Only two nights earlier I had witnessed from the sideline a titanic struggle between Canterbury and Cronulla, decided by a touchline conversion on the bell. The good: Cronulla's last-gasp victory over the Bulldogs was one of the better games of the season. Credit:Getty Images If last impression are all that counts, the season is going swimmingly. When I look back over the opening 13 rounds of the 2016 NRL season, I see two scandals – the Parramatta salary cap penalty and the Manly match-fixing investigation. I see a honeymoon period for the Bunker and then major controversies, and reported serious unrest in the refereeing ranks.

I see confusion over where we want to go with representative football and disquiet among fans about Semi Radradra being picked by Australia. The bad: NRL integrity boss Nick Weeks and chief executive Todd Greenberg announce the findings against Parramatta after the salary cap investigation. Credit:Getty Images I see a competition that feels more uneven than others since the formation of the NRL in 1998 (Super League, conversely, has finally become somewhat unpredictable). Newcastle are bumping along the bottom, while North Queensland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Cronulla look to be the realistic contenders. What has caused this inequity? The Cowboys fielding the exact same team in the 2015 grand final and 2016 World Club Challenge should have set off alarm bells- keeping a premiership side together is supposed to be nigh on impossible. Perhaps it is the plethora of complicated Third Party Agreements that has diluted the talent-equalising impact of the salary cap.

The football itself has been good to great. The tweaks made on the field to speed the game up seem to have worked. But the overall impression of the NRL as a sport league is a tad beige. Aside from Johnathan Thurston's continuing generosity and likeability, where is the competition's personality? Where are the stories? James Roberts' "more speed than Oxford Street" and Sam Thaiday's "like losing your virginity" are specks of light amid in a void. I would say the extension of Fox Sports' coverage of the competition has been positive, with slick packaging and genuine passion for the game shining through. Stuff like 'Not The NRL News' takes the game more seriously by taking the Mick. The first State of Origin game was tough and physical but not terribly exciting, not a great shop window for casual passers-by.