{"id":736953,"date":"2026-06-14T23:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736953\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T23:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:40:12","slug":"news-2026-the-mole-weekend-wrap-the-dolphins-parramatta-eels-nicho-hynes-cronulla-sharks-wests-tigers-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736953\/","title":{"rendered":"News 2026: The Mole weekend wrap, The Dolphins, Parramatta Eels, Nicho Hynes Cronulla Sharks, Wests Tigers win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicho Hynes<\/a> is one of the glamour boys of the NRL<\/a> but the question has to be asked – are the Sharks<\/a> a better team without him?<\/p>\n

Hynes was missing in Saturday night\u2019s gritty 10-8 win over the Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes of the Sharks talks to referee Ashley Klein.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

And it proved to be the Sharks\u2019 11th win in their last 12 games without their classy halfback.<\/p>\n

When Hynes is out, the under-rated Braydon Trindall gets free rein with the ball and so it was in wet and slippery conditions in Auckland as the Sharks carved out a gutsy win.<\/p>\n

Trindall\u2019s kicking game in the slippery conditions was superb, not to mention his match-winning two point field goal, and he also marshalled the attack with great efficiency.<\/p>\n

Hynes will come straight back when he is over his injury – but it will be interesting to monitor just how the team goes when he is in there calling the shots and Trindall plays a lesser role.<\/p>\n

Dolphins emerge as premiership threat<\/p>\n

Can the Dolphins<\/a> win the premiership in only their fourth season in the big league?<\/p>\n

The answer seems a resounding YES after their awesome 48-10 defeat of the Roosters at Suncorp<\/a> on Friday night – their sixth win on the bounce.<\/p>\n

Sure, the Roosters<\/a> had plenty of talent out, but the Phins were missing five Origin stars – Tom Flegler, Max Plath, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Selwyn Cobbo and Kulikefu Finefeuiaki – and still nearly hit the half century in what appeared an even-money game.<\/p>\n

With Isaiya Katoa, Kodi Nikorima, Herbie Farnworth and Trai Fuller sparking their dynamic backline, the Dolphins scored tries for fun and the Roosters simply had no answer.<\/p>\n

Katoa looks a 20-Test veteran and is without doubt the next big thing in the NRL with his cool playmaking skills.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Dolphins are red-hot currently in the NRL. \u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Add their Origin stars to the team that played the other night and you have a team capable of worrying the likes of the Panthers and Warriors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Full marks to coach Kristian Woolf – he has the Phins playing the best football in the league and they are a team that is just great to watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luai answers Tigers critics<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai<\/a> served it up to his many critics with a slick hat trick in the Tigers\u2019 36-28 win over the Titans at Leichhardt<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Luai has been copping it ever since he signed a lucrative contract with the PNG Chiefs from 2028<\/a>, with the Tigers crashing and burning immediately he put pen to paper.<\/p>\n

The hit rock bottom last week in a 68-0 loss to the Panthers, with Luai well and truly off his game.<\/p>\n

But in a must-win match on Sunday, Luai led the fightback as the Tigers snatched the two points in the second half in dramatic style.<\/p>\n

The win keeps the Tigers\u2019 finals hopes well and truly alive – a loss at home to the lowly Titans on top of last week\u2019s mauling would have been catastrophic.<\/p>\n

Eels finally find some grit<\/p>\n

An edict from coach Jason Ryles to his Parramatta players to get their defence in order paved the way for Saturday night\u2019s hard-fought win over the Raiders.<\/p>\n

It ended a thee-game losing run and in the past two games, the Eels have now conceded only 26 points.<\/p>\n

Compare that to 33, 36, 30, 34 and 28 in the previous five games and you can see the drastic improvement.<\/p>\n

They just fell short 14-12 against the Bulldogs last week and were finally rewarded for their defensive resolve with a 15-12 win over the free-falling Raiders on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Missing several key players, the Eels stood up, withstanding several attacking waves on their own line to the delight of the home fans.<\/p>\n

A finals spot may be beyond them now, but with their defence finally appearing in order, they may cause a few more boilers against more fancied teams in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

Walker ages like a fine wine<\/p>\n

Veteran Rabbitoh Cody Walker turns 37 in a few months – but may well have earned himself a new deal for 2027 after he put premiers Brisbane to the sword on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Walker gave his finest display of the year with three try assists in the first half to end the game as a contest at 30-0.<\/p>\n

On his day, there are few more creative playmakers in the league and Walker was way too smart for an embarrassing Broncos outfit.<\/p>\n

On an emotional tribute night for Jai Arrow, the Bunnies showed their recently-retired forward just how much he means to them with a stunning 48-6 win.<\/p>\n

Both teams had plenty of players missing, but only one turned up to play.<\/p>\n

It was a night that will go down in Souths folklore – there was barely a dry eye in the house as Arrow rang the bell to start the game, Alex Johnston scored four tries and Tallis Duncan and David Fifita carved up the Brisbane defence.<\/p>\n

The Broncos missed 41 tackles and conceded eight linebreaks and don\u2019t deserve to make the finals, let alone the top four.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicho Hynes is one of the glamour boys of the NRL but the question has to be asked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-736953","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\/736953","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=736953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}