he was playing with feet for hands.

It’s like after playing with what was just the most basic, straight forward plan for so long, this side has just been brainwashed into forgetting what made them great. Personnel changes but basics don’t. And I can’t wrap my head around why they’re forgetting that. It’s not like Ivan doesn’t know this stuff because he clearly addresses it every time he talks.

I seriously think they are missing not just JFH himself individually, but just the presence of an ‘Alpha’ in general. Because they don’t have one. They don’t have anyone scary or a leader that’s going to just say ‘give me the f**king ball and I will tuck it under my arm, not make a mistake, take two hit ups in a set, and make 30 metres to get us out of this mess and scare some of the opposition in the process.’

Yeo is a phenomenal player and Cleary is an all time great. But they aren’t THAT sort of player. They aren’t a Fisher-Harris or a Waerea-Hargreaves that give players around them an extra gear.

Gee they’re missing him.

 

[moto748]

Tries from forward passes this week! Really bad one for the Titans, but far from the only one for me this round. Surely it has to stop soon?

 

[balmainforever]

The intimidation factor is gone. They could bank ever home game at Penrith as a win.
No one is scared of CommBank

 

[sosos]

Delighted Sea Eagles fan, and they played very well, but I am not writing off Penrith.

Referee was brutal on play the ball and offside infringements, and the bunker equally brutal on high contact incidents and subsequent sin bins.

It went both ways though, and maybe Manly with the longer break between games handled the stop/start nature of the game better.

Great to see Tommy Trbjoevic back though. Not many line breaks but some nice hands to set up the first try.

Admittedly 13 on 12, but the set play to put Koula through was exquisite.

 

[moto748]

Delighted Sea Eagles fan, and they played very well, but I am not writing off Penrith.

Referee was brutal on play the ball and offside infringements, and the bunker equally brutal on high contact incidents and subsequent sin bins.

It went both ways though, and maybe Manly with the longer break between games handled the stop/start nature of the game better.

Great to see Tommy Trbjoevic back though. Not many line breaks but some nice hands to set up the first try.

Admittedly 13 on 12, but the set play to put Koula through was exquisite.

Just watched the game, and couldn't agree more with all of that.

 

[moto748]

The intimidation factor is gone. They could bank ever home game at Penrith as a win.
No one is scared of CommBank

Do you really think that has much to do with it? I'm struggling to see that. And I'm no Manly fan, but it would be churlish to deny that they played very well.

 

[balmainforever]

I love Leichhardt

 

[nobbyiscool]

I love the Raiders this year.

Despite being 6-2, you spend your whole week convinced that we're not very good. Then they'll spend 20-40 minutes reinforcing that they're not very good. Then they'll pull out a sequence where they play some of the best rugby league you've ever seen.

It's a fun way to watch sport, seeing your team win a lot despite being convinced they aren't very good.

 

[Big Unit 30]

View attachment 2296996

I love Leichhardt

A thing of beauty

 

[PhatBoy]

That’s an amazing try by the sharks and a heartbreaker for the tigers who’d played basically a perfect half of footy

 

[eddiesmith]

I’m glad to see if a player lays down to milk a penalty then they get sent off for a HIA.

 

[Big Unit 30]

snatching victory from almost certain defeat.
Still can’t believe we won that.
Leichhardt will be rocking

 

[balmainforever]

Thank you Daniel Atkinson.
You decide to go for glory instead of passing to the unmarked winger outside you.

 

[Big Unit 30]

Thank you Daniel Atkinson.
You decide to go for glory instead of passing to the unmarked winger outside you.

Terrel May was huge for us also

 

[nobbyiscool]

The players of the 80s are the ones now seeing their former team mates and opponents suffer the longterm effects of head trauma. It is absolutely bonkers to me that some of these guys are leading the charge in the media against the high shot crackdown.

I think we all get that it's a bit frustrating, but we also have to understand the reason behind it, and to recognise that just like crackdowns on chicken wings and crusher tackles, it's short term pain for long term gain.

Drives me crazy in 2025 seeing supposed respected veterans argue against safety measures when there's a perfectly good solution available to players, they can change how they tackle and stop doing it.

 

[PhatBoy]

The players of the 80s are the ones now seeing their former team mates and opponents suffer the longterm effects of head trauma. It is absolutely bonkers to me that some of these guys are leading the charge in the media against the high shot crackdown.

I think we all get that it's a bit frustrating, but we also have to understand the reason behind it, and to recognise that just like crackdowns on chicken wings and crusher tackles, it's short term pain for long term gain.

