The new-look Dragons passed their first test with flying colours as their quartet of quality recruits conjured up an encouraging trial win over the Roosters at Kogarah.
Tipped to be wooden spoon contenders in 2025, St George Illawarra are hellbent on making the bookmakers eat their words and opened their campaign in fine style with a 22-8 triumph over the Roosters.
Michael Maguire’s made a sudden impact on the Broncos with an ultra impressive 50-12 thumping of an admittedly inept Titans team in Toowoomba.
Maguire was brought in to sharpen up the star-studded roster and instil accountability after their dismal 12th-placed finish in 2024 and the early returns are promising even if trial form is not the most reliable indicators of future prospects.
At Kogarah, the Bulldogs and Tigers gave their fan bases optimism for the future with several young guns showing they are ready for NRL level.
Both coaches rested their mainstays but Wests five-eighth Lachie Galvin had a run with many of his contemporaries and looks ready to kick on from last year’s impressive rookie season.
Dragons 26, Roosters 8
Red V recruits make their presence felt
This was everything Shane Flanagan wanted to see from his revamped side following the well-documented exits of Ben Hunt and Zac Lomax.
Damien Cook was dynamic at hooker, Clint Gutherson was non-stop as always at fullback, Valentine Holmes added a touch of class in the centres while halfback Lachlan Ilias slotted in well alongside Kyle Flanagan against the Roosters.
Both teams fielded line-ups with several players who will be in the side in their respective Round 1 assignments but it was the Dragons who clicked while the Roosters looked rusty.
Both coaches gave their extended bench of young players and NSW Cup journeymen an opportunity in the second half but in the opening 40 minutes, the new faces at the Dragons maintained the upper hand.
Kyle Flanagan appears ready to take on more responsibility with Hunt no longer on the scene and he opened the scoring with some clever deception near the line in the 19th minute.
He put in a stab kick which rebounded nicely for Cook to make it 12-0 a few minutes later and lobbed a cut-out pass over Young’s grasp on the Roosters’ right wing to present Sione Finau with a stroll to the line.
Young hit back just before half-time when he scored in the corner but the 18-4 scoreline was reflective of the Dragons’ dominance.
Former Australian rugby sevens star Nathan Lawson showed skill to reel in a kick and put in a grubber for Kade Reed to score before veteran winger Mikaele Ravalawa sealed the 26-8 triumph a few minutes from full-time.
With only two trials to get his revamped roster on the same page, Shane Flanagan had to use this time to get his new combinations firing while other coaches have rested the majority of their stars in their opening pre-season hit-out.
He needed to get his off-season purchases meshing together, particularly with three new members of the spine plus Holmes in his first-choice line-up.
The Dragons have been installed as favourites for the wooden spoon by the bookmakers but Flanagan, as he showed last year in his first year at the club has a habit of ensuring his teams always play with a competitive edge and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he gets the Dragons again within striking distance of the playoffs despite losing Lomax and Hunt.
For the Roosters, Chad Townsend and Sandon Smith did not get much room to move in their first outing as a halves combination – they will start the season as the team’s playmakers with Sam Walker out until midway through the year as he rehabs his torn ACL.
Former Wallabies winger Mark Nawaqanitawase started at left centre and had some nice touches out wide and laid on a try in the second half when he was moved to fullback.
With Young and veteran Daniel Tupou the incumbents on the flank, Nawaqanitawase looks like he will be used as a centre after his memorable debut on the wing late last season.
Rookie playmaker Toby Rodwell demonstrated in the second half why the Roosters have high hopes of him becoming an NRL star of the future.
It’s shaping up as a tricky year for Trent Robinson with his team missing several players from last year’s final squad either through injury or off-season departures.
He will bring the likes of James Tedesco, Angus Crichton, Lindsay Collins and Victor Radley out of cotton wool for their second trial next week against the Knights at Gosford to get some time under their belt before their Round 1 assignment against the Broncos.
Clint Gutherson celebrates a tackle. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Broncos 50, Titans 12
Mariner leaves Coast all at sea
When one team rolls out a line-up containing 10 regular first-graders and the opposition has just a sprinkling of top-liners, you expect a lopsided result.
The problem for Des Hasler is that it was his Titans side that had plenty of NRL regulars at Toowoomba on Sunday and Brisbane opted to give many of their fringe squad members a run.
