Benji Marshall won’t say it publicly, but he must be bitterly disappointed with his two high-priced imports Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva after the 68-0 embarrassment against the Panthers.
Benji was looking for the two former Panthers premiership winners to lead the way against their former club.
Jarome Luai’s Tigers crash to a huge defeat on Sunday. Getty Images
But the pair handed in sub-par performances and missed a stunning 15 tackles between them – Turuva eight and Luai seven – as the Panthers ran riot.
The magnitude of the loss could spell the end of the Tigers′ finals dream. It will take some time to recover from such a woeful performance.
Penrith, in contrast, were relentless, scoring try after try against a Tigers team that had no answers.
Nathan Cleary showed why he is the best player in the world with a masterclass and gave his outside men time and space – and the Panthers’ backline machine did the rest.
Did Burton take a dive?
Did Matt Burton take a dive to earn the Bulldogs a late 14-12 win over the Eels on Monday?
With the scores locked at 12-all and moments left on the clock, Burton was hit high by Eels hooker Tallyn da Silva.
But the scream, the grabbing of the head and the staying on the ground for what looked to be minor contact was over the top for mine.
The Bunker got involved, the Dogs got the penalty and skipper Stephen Crichton did the rest, kicking the goal that proved the difference.
It was perhaps an appropriate way to end one of the season’s scrappiest games that produced a rare scoreless first half.
The Dogs got the points, but still have a lot of work to do on their attack to make the finals.
Did Walsh earn his Origin call-up?
Plenty of critics are scratching their heads as to how Reece Walsh managed to break back into Queensland’s Origin team after he had a shocker in the Broncos′ loss to the Titans on Saturday night.
Brisbane fullback Reece Walsh has been added to the Maroons squad. NRL Imagery
The bumbling Broncos slumped to a fifth straight loss to the lowly Gold Coast team despite entering as raging hot favourites.
Plenty of Broncos played poorly, but all eyes were on Walsh. He made a couple of howlers in defence that justified Billy Slater’s controversial call to omit him from game one a couple of weeks ago.
Walsh also gave teammates filthy looks more than once during the game – never a good sign in a struggling team.
It’s as if he knew his Origin hopes were crumbling – yet somehow he got the nod.
It may turn out to be a master stroke by Slater as Walsh does have that X factor… time will tell.
The Broncos now sit well down the ladder and making the finals – let alone defending their title – appears to be an impossible dream.
Injuries haven’t helped, but the team that was out-gunned by the Titans and still had seven Origin or Test players – more than enough to get the job done.
Michael Maguire’s troops were simply out-enthused by the Titans and are now the first premiers in the modern era to lose to the last-placed and second-last placed teams in consecutive weeks.
The Titans ended a five game losing streak in emphatic style with their last gasp win, and were the better team even though they left it until the end to come up with Keano Kini’s wonderful winner.
Katoa in supreme form ahead of Origin
If Mitchell Moses isn’t fit for Origin two, Blues fans will get a look at their future playmaker – and he was running hot on Saturday night.
Dolphins general Isaiya Katoa is on standby for Moses and is in supreme form, guiding his team to a fifth straight win over the Cowboys.
There are few smarter halves than Katoa in the league and plenty of people will be cheering if he does get his chance in elite company.
The former Panthers junior set up two tries and scored one himself in the 40-14 demolition of the Cowboys and could easily take the Phins deep into the finals of he maintains this form.
The Phins look the fastest team in the NRL across the turf and coach Kristian Woolf has given them free licence to play what they see – and it is paying handsome dividends as they chase a maiden finals appearance.
Mark Nawaqanitawase of the Roosters celebrates scoring a try. Getty Images
Marky Mark up there with Grothe?
I’ve been watching footy for over 50 years and have always rated Eels 1980s superstar Eric Grothe as the best winger I have ever seen.
But Roosters flyer Mark Nawaqanitawase is fast moving into the silver medal spot on my podium.
Nawaqanitawase has skills most wingers can only dream of and his hat trick in his first game back from injury against the Raiders on Friday night was all class.
Marky Mark now has the best try strike rate of any Roosters player since the club began in 1908 with 35 tries in 33 games – an average of 1.06 per game.
It’s just a pity that he is heading to rugby union in 2027, but I have a feeling he will be back.
The latest Storm product off the production line
Mark down Manaia Waitere as the latest player to come off Craig Bellamy’s prolific Storm production line.
The 24-year-old Kiwi is only in the top grade due to injuries, but is proving himself a real talent.
Waitere joined the Storm this season with just one NRL game to his credit at the Raiders last season.
But the powerful centre has proven himself to be a real handful out wide in attack and scored an eye-catching try in the hard-fought win over the Knights on Friday night.
Bellamy has a knack of finding no-names and turning them into quality NRL players, and he looks like he has struck again.
Garrick fires under pressure
While Haumole Olakau’atu grabbed all the headlines in Manly’s 28-14 win over Souths on Thursday night, Reuben Garrick’s performance would have delighted new full-time coach Kieran Foran.
Garrick is in his final season at Brookvale before heading to the Roosters and hasn’t been enjoying the best of years.
Reuben Garrick of the Manly Sea Eagles. Getty
One web page even nominated him as the Sea Eagles player who needed to lift his performances on the day of the game – and maybe the popular centre saw it.
Because Garrick handed in easily his best effort of the year, setting up a try for his winger Jason Saab and running for 226 metres.
Manly are now 8 and 2 under Foran, who may well become the first interim coach to be named coach of the year.