Back in black (Friday)?

If the Roosters v Broncos game is this week’s main event, the undercard match-up that threatens to steal its thunder is Friday night’s clash between Souths and Canterbury. Ladder position alone makes it interesting (the Rabbitohs are clinging onto fourth while the Dogs are in seventh but uncomfortably close to ninth), but it is the memory of their previous encounter back in April that quickens the pulse.

You’ll recall that game well enough, one that was said to have blackened Good Friday; Souths won with a last-minute penalty goal after James Graham charged down an Adam Reynolds field-goal attempt and, in the act, buckled Adam’s knee putting him out of action for weeks. And then the aftershock of the penalty; Graham and David Klemmer rounding on referee Gerard Sutton like dropouts from anger management classes and Canterbury supporters, already in the cross-hairs, throwing projectiles and abuse at the officials as they left the ground. An ugly end to a dramatic game played in front of a crowd of 40,523, the year’s largest to date.

It’s possible both sides still nurse grievances from the match (and NSW Police are putting on extra staff just in case), but they’d do well to look ahead rather than behind, that’s where the bigger prize is. Souths have two big absentees in the suspended Issac Luke and Luke Keary, and that might just put them in range of Canterbury after their highly encouraging win over the Cowboys last week, but the Bulldogs will need to overcome a poor recent record against the Bunnies as well as their failure this season to show the kind of consistency that got them to last year’s grand final. It should be a cracker.

Clash of the titans

Ten matches ago the Sydney Roosters were beaten 10-4 by Cronulla and they looked about as convincing as a set from a 1970s Dr Who episode. Witnessing those Roosters, we rubbed our chins and sagely noted their lack of cohesion and the Sonny Bill Williams-sized hole in their ambition. Now? The Roosters – with Michael Jennings, Daniel Tupou and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck on song, Dylan Napa and Sio Siua Taukeiaho putting on the hurt, and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves trampling opposition like begonias – are on a nine-game winning streak and on Saturday night they face the Brisbane Broncos at the SFS knowing a win will propel them past the Broncos and to the top of the ladder (on for and against).

The Broncos, having last week arrested a two-match slump with a big win over a generous Dragons outfit (so generous they played a lock in the halves while a half warmed the pine), are still the benchmark, but over the next two months their aspirations and self-belief will be tested in ways they haven’t been to date this season. This match against the Roosters will get that ball rolling. On recent form the Roosters appear to have the edge, but in their past three wins, playing teams with nothing like the attacking credentials of the Broncos, they’ve conceded 18, 22 and 28 points. They’ll surely need to tighten their belts if they want to defeat Brisbane and jump into poll position.

The Cowboys’ chance to shake off their saddle-soreness

Having travelled so well for so long the Cowboys could accommodate a mild case of saddle-soreness, and I guess that’s what you’d call back-to-back losses at this stage of the season. Last week’s defeat (suffered at home) came at the hands of the rejuvenated premiers, and if there’s any upside for the Cowboys it’s that it would have surely reminded them that for all their success this season the stakes have now been raised and a new mini-season is nigh, one in which, harshly, the Cowboys’ deeds this season mean very little.

Fortunately for Paul Green’s men their opponents on Saturday are the slumping New Zealand Warriors who, without their Johnson, have come to resemble eunuchs. But the Cowboys – who’ll have to make do without Gavin Cooper – would be daft to take New Zealand for granted; indeed, they should be too busy worrying about themselves and their recent tendency for fragility in the centre of the park. It’s time they got their premiership charge back on track.

Manly a fairytale team? It’s already happening

The highly-successful Sea Eagles – a team that over the years has inspired less love than your average tax auditor – are no-one’s idea of a fairytale team yet, miraculously, they’ve more or less become one this season out of sheer bloody-mindedness. For much of the year they were in last place and, what with the unrest within the club, it seemed almost certain they’d miss the finals for the first time since 2004. Yet Manly showered under the rain of dandruff caused by their board banging their heads together and decided to call it fairy dust.

And now, having dragged themselves out of a mire of their own making, they are six wins from seven and coming home at speed, like a space capsule re-entering the atmosphere: rivets are popping, the console is smoking, and the whole damned chassis is engulfed in a hot orange glow whilst bits of metal are shredded loose and doomed to plummet into some cornfield in Iowa.

But, by God, with captain Jamie Lyon at the helm, and Geoff Toovey in mission control, Manly could just about make it through. In fact, absurdly, they could even afford to drop a game should the wobbly Dragons drop one themselves. But this week’s match, against the Eels, isn’t that one, not with the Roosters to play next week. So hold on Manly fans, the bumps aren’t over yet, but you appear to be in good hands.

Keep swimming, Sharks, or you’ll drown

Walloped by the Storm on Monday night, Cronulla face a short turnaround and an unpredictable opponent in the Wests Tigers, one who could be either white hot or barely tepid. Either way, given they are in sixth and the Tigers are in equal last position and out of the running, it makes no sense that the Sharks could allow themselves to be beaten at such a critical juncture, but then little in rugby league makes sense, from shoulder-charge rulings to the decision-making of some players. Take stood-down Sharks prop Andrew Fifita. Here’s a 6’4” 114kg meta-human who thought he could disappear amongst the spectators on Monday night while wearing an orange wig and roadkill on his face.

The Tigers go into the match with injury concerns over Robbie Farah, Luke Brooks and Aaron Woods, though Martin Taupau returns, while the Sharks are close to full strength and at home. They should win but will they?