Soward: Panthers on top; bottom five separated

Penrith are at the summit and there's another change this week with the bottom five teams ranked solely on their round-10 efforts rather than how they're travelling overall.

There's an obvious gap between the struggling Broncos, Bulldogs, Titans, Warriors and Cowboys and the rest of the league at the halfway mark, hence they've been judged under their own system.

At the pointy end of things, the Panthers have ascended to the top of the Power Rankings as well as the Telstra Premiership.

1. Penrith Panthers (Last week: 3)

They were expected to beat the Cowboys by 40 but played a bit cautiously when things didn't go their way. But the good teams find a way to win when below their best and Penrith are proving to be one of the better sides.

2. Parramatta Eels (1)

Failed to turn up against Manly. Showed how good they are by staying in the contest when things went awry, but their start was disappointing. Should bounce back when they regain some troops. Huge clash with the Wests Tigers on Thursday.

3. Sydney Roosters (2)

They'd be disappointed to lose to Canberra, but they'd been up for a while. Maybe a couple of recent tough contests and travel caught up with them. Expect them to bounce back against the Warriors with a nine-day turnaround.

4. Melbourne Storm (4)

Premiership threat. Extremely hard to beat on their day. Melbourne have crept up on everyone and are poised to roll into yet another deep finals charge.

5. Newcastle Knights (5)

Fantastic first half but only just held on as the Rabbitohs stormed home. There's a pattern emerging: it was a similar story against Manly in round eight. A full 80-minute performance is needed to compete with the big dogs.

6. Manly Sea Eagles (7)

Daly Cherry-Evans is the best halfback world when he plays like he did against the Eels. A much-needed performance for a depleted team. If Manly are to make a run until Tom Trbojevic and Dylan Walker return, it'll be off the back of DCE.

7. Wests Tigers (9)

Absolutely fantastic. A really mature, intense, physical style against Brisbane. It's the blueprint for how they need to finish the season. On that form, they'll definitely break their finals drought in 2020.

8. Canberra Raiders (8)

Loved the fact they utilised a siege mentality in the grand final rematch amid their injury woes. Learned a lot about themselves and a win like that could spark Canberra on a run. But can they maintain that level of emotion?

9. South Sydney Rabbitohs (6)

Continue to beat themselves with errors. Souths have fantastic players in the skill positions and have proven they can score points and compete, but the self-inflicted pressure is suffocating them.

10. St George Illawarra Dragons (10)

Got out of jail against the Bulldogs in a game they were expected to win. Their season is on the line when they face Cronulla.

11. Cronulla Sharks (11)

Did what they were supposed to do in a resounding win against the Warriors. Their challenge is the local derby this week.

12. North Queensland Cowboys (16)

Tried the hardest of the bottom five teams to earn top spot of this secondary group. Had every reason to sit around in Penrith for four hours and then lose by 40 as expected. Instead, they led at stages and were lively thanks largely to rookies Daejarn Asi and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow. It will be interesting to see what impact the departure of coach Paul Green has on things.

13. Canterbury Bulldogs (15)

Tried super hard again - and that's their standard. Canterbury could have turned it up after being down 10-0 early to the Dragons but fought back and ultimately threw the game away. They can build off effort like that.

14. New Zealand Warriors (13)

The season from hell continues. It looks like the are Warriors at their wits' end with family issues - and who can blame them? We can only hope they put in a couple of good performances to get their spirits up.

15. Gold Coast Titans (12)

There seems to be real confusion about whether they want to play NRL every week. Yes, they have limited talent, but the Titans showed none of the excitement that helped them beat the Broncos in round seven.

16. Brisbane Broncos (14)

The worst effort of the bottom five sides - Brisbane failed to get off the plane. They appear to be a club divided between coach and players. The attitude reflects the leadership and unfortunately, Anthony Seibold is at the helm of that. 

 

The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of the NRL, ARLC, NRL clubs or state associations.