{"id":898813,"date":"2026-09-20T10:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898813\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:54:13","slug":"officials-influence-halasima-a-centre-crossland-underrated-nrl-finals-talking-points-warriors-vs-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898813\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials influence, Halasima a centre, Crossland underrated: NRL Finals talking points, Warriors vs Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Newcastle Knights<\/a> have advanced to within 80 minutes of a grand final after a stunning but controversial victory over the New Zealand Warriors<\/a> in Auckland.<\/p>\n

The influence of the referees will be debated over the coming days, but there is little doubt they impacted the back-end of the game in particular.<\/p>\n

Still, the Warriors simply weren’t good enough, and their season has gone up in straight sets smoke, while the Knights continue their incredible run, having won the wooden spoon last year.<\/p>\n

Here are the big talking points from the game.<\/p>\n

Klein and Butler got it wrong. They can’t be the grand final combination
Ashley Klein and Chris Butler had a bad game.<\/p>\n

I don’t like criticising referees, but there is absolutely no getting around the fact they had a poor game on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The penalty – or lack thereof in the final minute as Tyson Frizell<\/a> ran the most obvious escort of the year – will be the talking point, but there were more eyebrow-raising decisions.<\/p>\n

Klein can somewhat be forgiven. On-field, there are excuses, particularly in that noisy, unforgiving environment that was created at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

In the bunker, there are no excuses.<\/p>\n

The issue now is that the duo are likely to officiate the grand final as they did the entirety of the State of Origin<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

That, frankly, can’t be allowed to happen. Accountability is a word thrown around when the public talk about referees, but if there is any, changes will be on the way.<\/p>\n

Leka Halasima will be Warriors’ X-Factor in 2027
Leka Halasima<\/a> was the Warriors’ bright spot on Sunday afternoon, even as their season came to an end.<\/p>\n

He was absolutely outstanding, particularly with the ball in hand.<\/p>\n

That is maybe not a surprise given some of the performances he has churned out in the centres in recent times, but it has now become a genuine argument whether he should play there next year.<\/p>\n

If you could level one piece of criticism at the Warriors during the second half of the year, it was that they didn’t have enough X-Factor.<\/p>\n

Halasima playing in the centres provides just that, and it’s scary to realise the level he could be at with a full pre-season there under his belt.<\/p>\n

Phoenix Crossland is unbelievably underrated
Phoenix Crossland<\/a>, once a half, then a lock, and now a dummy half, has become one of the most important rakes in the competition.<\/p>\n

Of course, that’s like saying water is oxygen is one of the most important ingredients to life – a team doesn’t function without a good number nine at either end of the park.<\/p>\n

But what Crossland has been able to turn himself in to is something quite special at this point of his career.<\/p>\n

His performance on Sunday was at another level again. He made more than 50 tackles and had elite service behind the ruck, but the game-saving plays, the importance of his tackles, the popping up to diffuse bouncing balls.<\/p>\n

He did absolutely everything, and while it’s natural ability that allows him to go about his work, it’s a sheer work ethic and desire to win that makes him who he is, and what he is to the Newcastle Knights<\/a> both as a footy club, and a team who have bought into the culture of their working class town.<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga is why the Knights are a chance at the premiership
Kalyn Ponga<\/a>, right up until the moment he got wiped out of the contest against the Warriors, was simply phenomenal on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

He made over 200 metres, ran the ball strongly, and was involved in absolutely everything good for the visitors, finishing with a ridiculous 16 tackle busts.<\/p>\n

Ponga’s form in recent weeks has been just that, almost making his performance on Sunday unsurprising, if that’s even possible given the numbers he racked up.<\/p>\n

Ponga, particularly with Dylan Brown<\/a> out, is everything to the Knights.<\/p>\n

If they are going to win the competition – and there is no reason now to think they definitely can’t – then he will have two blinders left in the campaign.<\/p>\n

No Metcalf, no Warriors?
The headline here could probably be considered a little unfair, but the point is, frankly, valid.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand Warriors<\/a> very clearly lacked direction with the ball in hand as they stumbled and fumbled their way through the Eden Park clash on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Their completion rate was poor, kicking game not quite good enough, and they seemed to rush things with the ball in hand.<\/p>\n

That’s not to say Chanel Harris-Tavita<\/a> and Te Maire Martin<\/a> aren’t good players, but the straight sets elimination will sting, and it’s clear that the duo as a combination probably aren’t right for this time of year.<\/p>\n

The Warriors didn’t have Luke Metcalf<\/a> available, of course, but that’s going to be the case next year when he moves to the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Warriors aren’t going to bring in a new fact this late in the piece who will move the needle, so Harris-Tavita, Martin, and the return fo Tanah Boyd<\/a> will need to find a way.<\/p>\n

Boyd had an unreal first half of 2026 before copping the ACL injury.<\/p>\n

His return next year, and whether he can play like the Boyd of 2026, and not the Boyd of the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>, could determine their entire campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Newcastle Knights have advanced to within 80 minutes of a grand final after a stunning but controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-898813","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\/898813","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=898813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}