The big winners of Round 21 were...
Penrith Panthers are well and truly humming now.
Such is their pedigree and class that few had dared to write them off following their 1-5 start to the season, even though no team in the almost 120-year history of the NSWRL/NRL has won the Premiership after losing five of their first six games.
They wouldn't be the first club to lose five in a row on the way to the Premiership, however, and head coach Ivan Cleary said back in April that it was just a matter of regaining their confidence and fluency rather than any kind of deep-seated problem.
As they so often do, the Panthers negotiated the Origin period expertly and at times were playing better footy without their several representative stars, showcasing the enviable squad depth that has underpinned their long-term success.
He's still not keen to get ahead of himself, telling reporters after the weekend that he'd "be happy to make the top eight" despite their seven consecutive victories leaving them three points inside the eight and now just three shy of New Zealand Warriors in fourth place.
The big losers of Round 21 were...
Brisbane Broncos could and perhaps should have been spending this week just two points behind the Warriors and within striking distance of a top-four place, but instead they find themselves in the position of needing to claim more points than the Panthers in the final six rounds if they are to go into the finals with the all-important double chance.
Reece Walsh thought he had pounced on a late mistake from Parramatta youngster Joash Papalii but was found by the Bunker to be only narrowly offside.
Had he been successful, Walsh perhaps would have escaped some scrutiny from what was an otherwise awful display from the 23-year-old.
He committed three errors and was guilty of some poor passes that prompted handling errors from his receivers.
You'll also see from the highlights below that he made no effort to catch Mitch Moses' bomb that eventually led to the Eels' first try of the evening.
Now his side face the arduous task of having to beat Melbourne Storm twice to sneak into the top-four. It looks an unlikely prospect.
Haumole cannot catch a break (only a dislocation)
All insensitive puns aside, our hearts really do go out to the Manly Sea Eagles forward after his return from injury ended in disaster.
The 26-year-old was making his return from a six-week absence after dislocating a shoulder in Round 15 only to aggravate that same injury after playing little more than 40 minutes in his team's heavy loss to Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday.
His coach Anthony Seibold admitted on Saturday that it was a gamble to bring him back this week, revealing that medical staff informed him there was a "90% risk" of Olakau’atu dislocating the same shoulder a second time at some point in his career, albeit not as quickly as had occurred.
"We wanted to take that risk," Seibold said.
"He had six weeks of reconditioning there and trained fully for the last two weeks ... We didn’t want to worry about next year, we wanted to worry about what’s in front of their face there and he had two really good weeks of training."
Seibold also confirmed that Olakau’atu will be sent off for surgery and won't appear again in 2025. We wish him all the best for his recovery.
Ken Irvine Medal Leaderboard
There were an impressive 11 different players to record braces at the weekend, the most notable of which was Dragons' star Tyrell Sloan as it saw him move into outright second behind Dolphins' fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow for the annual try scoring medal.
Roosters winger picked up to himself to join teammate Mark Nawaqanitawase on 13, leaving the race wide open with six rounds to go.
Try of the Week
This delightfully well weighted pass out to the left wing from Titans' playmaker Kieran Foran gets the tick of approval from us in the newsroom.