2024 RM Cup and Sydney Shield

[TigerDen]

Was just interested to know mate. I respect your opinion, apologies if it came across otherwise.

No offence taken, we are just two old bulls who would just keep knocking our heads together if left to go on.

 

[Sharkie Army Gorilla]

Issues again with the Ryde team list on the NSWRL portal again.

Their team today was

1. Ryan Garner
2. Jay Kirk
3. Hymel Hunt
4. Steven Taupe Sako
5. Nick Mougios
6. Johnny Lee Gabrael
7. Curtis Wilson
8. Samuel McGregor
9. Jake Kusto
10. Tim Johannssen
11. Tyler Cassel
12. Tuarae Rawhiti
13. John Tuivaiti
Int
14. Adam Rizk
15. Anthony Raheb
16. ? not sure
17. Noah Johannssen

The two missing try scorers were Jay Kirk and Ryan Garner

 

[Sharkie Army Gorilla]

In the other game today the Bulldogs were down 44-12 with 16 minutes left and scored 5 tries in the space of 14 minutes to get within two points of the competition leaders. It was a crazy end to a game.

 

[rightleftin]

Issues again with the Ryde team list on the NSWRL portal again.

Their team today was

1. Ryan Garner
2. Jay Kirk
3. Hymel Hunt
4. Steven Taupe Sako
5. Nick Mougios
6. Johnny Lee Gabrael
7. Curtis Wilson
8. Samuel McGregor
9. Jake Kusto
10. Tim Johannssen
11. Tyler Cassel
12. Tuarae Rawhiti
13. John Tuivaiti
Int
14. Adam Rizk
15. Anthony Raheb
16. ? not sure
17. Noah Johannssen

The two missing try scorers were Jay Kirk and Ryan Garner

16 Tangi Hokai

 

[TigerDen]

Wenty RMC made a strong 2nd half comeback to go down to Ryde 22-18. Four tries each, goalkicking being the difference. In SS Wenty won a scrappy game 42-32, feature being Liam O'Brien's 7 from 7, some from the sideline.

 

[League Unlimited News]

This coming weekend all matches at St Marys in both competitions. "Licensed Clubs Round". Shield all day Saturday, Massey all day Sunday.

 

[ALX25]

NSWRL to celebrate Licensed Clubs Round with Rugby League bonanza

The NSWRL will celebrate Licensed Clubs Round, brought to you by CABE.

www.nswrl.com.au

 

[Butts74]

Hills are the only team in RMC to get off the mark this year. It’s amazing when their whole squad is basically NSW cup players.

 

[rightleftin]

Hills are the only team in RMC to get off the mark this year. It’s amazing when their whole squad is basically NSW cup players.

Canterbury have also lost all 3 games. I am thinking that 7 of the 8 teams might beat each other, while St Marys probably have to put in a sub par performance to lose.

While 12 of the Hills team are contracted to Norths, it is a bit of an overstatement to call them all NSW Cup players - eg Miller, Aldridge, Wilson, McCarthy and Sean Garner have never played in that competition and Sabutey has not played since 2018. Players like Fenn, Hodge, Maanaima, Bevan and Peni have 95 games between them and might be used in NSW Cup where injuries, suspensions, loss of form or lack of melbourne players occurs.

Clearly, veteran, Jerry Key with over 100 games in NSW/Q Cup over the last 9 years, added to the Hills arsenal last saturday. It might be noted that 3 of the Hills players - Lasalo, Keighran & Travers have a total of more than 100 games in NSW Cup or NRL.

Perhaps, Hills might be better placed if they did not outsource the vast majority of their recruitment to Norths.

I am concerned about the position of some of the players who signed with Blacktown. So far, Semisi Koia, Jonah Nongaronoa, Noel Akafolou and Bruce Ward have each had only 1 game in RMC and Jaho Afoa only 1 game in SS.

 

[Broncos93]

Jonah Ngaronoa has re-signed with Glebe.

 

[10$ Ferret]

Jonah Ngaronoa has re-signed with Glebe.

What is the story about Blacktown, I saw that Jayden Yates also left to go to Norths after doing the full preseason

 

[rightleftin]

What is the story about Blacktown, I saw that Jayden Yates also left to go to Norths after doing the full preseason

Original coach signed far too many players and then he left to coach Canberra, so a number of players quickly departed after preseason:

Anton Iaria back to St Marys
John Tuivaiti back to Ryde Eastwood
Jayden Yates on to Norths

and now, Ngaronoa back to Glebe

4 other players have had only 1 game in RMC or SS and another 4 or so have played none so maybe they have departed also. There will be more to come.

I would not be surprised to see Manly return to 3 grades as soon as is contractually feasible.

