NRL 2025

funny game. At one point i thought Melbourne would score 50, but like a couple of teams last week, the "win big week 1, easy start the next game" trap opened up and Melbourne fell in it.

Penrith definitely adjusted defensively and started to shut down those Melbourne shapes. Throw in a greasy night and it got ugly. Melbourne did have their outsides impacted by injury which opened up the spots Penrith attacked.

One thing about Penrith is they are so well drilled. They are a "system" team (and i don't mean that as a negative) and when they run their plays, no matter who is involved, they are all at pace and in synch. Those two To'o tries last night were done to perfection, and look at the names handling the ball. They are not big name Penrith players. Great fucking squad, and Cleary is a way better coach now than he has ever shown before.

Yeah Penrith will be happy with that performance despite the loss. Cole funnily enough looks more comfortable as a 7 than 6, and they seem to suit a more running 6 like Talagi and Luai in years gone by. Jenkins was also impressive from the back apart from not contesting the high ball in the Coates try, and Alamoti had a huge night in the centres.

As mariner said, looked like 50 was on the cards, but credit to Penrith, they're elite for a reason.

CNK must go

So should CHT

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

So should CHT

You should put him down more often.

So we finally do a half decent kick on the 5th and contest the high ball and we score.

Who would’ve thunk it

Tedesco can't jump. Wahs might want to try that again.

That’s a poor miss on the extras.

WTF kind of conversion attempt is that?

Gee he hits the line hard.

Good to see the points come after a period of dominating field position.

14-6 to the good guys.

CNK would have gotten a red card for that in NH rugby.

@Nepia said in NRL 2025:

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

So should CHT

You should put him down more often.

You have to laugh, as soon as you bag both, they both stand up

Big win in a grind, a lot of positives with our first win over those fluffybunnies since 2018

Gritty win from the Warriors.

Without sounding like a boring reporter, was a real arm wrestle, and a game that neeed to be won if we have thoughts of featuring in September

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

@Nepia said in NRL 2025:

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

So should CHT

You should put him down more often.

Big win in a grind, a lot of positives with our first win over those fluffybunnies since 2018

Hard to believe we haven’t beaten the Sydney Sombrero’s in that long!!!

Its not like they’ve been at Panthers or Storm level!

@Gunner said in NRL 2025:

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

@Nepia said in NRL 2025:

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

So should CHT

You should put him down more often.

Big win in a grind, a lot of positives with our first win over those fluffybunnies since 2018

Hard to believe we haven’t beaten the Sydney Sombrero’s in that long!!!

Not hard for to believe me because I keep going to see them at the SFS.

Another win built on guts and the crowd and an opposition handing us opportunity.

If the Roosters were a competent team we would have got flogged.

CHT having an inspired 5 seconds does not erase the other 79.55 of utter shit.
CNK ran for 300m. With out threatening a decent linebreak or try scoring opportunity. Ambling after a chad fucking Townsend 40/20 was unforgivable.
Metcalf has a shit kicking game.
Our attack really does stink.

However
Leiataua is my new favourite warrior, and there is something there to work with.
Our middles are good.
Our best half comes off the bench as a forward.
Dick fingers Ford is having a good season.

We're 2-1!

I think the season will play out that we'll beat the average teams at home, lose nearly everything in Australia, and lose to any good team who actually shows up to Mt Smart, and finish like 12th.

@mariner4life said in NRL 2025:

Leiataua is my new favourite warrior, and there is something there to work with.
Our middles are good.
Our best half comes off the bench as a forward.
Dick fingers Ford is having a good season.

Agree with all this. Even the Ford part.

Yeah Leiataua is great, I've been waiting for him to get a decent run, watch him get replaced by Marty Berry's kid soon.

No chance, surely? If he made way and they kept pompey i might actually just stop watching

Clark is another new Warrior that I've been very impressed by

@mariner4life said in NRL 2025:

No chance, surely? If he made way and they kept pompey i might actually just stop watching

It's the Warriors, I'm always setting myself up for disappointment. Berry has been a favourite of Webby, and he seems to like Pompey as well.

I don't think Pompey is nearly as bad as made out, TBH he's like our own Aussie journeyman that the Warriors love to bring over and give lots of games too.

I am prepared to continue to be presently surprised though and hope this is Leiataua's break out season.

@canefan said in NRL 2025:

Clark is another new Warrior that I've been very impressed by

I thought he was just Jazz with a different name, but he appears to be an upgrade at the moment.

@Nepia said in NRL 2025:

@canefan said in NRL 2025:

Clark is another new Warrior that I've been very impressed by

I thought he was just Jazz with a different name, but he appears to be an upgrade at the moment.

Quality Kiwi sporting pedigree. High energy guy, strong runner and has an eye for a pass.

Niukore is a bull when he's not making dumb errors

Our effort and hustle has been amazing in the first two games. Need to exploit more opportunities, and we need to keep the team injury free to keep building momentum

@mariner4life said in NRL 2025:

Another win built on guts and the crowd and an opposition handing us opportunity.

If the Roosters were a competent team we would have got flogged.

CHT having an inspired 5 seconds does not erase the other 79.55 of utter shit.
CNK ran for 300m. With out threatening a decent linebreak or try scoring opportunity. Ambling after a chad fucking Townsend 40/20 was unforgivable.
Metcalf has a shit kicking game.
Our attack really does stink.

Agree, the amount of times CNK inserts himself into the line and everything breaks down is incredible. He was majorly responsible for us having a 24 to 6 tackle in red zone count in first half but no conversion. He only looks good on sweep plays which we don’t do enough of. Metcalfs kicking game isn’t the worst but the drop offs to below average 2RFs consistently shits me to tears. CHT needs to be dropped, I suspect TMM or Boyd offer more but have no idea why they don’t get a chance.
We get our best shape when Walker comes on, even he would be a better partner to Metcalf than CHT.
Middles doing well, I suspect that’s also the reason Ford doing well, he isn’t line running on an edge trying to catch late balls.

