Talking Points, Round 5, Shane Flanagan under pressure to save job at Dragons, Cameron Ciraldo leaves out Bronson Xerri

From winless to putting 52 points on the Dolphins.

It was a dramatic turnaround from Manly and one few saw coming, even if it was expected that the playing group would lift for Kieran Foran’s first game in charge.

With it, Foran entered the history books as just the third coach in premiership history to have his side score 50 or more points in their debut coaching game, while 34 points was the equal-largest ever win for a mid-season coach.

So, how did the Sea Eagles reverse their fortunes and what does it say, if anything, about sacked coach Anthony Seibold?

Well, to start with, Matty Johns said he noticed a clear change in the way Manly went about things against the Dolphins.

“You can see they’ve simplified and probably tried to do less and, in turn, doing the really good things well you end up doing more,” Johns said after the victory.

The Sea Eagles showed their hand under Seibold early in last month’s loss to the Roosters, spreading the ball to score a try within the opening minute.

It paid off on that occasion, but when the forward pack was struggling to gain ascendancy it was hard for Manly to find much more success getting early ball to its speedy outside backs.

It was a much simpler, more direct approach under Foran with the much-maligned Jake Trbojevic running for what was easily a season-high 58 metres from seven carries.

All up, five Manly forwards topped 100 metres with Haumole Olakau’atu rumbling his way to 243 metres from 23 carries.

Of course, a slew of errors from the Dolphins and lopsided possession count meant Manly’s big men were much more involved, but even early in the game it seemed like the Sea Eagles had a different game plan under Foran.

“I feel like they changed the way they played… they didn’t shift out of their own end,” former NRL playmaker Luke Keary said.

“I think Jake had eight or nine runs, Paseka was up over 10, Haumole had 22 runs for 200 metres. They let their forwards be forwards and then Tommy and Koula came into the game a bit later.”

Foran put that down to the playing group when asked about the change post-game, deflecting the praise on his own coaching and declaring “that is all on the boys”.

“They took accountability for where things were at, and they decided to front up and go to work and that’s all we’ve asked of them to do is have a look at themselves in the mirror and turn up and put some pride back in the jersey and they did that tonight,” he added.

Whether the Sea Eagles can back up their effort against the Dolphins is the next question, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.

It begs the question: where was any of this under Seibold?

Or more specifically, as Nathan Hindmarsh floated, there has been a theory of Manly players “running dead” under Seibold. But both he and Johns put that to bed.

“You can’t as a professional rugby league player… we’ll squash that right now. You can’t not turn up as a rugby league player every week,” Hindmarsh said.

Johns, meanwhile, urged people to take Seibold out of the equation for a second and consider, regardless of who the previous coach was, what kind of impact Foran as a fresh voice in the locker room would have.

“Think about if you were a player and Kieran Foran walks into the dressing room and you’ve been a teammate of his and the respect you’ve got,” Johns said.

“As soon as he walks into the room he doesn’t have to demand any respect. He’s just got it.”

BRONCOS STAR URGED TO ‘STAND TALL’ AMID INJURY CRISIS

Michael Maguire and the Broncos are dealing with a major injury crisis.

No team was hit harder by the injury bug this past weekend than the Broncos.

In scenes reminiscent of last year’s nightmare in Melbourne when losing three (Ezra Mam, Adam Reynolds, Selwyn Cobbo) to hamstring injuries against the Storm, three key spine players in Reynolds, Reece Walsh and Ben Hunt all suffered setbacks Saturday night on the Gold Coast.

According to Maguire, Walsh is out for 4-6 weeks with a facial fracture, Hunt 6-8 (MCL) while Reynolds is a 50/50 chance of lining up against the Cowboys on Friday night.

If Reynolds can’t go, Tom Duffy will make his club debut against the team he started his career with before leaving for Brisbane in the off-season.

With potentially three playmakers out, five-eighth Mam will need to provide something special for the Broncos to maintain their winning run.

He did that against the Titans even with Reynolds and Walsh leaving the game early.

Mam’s running game was an asset as he recorded 101 metres, seven tackle busts and two line breaks.

Premiership winning half Luke Keary believes that Mam will be key over the next month.

While there are no issues with his attack, there will be added responsibility that Mam will have to manage according to Keary, especially in defence.

“He was the difference against the Titans,” Keary said..

“He came into his own and started to run the ball. With this news on Ben Hunt being out for such a long time and Adam missing some time, he is going to have to be the one that stands up really tall for Brisbane.

“It starts with his defence. I think it was the Parramatta game, that left edge leaked two or three really soft tries. He copped some criticism for that… but when he’s defending and we saw him in the grand final go after a few of those Melbourne players, it sets his whole game up.”

