Five and a Kick: Roosters’ title hopes look grim after star duo hobbled, Raiders need miracle to leapfrog Knights and Dolphins (2024)

The Roosters’ title hopes may have vanished in an instant at Allianz Stadium, with halfback Sam Walker limping off with a confirmed ACL tear in their thrilling loss to the Raiders.

And it only got worse when Brandon Smith was also hobbled by a horror hip drop from Elliott Whitehead in Canberra’s 14-12 upset win.

The Raiders are mathematically still in the hunt for eighth but would need to beat the Dragons on Saturday and hope the Knights and the Dolphins fight out a draw at Newcastle 24 hours later. St George Illawarra, the fourth team on 28 competition points on the ladder, also have the same theoretical chance, also known as a snowball’s hope in hell.

Newcastle kept themselves in the hunt for the last playoff berth by disposing of the Titans 36-14 and with home-ground advantage, should lock up eighth by beating the Dolphins.

1. ACL tear devastating for Walker and team’s title hopes

From the moment Walker fell to the turf after challenging for the ball on a kick-chase with Canberra’s Simi Sisagi, alarm bells were ringing.

“He’s in excruciating pain. When the knee collapses like that with no contact it normally is an ACL,” premiership-winning halfback Cooper Cronk said on Fox League commentary.

“He does not look like he’s in good shape at all.”

He looked distraught as he was taken from the field in the 13th minute and reportedly told the club medicos he had heard a popping noise as the pain took effect.

The Roosters confirmed after the match he had ruptured his ACL, and faces nine months on the sidelines – a bitter blow for club and player so close to finals.

Walker had an ACL injury last year which was diagnosed as a partial rupture.

“It doesn’t look good for Sammy,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.

“It’s really disappointing… it’s tough when you finish a game and you have carnage like that.”

Smith also limped off late in the first half when he was on the receiving end of a hip-drop tackle from Elliott Whitehead, who was banished to the sin bin.

The Kiwi international’s right knee had earlier been strapped after copping a knock and his leg was bent back at a horrible impact as the weight of the Canberra forward collapsed on him.

“Brandon Smith and Sam Walker in doubt for the rest of the season is a mortal blow for the Roosters,” Greg Alexander said on Fox League, adding it would be “very difficult” for them to win the title without those two key members of their spine.

“That looked horrible,” he added.

Whitehead explained in the post-match media conference that there was no malice on his part in the tackle: “I was just trying to stop an offload.”

Robinson confronted Whitehead after the game and said “it’s been really common in his game his whole career”, clearly not buying his claim that it was an accident.

“He came up and just wanted to ask how Brandon was. The hip drop’s been pretty common in his game for a long time.And I just said it’s too many times. It’s cost us a player.That was it.He said it was an accident.

“He’s gone to get scans. It’s not great.”

Whitehead said Robinson was “out of order” by giving him a spray post-game.

2. Roosters’ roster stretched to the limit

Every team has a rough trot with injuries, the Roosters are getting their lean run at the worst possible time.

Robinson has multiple selection quandaries heading into the final round with Walker, Smith and potentially Victor Radley and Nat Butcher out of action.

Radley suffered a shoulder injury and Butcher was taken off with a head knock in the second half of their upset loss to Canberra.

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has two more matches to serve on his latest high tackle ban, Joseph Suaalii is no certainty to return from his shoulder injury next week and Angus Crichton was placed on report against the Raiders for a high tackle

Finding a new chief playmaker is top of Robinson’s list and he is likely to switch Luke Keary to halfback with Sandon Smith slotting into the halves next Friday for their final-round clash with South Sydney before they head into the finals ahead of Connor Watson or Joey Manu.

Win a Ziggy BBQ for Grand Final day, thanks to Barbeques Galore! Enter Here.

Watson will be needed at hooker to replace Smith with Zach Dockar-Clay promoted to the interchange.

It’s all hands on deck at Bondi Junction.

“Belief’s high,” said Robinson.“We’ve got a squad for that reason. You’ve got to believe in who’s coming next and your training that you’ve doneand the system that you’ve got.So, let’s go.Let’s get excited about moving on to next week.

“These are the challenges in footy that we enjoy.”

The loss to the Raiders means the Roosters have all but coughed up home-ground advantage for their qualifying final by slipping to third and will have to head west to face Penrith unless the three-time premiers somehow lose to the Titans next weekend.