 

[rightleftin]

I just noticed that 2 more players that were signed by Blacktown - Trent Borthwick and Soakimi Fakaua - have been playing SS for Brothers and another, Cameron Brown is listed to play SS for Manly today.

 

[rightleftin]

Sydney Shield

Brothers 28 Cabramatta 22

Mounties 66 Moorebank 0

Glebe 32 Manly 24

St Marys 41 Wenty 12

Ryde Eastwood 50 Hills 20


Cabramatta recovered quite a bit of respect by contesting strongly today, in their first game since Mounties beat them 62-4 four weeks ago. Cabra were actually in front 10 minutes after half time. There have been a number of players oscillating between Cabra and Parramatta Flegg.

Mounties confirmed that it is not a one team competition with the demolition of Moorebank, a larger margin than St Marys 60-10 win against the Rams a few weeks ago. In Round 1, St Marys visited AKR and playing sparkling football, ran in 8 tries in the first 52 minutes to lead 42-6 but Mounties did not give up and reduced the margin to 46-24. Today’s side was strengthened by the inclusion of Tom Menzies, Liv Saukuru, Netane Masima and Nathan Davis, who all started the season in RMC.

Glebe looked they would repeat the Mounties feat of unblemished defence, when they led 32-0 after 55 minutes, but then conceded 4 tries in the space of 10 minutes and were placed under pressure to keep the win.

In arguably the biggest game of the day, St Marys were out of the blocks quickly with 2 tries inside the first 10 minutes, Wenty replied in kind. I cant recall if the score at half time was still 12-12 or perhaps 16-12. Unfortunately, again it has been shown that any system is only as good as the operator, as the clock was turned back to zero for the 2nd half, so all points have been deemed to have been scored in the first half in the system. The same thing happened in the NSW Cup game between Canterbury and Canberra last week, but the operator reopened the system after full time and inserted the correct history.

The updated team lists for the Ryde vs Hills game showed significant variation from those published on Tuesday. Ryde Eastwood decided to drop back 6 players from RMC and Hills decided to promote 5 players from SG Ball. So it was somewhat surprising that Hills led 10-0 after 16 minutes with tries to Logan Aldridge, who may have been the leading try scorer in RMC last season and Sam Curtain, who I presume is the Oztag player who is regarded as the quickest player in that sport. But inevitably, the Hawks got on top and ran in 7 tries in 30 minutes either side of half time, before Hills hit back with a couple of quick tries to close the gap a bit before the Hawks closed out the game. During this game, I believe that Ryan Garner became the first player this season to play the 3 grades – NSW Cup, RMC and SS.

 

[rightleftin]

RMC

Glebe 40 Brothers 14
Mounties 34 Canterbury 22
Ryde Eastwood 31 Hills 30
St Marys 34 Wenty 28

3 of the 4 games could have gone either way, the exception being the first where Glebe were totally dominant with a big forward pack neutralising anything the Brothers could throw at them, combined with fluent and attractive play when in possession. Dom Young's look a like brother scored a length of the field intercept try for Glebe.

Canterbury have a real footy team in RMC this year, with long term Wenty player, Simon Greaves as coach, ensuring that an appropriate roster was put together. They were clearly superior to Mounties in the first half and even after Mounties lifted in the second stanza, they had an opportunity to equalize late in the game, when man mountain, Isacc Matatalavea Booth, spilt the ball over the try line.

Both Ryde Eastwood and Wenty lifted significantly from what they displayed at Milner 2 weeks ago. The Hawks were strengthened when 4 players - Tyler Colley, Josh Finau, Kit Lualilli and Gordon Whippy were relegated from NSW Cup as well as seeing the return of Aden Perry and Bruce Ward as they disconnected from the Blacktown shambles.

However, Hills were quick of the blocks with Melbourne Storm fullback, Ammaron Gudgeon scoring from the Bulls first set and following up with a 2nd try midway through the first half. When Hills scored immediately half time to lead 30-16 it looked like Hills would experience their first success for 2024. The Hawks ran down the lead and Cassell knocked over a penalty goal from straight in front it was even.

Both sides had opportunities in the last 10 minutes and Hills looked like they might strike when Lasalo stepped through a gap and offloaded, but the support player threw the impossible pass instead of taking the tackle deep in Ryde's red zone. Ryde worked the ball up the field and clinched the game with a 1 pointer.

It was business as usual at the start of the final game with Chrichton and Satini both scoring without being touched in the first quarter but possibly the 4 week break between games may have left the Saints a bit rusty as Wenty capitalised on uncharacteristic defensive lapses to extend a half time lead of 12-10 to 28-10 in the space of 12 minutes. Wenty fullback, Ethyn Martin continually defused the Zac Greene bombs and was penetrative with the ball. The Saints DNA kicked in through the final 20 minutes as Christian Chrichton completed his hat trick.