Fox League’s Greg Alexander agreed with Keary, believing that Mam will be able to springboard off Saturday night’s improved performance.

“He is the match-winner for Brisbane and has proven that over the last few years,” Alexander said.

“Last night was his best game. I was a little surprised how he started the season… he looked a little bit flat.

‘GONE BACKWARDS’: WHY 2026 COULD QUICKLY GET UGLY FOR DOLPHINS

What a difference a fortnight makes.

Two weeks ago, the Dolphins looked like worldbeaters when they thrashed Cronulla in a statement win to go to 2-1.

Coach Kristian Woolf was most impressed with his side’s defence that night, given it had been a weakness of theirs.

While they were OK against Brisbane last week, Thursday night’s performance was dreadful,

with premiership winning half Luke Keary believing the Dolphins have “gone backwards”.

They couldn’t have been much worse against Manly, conceding 34 points in the first half in a 52-18 thrashing.

“The Dolphins have the talent to be a top-four side but for Kristian Woolf, you must be really disappointed in this because you come up with errors sometimes and whatnot but some of the defensive efforts were just poor,” Matty Johns said on Fox League.

Bryan Fletcher added: “It’s the errors that are killing them. We all know they can attack, but they’re not getting their defence right, and we heard during the off-season that’s what they wanted to work on, and if anything, they are just as bad in defence as they were last year.”

The Dolphins have conceded 28 points across five games – one of the worst marks in the league.

Worringly, things don’t get easier for the club.

While a bye comes at a good time in Round 6, following that, they have dates with the Panthers, Warriors and Storm who sit 1st, 3rd and 2nd respectively in points per game.

Even this early in the season, if changes aren’t made during the bye week, this season could get ugly quickly.

Woolf said changes are on the horizon.

“Look, it is a bit of a mystery but we thought our preparation was good,” Woolf said.

“I certainly didn’t get any feels that bothered me before the game or anything like that.

“You give a good attacking side like that as much footy as we did and they become harder and harder to handle… It just wasn’t good enough.

“I am disappointed. I think we’re all disappointed. There’s no doubt about that. We’re going to have a good hard look at where we’re at, and we’re going to make some changes.

“We’re going to make changes to what we’re doing. We’re going to improve what we’re doing.”

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‘CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT BURTON’S FEELING’: THE BIG ISSUE FOR DOGS

For another week, all the talk out of Belmore is going to be on the spine and according to former NRL playmaker Luke Keary, Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo needs to make a final call or risk further confusing his playing group.

Ciraldo was forced into a change during Friday’s loss to South Sydney after skipper Stephen Crichton went down injured and while all logic suggested Bronson Xerri would be the natural replacement, he instead opted to bring Sean O’Sullivan into the contest.

Ciraldo explained post-game that he felt like he needed to bring a strong communicator onto the field having lost Crichton, which is understandable, but poses another question in itself given the halfback, five-eighth or even fullback is usually the best talker on the field.

Instead, the Bulldogs again seem to still be in the process of working out what their best halves pairing is and while Ciraldo has been firm in selecting Matt Burton and Lachlan Galvin as his combination, even he has been experimenting with that.

Ciraldo did it the week prior against Newcastle, and that time it wasn’t injury-forced. Now, Keary worries that the constant chopping and changing could impact Burton’s confidence.

“I’m a bit puzzled by it,” Keary said on Fox League.

“We heard Jake interview Cameron before the game… he said he’s a readymade replacement for the outside backs and that’s the situation where you think he’s a left centre, your left centre’s just gone down. It’s almost a straight swap.

“But the thing I’m a little bit concerned about, I don’t know what’s going inside there, but there’s so much chat about their attack. Even they’re talking about it a lot. The energy that takes from you… the forward pack, the confusion it causes, the trust.

“You start to lose the trust of your big men in the middle, you start to lose the trust of your outside backs. I can’t imagine what Matt Burton’s feeling, thinking, going through, switching positions each week.

“What’s his job? Is he going to be playing a full game at five-eighth or in the centres. There is just a lot going on. They just need to get it sorted.”

The long-term injury to Crichton may end forcing Ciraldo’s hand, with it making sense to move Burton to the centres full-time and bring O’Sullivan into the seven jumper.

Although there is also the alternative of recalling Xerri, who was dropped after the opening round win over the Dragons.

Whatever the solution may be, former Broncos coach Kevin Walters said Ciraldo needs to find a way to continue leaning into Burton’s strengths as a runner after he had nine carries for 88 metres on Friday.

“If I am Matt Burton, and you are getting switched all the time, I don’t think that does much for your confidence either,” Walters added.

“When one minute you’re playing five-eighth, and the next minute you’re centre, and then you’re even in games, they’ve been swapping him. I can understand for a set or two, but for long periods of time?”