3. Raiders fight to the bitter end

It is emblematic of Canberra’s season that they have fought hard but they are ultimately not quite up to the standard of a finals team.

Newcastle’s win in the earlier match on Sunday had all but ended the Green Machine’s faint finals hopes and when Jordan Rapana went off in the 11th minute with a fractured cheekbone, they looked at even longer odds than their starting price to roll the Roosters.

Rapana came off second best after an aerial collision with opposing fullback James Tedesco and has almost certainly played his last game for the Green Machine.

“The care and camaraderie of our team is real,” Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said. “So much went against us today. You have to be a committed team that want to play for each other. I said at the start of the year we are building something here and we are.”

Whitehead put them on the board in the 16th minute as the Roosters tried to regroup after Walker’s injury and when Sasagi touched down 10 minutes later, an upset was on the cards.

A runaway effort to Xavier Savage midway through the second stanza made it 14-2 before Whitehead’s second sin-binning for a bizarre kick to try to dislodge the ball from Crichton’s grip as he stood in a tackle.

Daniel Tupou crossed as the Roosters cashed in on the Raiders being down to 12 defenders and Tedesco should have cut the gap to two points but Crichton was ruled to be an obstruction as Sasagi took a dive to convince the referee of the illegal decoy.

The spiteful clash spilled over into a melee involving several players a few minutes from the final siren with Roosters hotheads Lindsay Collins and Spencer Leniu arcing up at Joseph Tapine and Danny Levi.

After booting the penalty goal, the Roosters had one last set to draw level and their final play swept from one side of the field to the other before Keary kicked for Tupou to juggle the Steeden then plant it down in the corner.

Keary, a third-choice goalkicker at best, missed the sideline conversion after the siren and the Raiders hung on to win one of the most action-packed matches of the season.

4. Ponga propels Knights into playoff equation

There is unlikely to be too many footy fans firing up the replay machines to watch Sunday’s Newcastle vs Gold Coast clash at McDonald Jones Stadium.

Whatever the opposite of an NRL blockbuster is, this was it.

The Knights had plenty to play for, the Titans only had pride on the line.

JoJo Fifita put the visitors up 4-0 with the first try of the match before Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga took over.

He cut through a David Fifita “attempted” tackle and then backed up Bradman Best, returning from his hamstring strain, to make it a first-half double.

“I just wanted to be in the game early, and just be in it. I felt like I did that today, and off the back of that you get lucky every now and then,” Ponga said.

Rookie winger Fletcher Sharpe raced in for a hat-trick in the second half and while the Titans showed some ticker to reduce the gap to eight at one stage, the result was never in doubt.

“It’s a nice feeling knowing we are in control of our future,” Ponga added.

5. Fermor stands tall for Titans

If Des Hasler had a few more players like Beau Fermor, they would not be perennial also-rans.

The fringe Maroons Origin representative racked up 247 running metres, 117 post contact, against the Knights and touched the ball 30 times in a superb all-round 80-minute performance.

Hasler loves workers in his pack – it was what he based his success on when he was a player and during his coaching stints at Manly and Canterbury.

There are nowhere near enough of them on the Gold Coast roster and they will be mired in mediocrity until they have more players who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves.

The Kick: League’s best minds need to find hip-drop solution

Only conspiracy theorists think players are deliberately trying to injure opponents with hip-drop tackles but it is a mystery as to why they keep happening.

It is only a phenomenon which has only reared its ugly head in recent years and they usually occur due to poor tackling technique, a defender’s fatigue, bad luck or a combination of all three.

Whitehead came up to Smith after his hip-drop as he was receiving treatment to apologise and the Rooster bore him no ill will.

But the damage to his knee means Smith is unlikely to play again this season in another huge blow to the Tricolours’ chances of going all the way.

There was a similar incident on Friday night when Bronson Xerri landed on the legs of Jason Saab and the Manly winger is also unlikely to be seen again in 2024 while the Bulldogs centre is looking at a ban of 1-2 matches.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley has stated that it does not matter if acts of foul play are deliberate – if they are careless or reckless then they will be punished.

On that score it looks certain that Whitehead will not be seen again in a Raiders jersey with the Catalans-bound forward certain to attract a suspension when the match review committee’s findings are announced on Monday.

The big picture topic for the NRL needs to be a way to eradicate, or at the very least reduce, the hip-drop scourge which has infiltrated the premiership.

Get coaches, current and former players together at the end of the season to work out a solution.