{"id":545432,"date":"2026-03-17T04:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545432\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T04:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:18:09","slug":"manly-bottom-out-top-two-emerge-and-sharks-as-expected-nrl-power-rankings-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545432\/","title":{"rendered":"Manly bottom out, top two emerge and Sharks as expected: NRL Power Rankings, Round 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Melbourne Storm<\/a> and Penrith Panthers<\/a> have stamped their authority over the early weeks of the 2026 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

Big wins for the two clubs over the weekend have them at the top of the tree, while it’s the opposite for the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a> in this week’s power rankings.<\/p>\n

For those new to our Power Rankings<\/a>, or those looking for an explanation, these take a few things into consideration.<\/p>\n

These take into account; wins, quality of opposition, performance, expectations, form (eventually) and general feel.<\/p>\n

They are not just the tradition “well that team is better on paper” rankings. Wins matter, especially early on.<\/p>\n

So right now, no winless team is going to sit above a team with a victory. That will change in the coming weeks of course.<\/p>\n

With the above said, let’s take a look at our Power Rankings<\/a> following Week Two of the 2026 NRL<\/a> season:<\/p>\n

1. Melbourne Storm (Last Week: 1)<\/p>\n

The Storm continued their dream start to 2026 by outlasting the Dragons on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

Sualauvi Faalogo has been the star of the competition to date. Harry Grant<\/a> has lapped the competition in terms of being the premier number nine in the game.<\/p>\n

Stefano Utoikamanu<\/a> looks every bit the megastar he promised to become. <\/p>\n

They host the Broncos on Friday night in an absolute blockbuster. They’ll start huge favourites.<\/p>\n

2. Penrith Panthers (2)<\/p>\n

Penrith endured five minutes of perfection from the Sharks to start their Saturday night contest. One drop ball later, Nathan Cleary<\/a> kicks a 40\/20, Penrith score and it’s game over.<\/p>\n

This Panthers side is so clinical it literally took one error to sink the Sharks.<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary<\/a> was the main man but Dylan Edwards<\/a> and Blaize Talagai look set for monster seasons.<\/p>\n

Penrith travel to play the Roosters in arguably the biggest 6pm Friday night game of the season. <\/p>\n

3. New Zealand Warriors (3)<\/p>\n

The New Zealand Warriors<\/a> are absolutely flying right now.<\/p>\n

Back to back wins over the Roosters and Raiders has them sitting very pretty.<\/p>\n

Tanah Boyd<\/a> has been flawless in the seven. I have him co-leading the MVP\/Dally M races. Leka Halasima<\/a> and Jackson Ford<\/a> were massive!<\/p>\n

A first away trip awaits on Saturday afternoon as they travel to play the Knights.<\/p>\n

4. Newcastle Knights (8)<\/p>\n

Newcastle have overcome ridiculous odds, twice now, to sit 2-0 to start the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

No Ponga, no Brown, no Sharpe, no worries! (?) Well so far so good as they played the Sea Eagles off the park on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Dylan Brown<\/a> looked a literal million dollars before his injury. Sandon Smith<\/a> may prove to be the buy of the year though.<\/p>\n

Reality may hit this weekend, sans their three stars, when they host the Warriors on Saturday afternoon, but we’ll worry about that then.<\/p>\n

5. Cronulla Sharks (4)<\/p>\n

New season, same Sharks.<\/p>\n

After thumping the Titans in Round One, the Sharks didn’t get anywhere near the Panthers in Round Two.<\/p>\n

Braydon Trindall<\/a> and Jesse Ramien<\/a> were the stars last weekend yet were very poor against better opposition. Nicho Hynes<\/a> was a ghost.<\/p>\n

Young guns Jesse Colquhoun<\/a> and Sam Stonestreet<\/a> were their best on the night in a slight positive.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins<\/a> provide a real litmus test as to what the Sharks actually are. As if we don’t already know.<\/p>\n

6. Wests Tigers (9)<\/p>\n

The Tigers had to wait a long time to start their 2026 season via the Round One Bye but it was well worth the wait.<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai<\/a> helped orchestrate a 44 points to 16 win over the Cowboys at Leichhardt Oval.<\/p>\n

The win, in the Tigers first game of the season, was the first since Benji Marshall<\/a> was playing. Chaotic stat!<\/p>\n

A trip up the coast to Gosford to play the Bunnies awaits on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

7. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (7)<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have endured a busy week, despite having the Bye in Round Two.<\/p>\n

The Bronson Xerri<\/a> situation will dominate headlines and has overshadowed their Round One win, somewhat.<\/p>\n

A trip to the nation’s capital to play the Raiders is exactly what they need.<\/p>\n

8. Sydney Roosters (16)<\/p>\n

The Roosters put last week’s loss behind them by beating old foes, the Bunnies, in a Friday night blockbuster.<\/p>\n