Errors certainly didn’t help the Bulldogs in their bid to find some sort of attacking rhythm, with Michael Ennis describing their performance as “clunky” while Braith Anasta questioned if Ciraldo, even if a brilliant coach, was guilty of “over-thinking” and “over-coaching”.

“I’m just confused by it, and you’ve got a gun centre there that you’ve had a bit of a falling out with because you moved him to the right, he wasn’t happy, and we saw how it played out, but apparently he is happy now,” Anasta said.

“He’s done the work in the reserve grade, he’s sitting there. He would have been motivated (to play today). Of course he would have.

“You’re just think of overthinking, over-analysing, over-coaching at the moment… a lot of their players would be, yeah they’re down in confidence, but they’re also not knowing what’s going on.”

‘SCARY’ CLEARY WARNING AS 19YO ‘KILLER’ IS ‘DESTINED FOR ORIGIN’

It is hard to put Penrith’s dominance so far this year into words, so how about we let the numbers do the talking to start.

That 50-10 win on Friday night was Melbourne’s biggest loss since 2008, while it was the first time the Storm had conceded the half-century since 2003.

The Panthers, meanwhile, became the first team in premiership history to win their first five games of the season by 20 points or more, with the latest victory taking their for-and-against to +150.

That is the third-best points differential of any team in history after five games.

But if there is one number that best sums up the terrifying way the Panthers have strangled teams out of the contest from the jump this season, it is 11.

That is the total number of minutes Penrith has trailed in 2026, out of 400.

Even coach Ivan Cleary conceded post-game the 50-10 scoreline was a “shock”.

But the reality is that the once four-time defending premiers don’t have a weakness. Last year it was their left-edge defence, but with Blaize Talagi, Casey McLean and Tom Jenkins quickly growing more comfortable playing and defending next to each other, that is no longer the case.

In fact, McLean and Jenkins have now put their names in the Origin conversation, while Talagi is a far more developed five-eighth than the raw one who at times drifted in and out of games last year, which is understandable when you are playing with a halfback like Nathan Cleary.

It makes sense that you would defer to him. But now Talagi is demanding the ball more and taking on the line with confidence.

Cleary, meanwhile, well former NRL five-eighth Luke Keary said it is “scary to think” that the 28-year-old is realistically just entering the prime years of his career ahead of his 200th game next week.

“He hasn’t, probably by his own admission, put a full season together due to injury, suspension and some other stuff. But this is the best I’ve seen him,” Keary added on Fox League.

“The way they are moving around him is a bit different. He’s popping up on short sides, around the ruck, he’s moving from side to side. Blaize Talagi is doing a really good job of complementing him and then there is Isaah and Dylan through the middle.”

While Jarome Luai and Apisai Koroisau have since left for the Tigers, that core trio along with the suspended Mitch Kenny have remained at the foot of the mountains and provided some much-needed stability amidst all the changes around them.

McLean though has been a revelation at centre this season, and is rewarding coach Cleary for his patient approach after he was caught out defensively at times early in his career.

Cleary admitted in his post-game press conference on Friday that he remembered thinking at the time last season, speaking in general about that new-look left edge, that it was “probably asking a lot” of them to work it out on the fly.

“But we decided, even while we were losing, to keep them in and try ride them through it,” he added.

Now they have come out the other side and McLean has catapulted into Origin calculations after Stephen Crichton went down injured.

Braith Anasta compared McLean to “Superman” and while the 19-year-old is an athletic freak, Michael Ennis said it was the way he responded to adversity early in his career that has defined his rise.

“I reckon he showed some real character last year because he burst onto the scene, got a taste of the Kiwis in his first season at the back-end of the year and then all of a sudden there was a period last year where a new combination with Talagi (was forming),” Ennis said on Fox League.

“I remember the night Haumole Olakau’atu and Cherry-Evans took him and Talagi to task and then I think it was the following week Ivan left him out of the side and I thought it would be great to see his response… the way he fought back, the way he finished the year and now the authority that he is playing with.

“He is 19 years old. He has a physical presence, he’s got incredible speed and balance. Even in the big games, there was a moment where Stephen Crichton took it to him and stood face to face with him.

“It was like Crichton tried to make a statement… and he walked towards it. There is a winner in there, there is a killer inside and I just think he’s destined for Origin football.

STORM ARE ‘NOWHERE NEAR WHERE’ THEY NEED TO BE. HERE’S WHY

It wasn’t as if the Storm were that far off the pace.

But against this Panthers team, anything other than near-perfection is not good enough and Craig Bellamy’s side learned that lesson the hard way on Friday night.

