5 Big Things: Everything we learned in NRL Round 1

The opening round of the 2022 NRL season is in the books and there’s plenty of action to unpack. Some impressed, others floundered, and — unfortunately — injuries struck. Here are 5 Big Things we learned from Round 1.

Penrith defending champs for a reason

Many expected Manly to get the better of a Penrith outfit sans Nathan Cleary in the opening clash of the season. The Panthers, however, reminded everyone why the Provan-Summons Trophy currently resides at the foot of the mountain with a dominant 28-6 win led by stars Isaah Yeo, James Fisher-Harris, and Stephen Crichton. Penrith dominated possession and field position for much of the night and ended up with a comfortable win over last year’s preliminary finalists. The defending premiers flexed their muscles from the opening stages of the game and did about as fine a job as possible of containing Tom Trbojevic. Izack Tago enjoyed a standout performance filling the sizeable boots of Matt Burton on Penrith’s left edge, whilst Dylan Edwards ran for a ridiculous 344 metres – over 140 more than the second-highest tally of the round.

Gagai big gain for Newcastle… And big loss for Souths

There was plenty of talk surrounding Adam Reynolds’ departure from Redfern over the offseason and rightly so, but Dane Gagai’s move back to Newcastle managed to fly under the radar. One of the game’s elite outside backs, Gagai looked superb in his first game in Knights colours for over 1,600 days, taking 19 carries for 200 metres, breaking six tackles, laying on a try and scoring one of his own as Newcastle came away with a major upset over the Roosters at the SCG. Souths’ attack, meanwhile, looked disjointed and short on strike power in their disappointing loss to Brisbane in which they managed only a single, unconverted try. It is still very much early days but losing an Origin star like Gagai without a ready-made replacement was always going to be an area of concern for Jason Demetriou and the Rabbitohs.

Fans should expect tighter competition

An expected consequence of the NRL’s decision to scale back set restarts was that fans would be treated to tighter contests. Couple that with several of the last year’s top teams losing key players over the summer and a collection of mid-tier and lower-tier returning with improved squads and fans can likely expect a more even premiership, with less blowouts and more down-to-the-wire finishes. The average margin of victory in Round 1, 2021 was 17.9, whilst this weekend fans were treated to an average winning margin of less than 10. There are no guarantees in rugby league, but the sense of imbalance that often plagued matchups last season may be less frequent in 2022.

Expect good & bad with young halves

A number of young halves were given opportunities at their respective clubs this week with mixed results. Sean O’Sullivan, Brad Schneider, Lachlan Ilias, Junior Amone, Toby Sexton and Tom Dearden were all given the task of stepping up in new roles for Round 1. O’Sullivan was superb, kicking Penrith to victory, whilst Schneider played his part in steering Canberra to a five-point win, tackling his backside off and slotting all four of his conversion attempts. Ilias’ involvement level wasn’t as high as he would have liked it to be and he was let down a little by the rest of his spine, whilst Amone had some nice touches in the Dragons’ win but, like Ilias, will be mindful of upping his involvement moving forward. Sexton was one of the Titans’ best, kicking well and showing off some game management skills, despite his halves partner A.J. Brimson being ruled out late, and Dearden cooled off after a fast start as his Cowboys narrowly went down to Canterbury. There are reasons for each of these fanbases to be optimistic about the future of their young playmakers but the road may well be rocky at certain stages, as we saw in Round 1.

Melbourne’s toughest challenge yet

The Melbourne Storm farewelled stars Josh Addo-Carr, Dale Finucane, and Nicho Hynes over the offseason and learnt of the impending departures of Brandon Smith, Jesse Bromwich, Felise Kaufusi and Kenny Bromwich at the end of 2022. They were without Cameron Munster, Harry Grant, and Tui Kamikamica for Saturday night’s clash with the Wests Tigers and still managed to come away with a gutsy 10-point victory. The game, however, quickly became a horror movie for the Storm, with Christian Welch and George Jennings suffering potential season-ending injuries and Brandon Smith fracturing his hand. With so much talent and experience either departed, sitting on the sidelines, or preparing for their final season in Melbourne, Craig Bellamy’s Storm outfit face their toughest challenge yet. Count them at your own peril, however.

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