Title shot: Melbourne will play in this year's grand final, according to Newcastle coach Nathan Brown. Credit:Ashley Feder "Melbourne's had to use a lot of personnel and the fact they're still second … I really fancy that if they are fit, they'll be there on the last weekend of the year. Whether they play the Cowboys or Cronulla or Canterbury, I just feel – I worked down there last year – watching them play, they're a better football team this year for whatever reason." Now Origin is over, we can all go back to worrying about things like obstruction. Craig Bellamy and Cameron Smith disagreed with the awarding of a try to Jake Mamo in the first half of the Storm's 20-16 victory. Their concerns were very technical and there's no room here to go through them. And the loser is …

NSW's reluctance to pay for rugby league events is going to be a long-term issue. On Tuesday, the draw for next year's World Cup will be announced and it's understood Sydney will get just two pool games. The reason? The NSW government would not bid for matches. And it's not hard to see why – only England and New Zealand will bring fans to games, along with a few travelling Queenslanders, meaning the benefit to the local economy is negligible. Still, there is a whiff of NSW taking rugby league for granted and it may end up with nothing but the grand final as a result. The World Cup is advertising in British league mags trying to get fans to register their interest in next year's tournament – perhaps trying amass metrics to convince would-be partners this is a serious international event. Great Western Valkyrie Saturday's game in Perth and the announcement of a State of Origin there in 2019 prompted predictable social media polls, like "is there enough talent in the NRL to add a team in Western Australia?" But "yes" or "no" don't cover the answer because the correct response is "who cares?". Expansion is about business and market share, not about talent. You expand a pub comp if you have enough talent, you expand a professional league for commercial reasons and the impact on standard is irrelevant. Following the argument that you need depth of talent to sustain teams, we might as well shut down Super League tomorrow. Golden replacement

Why on earth did the talented Tui Lolohea only get on the field for the Warriors in golden-point time on Saturday night? According to coach Andrew McFadden, he was lucky to get on at all. "What we planned to do with him, bring him on in the second half but [with] the conditions it just didn't make sense to take Manu [Vatuvei] or one of those guys off because he's just not as big as those guys and they were doing such a good job of getting us forward." Meanwhile, a stinging self-assessment from Brisbane half Ben Hunt after Saturday night's 20-point win over South Sydney. When it was put to him that the pressure had been on him and Anthony Milford to perform during the Origin series, Hunt told the ABC: "We haven't stood up. We've been off our game. If we want to go deep into the finals, we have to play better." Much Baloo about nothing Sacked Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson was a surprise spectator at Hunter Stadium on Sunday. Anderson hasn't spoken since getting the heave-ho on June 16; he embarked on an Australian holiday with his wife and son four days later and stayed with Nathan Brown over the weekend. He told Set of Six the death of young Giants player Ronan Costello around the same time as a departure had prevented him from wallowing in self-pity. "I lost my job but that kid lost his life," said Anderson. "It puts things in perspective. It's the first time I've not had a job in rugby league since I was 17 years old," he said. "It's good to get away and reset. I'm sure when I get home there'll be a point when I want to get involved again. I still want to keep coaching."