It was the first time Melbourne had conceded 50 points since 2003, while the 50-10 defeat marked the club’s largest since the 2008 Grand Final loss to Manly.

There were clearly some excuses Bellamy could turn to. After all, Melbourne’s casualty ward is extensive with Jack Howarth, Xavier Coates, Marion Seve, Ativalu Lisati, Moses Leo, Eliesa Katoa and now Tui Kamikamica all unavailable.

It is the loss of Katoa and Kamikamica up front, however, that is of the biggest concern to Fox League expert Michael Ennis.

“I saw (Moses) Leota tonight want to take on the contest and I saw Utoikamanu, and I know it’s strategic when he runs a little wider and runs over the top of Blaize Talagi or Nathan Cleary on those edges, but he should be their play one front rower,” Ennis said.

“Melbourne built that identity around guys like Jesse Bromwich and Glenn Lazarus. That’s what they need from one of these forwards because they don’t have that experience in the outside backs.

“Coates will come back and help, he’s world-class. But you’re not relying on a winger to turn around a 50-point deficit.”

Bellamy certainly seems aware of that reality, warning in his post-game press conference that he will send players to reserve grade if they are not willing to work hard to end the team’s three-game losing skid.

Even without all those players, this is a Storm team that still possesses plenty of quality, headlined by Harry Grant, Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster.

But the superstar trio won’t be able to do much to impact the result if the Storm concede anywhere close to 50 points.

Now, obviously they aren’t going to come up against a juggernaut like Penrith every week, and Melbourne’s outside back stocks should be bolstered in the coming weeks with Coates the big name to monitor as he eyes a Round 10 return.

Until then, Luke Keary said on Fox League that “personnel wise” the Storm are just “not in the ballpark to compete with Penrith”.

But regardless of the players available, Bellamy had a knack for getting the most out of understrength Storm teams over the years.

At the moment, however, this champion team is on a three-game losing streak and looks “nowhere near” where Bellamy would want them according to Ennis.

It wasn’t about the result tonight but the identity of the Melbourne Storm and the standards and expectations that they’ve had for two decades, not just for a year or two,” Ennis added.

“Defensively, it’s been 20 years since they’ve conceded 50 points.

“The contact tonight and their time in the tackle was not where Melbourne normally are at. It’s not an intelligence thing. It’s a desire and want thing, and that’s something Melbourne have never wavered from.”

‘RATTLED’ FLANAGAN SIGHT SAYS IT ALL FOR ‘LIFELESS’ DRAGONS

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan struck a shattered figure in his post-game press conference on Saturday night.

It has been a rough season for the winless Dragons so far, and the 32-0 loss to North Queensland was clearly the low point.

Flanagan faced some tough questions from reporters and the usually composed coach was anything but, unable to give any answers for his club’s shocking start.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shane Flanagan like that,” Greg Alexander said on Fox League.

“He’s a very strong man that takes the fight to questions. He looked and sounded rattled. I’ve never seen Flanno like that.”

Flanagan didn’t enter the season under pressure or on any sort of coaching hot seat.

The signs were good early, following a tight loss to the Bulldogs in Vegas

However, other than their season opener and first 60 minutes of the Storm game in Round 2, the Dragons have been ordinary to say the least.

Flanagan is now on the hottest seat of any coach in the NRL.

There’s a belief he will keep his job for this week, but a loss to Manly next week could spell doom for the premiership winning coach.

Alexander says there were some good signs throughout the Dragons’ first four games, but against the Cowboys, any progress that was made all went out the window, calling it a “lifeless” performance.

“I think the team yesterday looked like we’ve lost four close games… it was almost like, ‘We’ve tried our guts out and we just can’t get a win’,” Alexander said.

“It was like the balloon was pricked and the air went out of it. It was that lifeless of a performance.”

Former NRL halfback Luke Keary was even harsher, describing what he saw as “diabolical”.

“The way they came out and played, it was so poor in front of a home crowd, back at Kogarah,” Keary said.

“Their defence on that left edge was poor. The defence through the middle, they just let the Cowboys do whatever they wanted. Then they attacked the Cowboys with 12 men and I don’t think they came close to scoring at all through the game.

“Honestly, I’m lost for words.

“Shane Flanagan after the game summed it up. He didn’t try to make excuses. He apologised to the fans and said it is unacceptable.”

Flanagan was given an extension last season until the end of 2028, but despite this, the sense is that he will need a minor miracle to avoid being dealt the same fate as the recently sacked Anthony Seibold.

ARE THE WARRIORS PREMIERSHIP CONTENDERS… OR PRETENDERS?

After winning their first three matches of the season against the Roosters, Raiders and Knights, the Warriors sat on top of the NRL ladder and looked like a real premiership threat.