If you didn’t know any better, you could be forgiven for thinking this was an NRL outfit taking on a Queensland Cup squad judging by the Broncos’ dominance against an at times comically bad Gold Coast side.
One of the few NRL stars turning out for Brisbane was Deine Mariner, who was a class above the Titans and he should have all but locked up a centre spot for Round 1 with his brilliant two-try performance.
Cory Paix plunged over twice from close range, Gehamat Shibasaki and Brendan Piakura also got on the scoresheet as the Broncos piled on 24 points in almost as many minutes.
Titans forward David Fifita had made an early comeback from an ankle injury to play in this trial but you had to be paying careful attention to make sure he was on the field.
He confirmed rumours of his participation on the stroke of half-time when he collected a ricochet from a grubber to cut the margin to 24-6 at the break.
Mariner’s double, either side of four-pointers to Latrell Siegwalt and Delouise Hoeter, made the scoreline even more embarrassing for the Titans and when towering forward Ben Te Kura touched down midway through the first half, Brisbane had racked up 50 and a score of 70-plus was on the cards.
Kobe Hetherington takes on the defence. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
With both coaches emptying their benches to give back-up players a run, the scoring mercifully stopped for Gold Coast, with winger Jaylan De Groot shaving the final deficit back by six.
The Titans don’t play in Round 1 but even with the extra week to prepare for their opening assignment against Canterbury in Round 1, Hasler will need to work overtime to get them even close to resembling a first-grade team.
They were without key players such as halfback Jayden Campbell on All Stars duty, fullback Keano Kini and forward leaders Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and their star recruit, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, so there is some cause for optimism amid the gloom.
But as Fox League analyst Greg Alexander surmised, trial form doesn’t really count, but sometimes it does. Those times are when a team is exposed for having a lack of commitment, skill and cohesion and all three were on display on Sunday from Hasler’s bedraggled squad.
As bad as they were, the Broncos showed they have plenty of depth with Paix, Te Kura and second-rower Jaiyden Hunt putting their hand up for increased game time this year as Maguire attempts to get Brisbane back in playoff contention after taking over from Kevin Walters.
Bulldogs 20 Tigers 14
Gen-Next strong at both clubs
It was Pups versus Cubs at Kogarah with Cameron Ciraldo and Benji Marshall showcasing their rising stars rather than fielding too many NRL players in their trial.
Canterbury and Wests Tigers have invested heavily in their junior pathways in recent years after finding little success via the chequebook.
Both clubs have plenty of talent knocking on the door for when the senior members of each squad are on the way out.
Tigers five-eighth Lachie Galvin was the standout rookie in the NRL last year and he demonstrated the benefits of that debut campaign with a top-shelf display in his first-half hit-out.
Galvin set up a try by shaping to kick then creating a break down the right edge for Heath Mason to win the race to Solomona Faataape’s in-field kick.
His halves partnership with star recruit Jarome Luai will be integral to the Tigers’ hopes of not only avoiding a fourth straight wooden spoon but to rise into playoff contention.
Bulldogs prop Jack Todd, who re-signed earlier this week until the end of 2026, put his name on Ciraldo’s shortlist for Round 1 with a barnstorming display off the bench.
Todd opened the scoring with his first touch after charging onto the field off the bench in the 23rd minute and then made a damaging run which left four defenders in his wake to set up a try to centre Ragarive Wavik which was unfortunately denied by the Bunker after he grazed the sideline while touching down.
Young winger Ratu Rinakama, an athletic Fijian who has starred in the club’s junior rep squads in the past couple of years, showed he could be ready to fill the wing spot left vacant by Josh Addo-Carr joining the Eels by speeding over in the corner just before half-time.
Faataape, who scored four tries in seven NRL appearances in his rookie season last year, put the Tigers up with two tries from short-side raids early in the second half.
He is a chance to get the nod ahead of Justin Olam, Adam Doueihi or Brent Naden for a centre berth in their Round 1 Campbelltown clash with the Knights.
Rinakama stood up Faataape with little space to move to touch down for his second in the corner to lock the scores up at 14-14 midway through the second half.
The Dogs hit the front in the 65th minute when winger Jonathan Sua dived over in the right corner and they hung on by the skin of their teeth as the Tigers panicked away chances to draw level in the closing stages.
Canterbury will give their first-choice players a run next Saturday when they travel to Redcliffe for a showdown with the Broncos before returning to Kogarah in Round 1 for a date with the Dragons.