Still winning in a grind is good especially against the Roosters, will take it.

@Nepia said in NRL 2025:

@mariner4life said in NRL 2025:

No chance, surely? If he made way and they kept pompey i might actually just stop watching

It's the Warriors, I'm always setting myself up for disappointment. Berry has been a favourite of Webby, and he seems to like Pompey as well.

I don't think Pompey is nearly as bad as made out, TBH he's like our own Aussie journeyman that the Warriors love to bring over and give lots of games too.

I am prepared to continue to be presently surprised though and hope this is Leiataua's break out season.

If we could be so lucky that this is the second coming of an Ali L?

Don’t want to curse the bloke, but looks good with the limited shitty ball we’re feeding him

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

@Nepia said in NRL 2025:

@mariner4life said in NRL 2025:

No chance, surely? If he made way and they kept pompey i might actually just stop watching

It's the Warriors, I'm always setting myself up for disappointment. Berry has been a favourite of Webby, and he seems to like Pompey as well.

I don't think Pompey is nearly as bad as made out, TBH he's like our own Aussie journeyman that the Warriors love to bring over and give lots of games too.

I am prepared to continue to be presently surprised though and hope this is Leiataua's break out season.

If we could be so lucky that this is the second coming of an Ali L?

Don’t want to curse the bloke, but looks good with the limited shitty ball we’re feeding him

Ali looks a beast on attack and defence. He has to be given an decent run in the side. Charnz may not have serious gas, but he carries the ball like another backrower, his run metres per carry really helped out the forwards. Interesting to see how long RTS is out with his hammy, perhaps this is an opportunity for one of the NSW Cup kids to step up and grab their opportunity.

Oh and our 17 is a really strong young player. We are making far fewer errors right now

Looks like my prediction that the Tigers will be massive improves this year over the last few months is looking very good so far. They really do have something special brewing I feel, and a top spine.

My prediction that Kristian Woolf not
suffering from the Wayne Bennett curse isn't looking great however.

It is also only round 3.

@African-Monkey said in NRL 2025:

Looks like my prediction that the Tigers will be massive improves this year over the last few months is looking very good so far. They really do have something special brewing I feel, and a top spine.

A very good effort to score three tires and keep the dolphins to zero points in the second half. Typically the Tigers of the last few seasons would just capitulate.

Dolphins a roughie for the spoon. Tigers might be the 2024 Bulldogs of this year.

@African-Monkey to be fair Dolphins should have buried that game but continually found new ways to let the Tigers back in. I’m not on the Tigers bus just yet, think top teams bury them with that performance

Still good start

@bayimports Even the Knights who were shit tonight against the Titans somehow beat the Tigers a couple of weeks ago.

Tigers definitely a lot better now than in the past few seasons.

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

@African-Monkey to be fair Dolphins should have buried that game but continually found new ways to let the Tigers back in. I’m not on the Tigers bus just yet, think top teams bury them with that performance

Still good start

I think they needed to take shots at goal early in the 2nd half, build some Scoreboard pressure, especially as the Tigers fitness has improved which is allowing themselves to stay in contests for longer. The Da Silva try before halftime was soft, which bought the Tigers back into the game where they were cruising at 18-6. What I will say about the Tigers is that they've recruited well in the off season so far out wide with Turuva and Skelton, up front with Hunt and May, and of course Luai, who makes a massive difference to their spine, and allows Korosau and Galvin especially to play their own games. He's a great steadying influence on that side.

Tigers Wahs next week to determine who starts the season 3-1 with the winner going 3 in a row. Not many would have predicted that at the start of the season.

@African-Monkey one of my bold predictions was knights finishing last, they have started much better than I thought. In fact looking stupid now. I’m saying that I had Tigers beating Knights and Eels (without Moses) , this was the first 50/50 match. It’s still a soft draw. Next week the soft draw continues. Tigers at home should win this but another 50/50 type of match that if they win keeps confidence going. Just yet to play a top end team.

May is in the top three props already in the comp, Roosters are idiots. So were we for not trying to get him. But yes great recruiting, I’m not denying it. I just haven’t seen enough yet to think they won’t be a mid table finish. Again great start though

@bayimports said in NRL 2025:

@African-Monkey one of my bold predictions was knights finishing last, they have started much better than I thought. In fact looking stupid now. I’m saying that I had Tigers beating Knights and Eels (without Moses) , this was the first 50/50 match. It’s still a soft draw. Next week the soft draw continues. Tigers at home should win this but another 50/50 type of match that if they win keeps confidence going. Just yet to play a top end team.

May is in the top three props already in the comp, Roosters are idiots. So were we for not trying to get him. But yes great recruiting, I’m not denying it. I just haven’t seen enough yet to think they won’t be a mid table finish. Again great start though

On May, he could be close to an origin call-up should one prop go down. He's been great. Will be a big battle in the middle next week between him and Barnett, both gunning for that origin spot.

It's funny how some players don't suit the Roosters set up. First Brandon Smith, now May. Robbo comes across as quite a snobby, serious person. Not saying it's wrong, but if you look at the elite coaches (robbo being one), they all seem completely different personality wise.

Geez that Eels Dogs match was a stinker. The only memorable thing to come out of it was Josh Curran standing in the referees position telling the Eels players that they were offside, so they pulled out of the play, only for him to get penalized for it!

Better fight shown by the Eels, bit yeah, I fell asleep with 10 to go, the game was that boring.