Daly Cherry-Evans<\/a> was very good and showed how important he’ll be for the tri-colours this season.<\/p>\n

Naufahu Whyte<\/a> is very quickly becoming one of the game’s elite middles. <\/p>\n

They host the Panthers in a 6pm potential classic at Allianz on Friday. Sign me up!<\/p>\n

9. South Sydney Rabbitohs (6)<\/p>\n

The Bunnies celebrated Alex Johnston’s record setting try on Friday night in front of a massive crowd.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the game ended in a loss, to bitter rivals the Roosters, no less. <\/p>\n

Cody Walker<\/a> had an off night but David Fifita<\/a> and Keaon Koloamatangi<\/a> certainly didn’t let anyone down.<\/p>\n

They host the Tigers in Gosford on Saturday night. Should be some points in that one.<\/p>\n

10. Canberra Raiders (3)<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t be too worried if I were a Raiders fan but their efforts against the Warriors on Friday night were not good.<\/p>\n

The 40 points to six drubbing across the Tasman will hurt but their Saturday night Golden Point game last week in the rain provides an early season escape.<\/p>\n

Strangely, given the scoreline, they were in this game up until the 60th minute. From there though, it was all Warriors.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Minor Premiers will be looking to turn it around quickly, at home, against the Dogs on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

11. The Dolphins (12)<\/p>\n

The Dolphins<\/a> rode their luck on Sunday night but are on the board!<\/p>\n

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a> was absolutely massive, and proved to be the difference. His 325 metres and match-winning try made him the player of the round, for mine.<\/p>\n

Kulikefu Finefeuiaki<\/a> continues to emerge as one of the game’s next superstars in the second row.<\/p>\n

A Saturday evening clash with the Sharks should be fun and could go either way.<\/p>\n

12. Parramatta Eels (15)<\/p>\n

The Eels are back, in a big way!<\/p>\n

A 40 points to 32 try-a-thon on Thursday night saw them bank their first competition points of the season.<\/p>\n

Jonah Pezet<\/a> proved why the Eels were so keen to land him, albeit in a one-year deal. Isaiah Iongi<\/a> is quickly becoming a genuine star.<\/p>\n

They have a great chance to keep the momentum going on Sunday when they host the 0-2 Dragons.<\/p>\n

13. Brisbane Broncos (13)<\/p>\n

I didn’t see the Broncos starting the season at 0-2. Especially given both games were played at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

For large portions of Thursday’s game against the Eels, the Broncs looked on track for victory.<\/p>\n

To concede 40 points to an Eels outfit coming off a huge loss last weekend though, has to be a little concerning.<\/p>\n

The Premiers will start as massive outsiders on Friday night in Melbourne, against the red hot Storm.<\/p>\n

14. St George Illawarra Dragons (11)<\/p>\n

The Dragons have been in both games this season, against quality opposition. A win doesn’t feel far off.<\/p>\n

Ok, they faded late against the Storm but the signs were there.<\/p>\n

Dan Atkinson put in a brilliant shift and has allowed the Dragons some real excitement for his future.<\/p>\n

Sunday afternoon will see them travel to play the Eels in a game that could go either way.<\/p>\n

15. Gold Coast Titans (16)<\/p>\n

I loathe lifting sides in the rankings off the back of a loss, but the Titans will be much happier with their start to the season than the two teams below them.<\/p>\n

They were much better this weekend and probably should have beaten the Dolphins<\/a> at Suncorp.<\/p>\n

Keano Kini<\/a> was magnificent but played a lone hand for the Titans. <\/p>\n

A trip to Townsville presents a golden opportunity to bank some competition points.<\/p>\n

16. North Queensland Cowboys (14)<\/p>\n

The Cowboys were thumped on Saturday afternoon in the Leichhardt Oval sunshine by a vastly superior Tigers outfit.<\/p>\n

They now sit 0-2 and calls to remove Todd Payten<\/a> from the coaching job are loud, already!<\/p>\n

Jaxon Purdue<\/a> and Tom Chester<\/a> have been rare highlights in a horror start to the season. <\/p>\n

Sunday night’s home game against the Titans is a good a chance to kickstart their season as they’ll be presented.<\/p>\n

17. Manly Sea Eagles (10)<\/p>\n

I’ll fully admit that Manly are far from the worst team in the competition but the fact they’re holding an “honesty session” in Round Two is downright embarrassing. <\/p>\n

I’m on record as saying I don’t know how Anthony Seibold<\/a> survived to coach in 2026 and it seems like Manly fans have the same question.<\/p>\n

Manly are now 0-2 despite two games at Brookvale Oval. This week they failed to make any inroads on a Newcastle side missing Ponga and Brown for the entire second half.<\/p>\n

To write a season off after a fortnight is impossible but Manly need something to change, and quickly! They have the bye this weekend to get things right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers have stamped their authority over the early weeks of the 2026 NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-545432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}