NRL Round 2 Reactions

NRL Round 2 Reactions

Liam Fogarty

The first full round of footy is in the books and my god how good was it?!

Maybe I’m just still a bit starry eyed that we have Rugby League back on our screen but I feel like every game this round had some massive talking points that I could go into with heavy detail…

But I won’t be doing that, I had a very large St Patricks Day yesterday and somehow typing on a keyboard makes me want to vomit.

I’ve narrowed the weekend down into five dot points once again, here are my reactions to round 2

Let’s get stuck in hey?

Replying To Your Fan Mail

I post these articles on the Neds socials pages and one of my favourite things to do is scroll through the comments to see how the punters have reacted to what I’ve written. I’m introducing a new segment to my article this week where I handpick the best responses to last weeks article and give my self a right of reply.

You’ve all had your say, now it’s my turn.

Get over yourself Seamus.

At the time of writing this comment, your beloved Milk had dog shotted the Knights out of a win and what? You wanted me to use my article to write a thesis on how the Milk are the greatest organisation on this Earth?

There’s 16 other teams in the comp Champion, settle down.

Don’t go getting your premiership tattoo yet either, sure you’re on top of the ladder but you’ve only beat the Tigers 🥴.

Sharks fans are the worst aren’t they?

I can just picture this bloke getting so frustrated scrolling through last weeks letter and not seeing a mention of one of the most insufferable clubs in the league, and then being so angry he clicked off the article to have a temper tantrum in the comments that I didn’t mention the Sharks.

The Sharks aren’t worth mentioning yet Big Fella, I hope you felt better after your little tanty.

1. Greatest Try Of All Time

I think we need to start with the glaringly obvious.

Xavier Coates’ try was the greatest try of all time. And it’s not up for debate.

Matty Bowen’s intercept, Billy Slater’s chip and chase, Ben Hunt’s intercept. Sure we’ve seen some classics but those tries, at the end of the day, were all easy finishes. The hard part of those tries was the initial part, the getting open, the getting through the line. After that part they were all easy put downs.

Xavier Coates’ try, dying seconds of the game, leaping from at least four metres out, into a defender, whole body out of the field, one handed finish, making sure to not to go out before the balls grounded, to win a game?

It’s going to be near impossible to beat that level of clutchness and athleticism every again.

I reckon he’s the first name on the Maroons team sheet this year after that meaty.

 

2. Home Field Advantage

Last week was almost all underdogs, this week it’s eight home teams that got the win.

It’s funny, when I was putting my tips in this week I was on auto-pilot a bit. I picked the teams I thought were going to win and as I was reviewing them, I noticed that every team that I had selected was a home team and it just didn’t look right so I tinkered from the Sea Eagles to the Roosters.

Turns out bizarre patterns can in fact happen and thanks to my own worst enemy (myself) I finished with 7/8 this week.

A little fun fact for you, if you were to multi up all eight home teams this week, you would’ve hit on odds of $31. Better than a poke in the eye isn’t it.

3. Queensland Undefeated

Every single Queensland team won this weekend. The Broncs got up over the Rabbits, The Cowboys won a golden point thriller over the Knights, The Dolphins belted St George and The Titans beat… the Bye.

It’s always a great week when the Queensland boys get up and if we keep going at this rate, all four of them will be in the finals.

The Titans just need to play the bye every week.

4. The Wah’s Linsanity Run Is Over

Do you remember New York Knicks Legend Jeremy Lin?

The man turned into prime MJ for like two weeks and then faded into obscurity not long after.

That’s what I feel like the Warriors are in the midst of.

Last year was incredible for NZ but I’m starting to think it was a one year thing.

Sure they’ve lost both their games by under six points this year and Xavier Coates broke their hearts with that freakish finish this week but those losses take a toll on a side.

This stuff starts to snowball and if they’re not careful, the Warriors could very easily find themselves trying to play catchup as other sides steak ahead.

Don’t get me wrong, I want the Wahs in the eight, the less NSW teams in there the better but I getting the feeling we are starting to see the beginning of the end.

5. I haven’t missed the Tigers

 

Wasn’t it just nice not having The Wests Tigers playing in Round 1?

I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I enjoyed Round 1 so much and then I realised that the Tigers were tactically put on the bye Round 1.

I thought to myself, perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh on them. They sacked their board, they’ve made some new signings. Benji is the coach now it could be a brand new year, let’s give them a chance.

What happens in their first game of the year? A 32-12 pantsing to Canberra. Yikes.

The Tigers clearly still have a lot of issues that need to be ironed out and I can’t imagine it will get any easier this week against Nicho Hynes and the Sharks.