Drives me crazy in 2025 seeing supposed respected veterans argue against safety measures when there's a perfectly good solution available to players, they can change how they tackle and stop doing it.

The thing is mate, the ‘crackdown’ isn’t going to stop these knocks from happening.

These are accidents half the time, and they’re not related to bad technique or anything like that.

Even Latrell Mitchell’s tackle: now I’ll criticise Mitchell for nearly anything he does on the field and he’s demonstrated in the past - think of the Joey Manu shot which was just blatant deliberate thuggery - that he has shit in his game.

But his tackle the other night: he stood relatively stationary (he was coming forward but not at any velocity and then planted his feet), he got as low as he physically could for a guy of his size, he led exactly how you should to tackle a guy running straight at you in order to wrap the ball up, and his contact would have been not just AT chest height but maybe even below it if his opponent hadn’t leant back and then slipped. On top of ALL of that, the initial contact was with his opponent’s shoulder and it then went up into the head as momentum carried through the tackle. You can’t do a thing about that if you’re Mitchell apart from letting the guy try and step you and somehow hope you legs him.

You can’t legislate accidents out of the game, it is that simple. And it is ruining the sport and I will defend rugby league until the day I die as I loved playing it and I’ve loved watching it for 36 years.

I was unfit and I was not very skilful and I am very suspicious that some of my epilepsy issues are related to the way I played the game: I was pretty haphazard and played when you could shoulder charge and while I was not a dirty player by any means I loved the physicality of it. I understand why they took the shoulder charge out of the game. It was too hard for players to control it. I get that.

But guys are getting marched now for tackles that have no technical flaw, no malice, no intent to maim, not even a swinging arm, they are simply a result of a ball runner falling awkwardly or in some cases a tackler’s own teammate influencing how the tackle pans out.

And it is creeping into other areas: players are getting penalised for crusher tackles now when their opponent runs the ball, and turns around in the tackle on the way to it being completed while they’re being put to ground. What control does the defender have?

Save the sin bin for instances where it’s deserved because at the moment spectators deserve better than to have 10-20-30 minutes of football every week where one side is clearly disadvantaged disproportionately for something they often have quite a limited amount of control over, and the punishment is not going to lower the amount of incidents one iota.

 

[Jatz]

Knights that bad you’ve made the bears your avatar ?

I mean, yes

When we first moved to Sydney, I was 6 years old and my family had no idea about rugby league. Anyway, Maccas used to have a happy meal with all the teams on a football and my very first RL love was the North Sydney Bears. Then when they left, I decided I needed a new team. I chose poorly haha. At 9 years of age, I decided to pick one of the 2 2001 grand finalists.

Still to this day, I don't know if I'd have been any happier as a Parra supporter

 

[Jatz]

Had the misfortune of catching our game while I was hosting dinner on Friday night.

Utterly putrid. Ponga is a joke. 1.4m and he's getting around not giving a shit.

Whole club needs to be started again from scratch.

 

[PhatBoy]

Had the misfortune of catching our game while I was hosting dinner on Friday night.

Utterly putrid. Ponga is a joke. 1.4m and he's getting around not giving a shit.

Whole club needs to be started again from scratch.

It’s your team not mine so I feel kind of out of place telling you what to make of them but Ponga is being expected to be half, five-eighth and fullback, and to do that off the back of a forward pack that offers no level of centre-third dominance. He has carried them for a few seasons and been belted around by opponents knowing that if they shut down Ponga they basically shut down the Knights.

Nothing is working for them and yes it includes him but he’s getting no help, really

 

[Jatz]

It’s your team not mine so I feel kind of out of place telling you what to make of them but Ponga is being expected to be half, five-eighth and fullback, and to do that off the back of a forward pack that offers no level of centre-third dominance. He has carried them for a few seasons and been belted around by opponents knowing that if they shut down Ponga they basically shut down the Knights.

Nothing is working for them and yes it includes him but he’s getting no help, really

You're not wrong - however if you're going to consume that much of the cap, you should be expected to at least care. He's being paid enough to play a few of those roles.

I'm absolutely at a loss with them. I genuinely believe O'Brien is a good coach, I just think this list is woeful. Has been for years. Getting them to finals has been an overachievement and this is more the level this list is at.

 

[PhatBoy]

It really shouldn’t be that hard to just say something like ‘look, we are trying to take a really proactive stance with player protection which has meant an increase in sin bins compared to say, 10 years ago and we hope people understand that but we won’t always get it right and on the weekend we certainly concede that things got a bit out of hand and there was an overreaction from some of the match officials and we need to be making sure we don’t go looking for things to punish.’