2018

Round 8 NRL team lists

St George Illawarra Dragons v Sydney Roosters, Wednesday 4.10pm at Allianz Stadium

Dragons: 1 Matthew Dufty, 2 Nene Macdonald, 3 Euan Aitken, 4 Tim Lafai, 5 Jason Nightingale, 6 Gareth Widdop (c), 7 Ben Hunt, 8 James Graham, 9 Cameron McInnes, 10 Paul Vaughan, 11 Tyson Frizell, 12 Tariq Sims, 13 Jack De Belin

Interchange: 14 Jeremy Latimore, 15 Kurt Mann, 16 Leeson Ah Mau, 17 Jacob Host

Reserves: 18 Hame Sele, 19 Zachary Lomax, 20 Mitchell Allgood, 21 Reece Robson

The recruitment decisions that turned the NRL on its head

The same goes for St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers and Newcastle, who are all flying high at or near the top of the Telstra Premiership ladder after failing to make the NRL finals in recent seasons.

The success of the unbeaten Warriors and Dragons, coupled with that of the Tigers, Sydney Roosters, Gold Coast and Knights, highlights how a strategically targeted recruitment plan can dramatically change the fortunes of an NRL club.

Tags: 

Sharks score hard-earned win over Storm

It turned out to be a very Good Friday for the Sharks. It was their first win at home for 2018 as they broke even for the season - two wins and two losses.

Even more tellingly they managed to frustrate an uncharacteristically error-prone Melbourne, who did not cross the Sharks line all night, though Ryan Hoffman was held up in the 33rd minute.

The last time the Storm were held try-less was also at the hands of the Sharks, 11-2 in round six last year at AAMI Park.

Sharks v Dragons: Round 2 preview

In light of the incessant roasting Wests Tigers fans gave former golden boy James Tedesco in the round one stoush with the Roosters, it'll be interesting to see how Dugan is received by Dragons followers in his first home game in a Sharks jersey.

The Dragons' display in their convincing win over Brisbane was one of the more impressive performances in the opening round, while the Sharks were first-up losers to the Cowboys but were in striking distance until the closing stages.

Star halves justify their hefty salaries

St George Illawarra Dragons prop James Graham claimed not to "understand the halfback position that well", but he summed up the reason NRL playmakers now command long-term contracts and big money as well as anyone during the opening weekend of the Telstra Premiership.

With record offseason movement of players and 14 of the 16 NRL teams fielding a different halves pairing than they did in last season's first round, the spotlight was always going to be on the performances of the playmakers – and most of them delivered in impressive style.

Tags: 

Titans stage great escape to beat Raiders

Brennan received a nightmare initiation, watching the Titans concede three tries inside the first 10 minutes.

But he left his first match glowing about the character of his players after they recovered to snatch victory with a Konrad Hurrell try from an Ash Taylor grubber with less than two minutes on the clock.

The rookie mentor wanted the youngest halves pairing in the Telstra Premiership to take control of their team and the end result was Taylor and his partner Kane Elgey creating all five Titans tries.

Hunt leads Dragons to win over Broncos

Hunt set up the opening try and scored a brilliant intercept in the 34-12 victory while Lodge – booed every time he touched the ball – produced a number of errors and penalties plus the pass that was intercepted for Hunt's 50-metre try.

He did produce some strong carries in his team-high 137 metres and should be better in the long run.

The Broncos completed at just 50% in the first half and their forwards comfortably lost the battle in the middle against the likes of James Graham, Paul Vaughan, Jack De Belin, Tyson Frizell and Tariq Sims.

Your club's predicted Round 1 lineup

With the trials done and dusted, the NRL coaches are working frantically to decide on their best 17 players to front up in round 1. 

It doesn't look like there will be many NRL debuts handed out for the opening weekend with Cronulla Sharks winger Sione Katoa the most likely uncapped player to get a start.

Tags: 

Why NRL trials are more important than ever

The unprecedented number of transfers during the summer months, particularly among big-name playmakers, is why pre-season matches are more significant than previous years.

While only the World Club Challenge between Melbourne Storm and Leeds at AAMI Park and the international double-header at ANZ Stadium - featuring the St George Illawarra Dragons and South Sydney Rabbitohs - attracted NRL-sized crowds, the other six trials were still of value to the clubs.

Mark Zuckerberg vows to 'fix' Facebook

In a post on his page on the social network, he said it was making too many errors enforcing policies and preventing misuse of its tools.

Mr Zuckerberg has famously set himself challenges every year since Facebook started in 2009.

Social media firms have come under fire for allowing so-called fake news ahead of US and other elections to spread.

Facebook in particular has been criticised for allowing Russia-linked political ads in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential vote.