We are officially one quarter of the way through the 2016 season and the power rankings are starting to take on some consistency at the top of the chart. While the Broncos and Cowboys continue to duke it out for the top spot, Parramatta quickly reclaim their spot in the Top 4 with their 36-6 thrashing of the Raiders while the Cronulla Sharks hold onto fourth spot to round out the four premier teams of the competition. The Raiders are the big sliders this week while the Panthers and Titans climb the rankings despite posting loses. Elsewhere we saw the Knights and Roosters chalk up their first wins which saw them climb up the rankings while a new team was installed with the dubious honour of bringing up the rearguard.

Knoughtcastle No Longer – Miatch/Chris/DK Eel: The Knights built on their devastating loss to the Storm in Round 5 by seeing off the Tigers in front of a surprisingly large and vocal home crowd Three of the TCT rankers rewarded their efforts with a sizable boost up the rankings while sixtiesboy and Forty20 gave them a more modest push.

‘Eel Be Right – Forty20/DK Eel: The faith put in the Eels by Forty20 (3rd in Rd.5) and DK Eel (3rd in Rd.5) was quickly rewarded as the boys in Blue & Gold styled on the Canberra Raiders on a glorious Saturday afternoon. Shame on ye of little faith!

Peas In A Pod – miatch/Chris: A rather interesting result of this week’s individual rankings was the tips of miatch and Chris, who differed only on the placement of traditional rivals South Sydney and the Roosters across their entire rankings. miatch thought the Roosters did enough to claim 13th spot in his rankings, relegating the Bunnies to 14th while Chris switched it around, giving the nod to the Bunnies at 13th in spite of the loss and slotting the Roosters in at 14th.

See how the crew at TCT individually ranked the results from Round 3 as well as some of the maths behind the rankings!

1 (+1)		The Broncos are cruising on top of the table and now they are back with the top billing in TCT’s power rankings. We noted last week that Ben Hunt was flashing glimpses of his best in Round 5 and he backed it up against the Dragons with a rousing individual effort. With Hunt regaining his mojo and Milford in imperious control of his own game the Broncos have one of the most lethal halves pairings in the competition. When you match that with the one of the best defensive units in the game you can easily see why the Brisbane franchise is sitting pretty on the ladder and in the power rankings.
2 (-1)		Not the first team to get tripped up by the plucky Panthers and without a doubt the far from the last. It was hard work but they came away with the win as the superior class of their championship roster shone through when it counted. Jason Taumalolo was a force of nature in the ruck where he was capably assisted by Matt Scott and James Tamou while Lachlan Coote had the poise to ice the game with a very tidy field goal. They drop one spot in the rankings but it feels at this stage that the Broncos and Cowboys are very much at a point where they have established themselves as the two teams to beat can and freely interchange between 1 and 2 in the rankings depending on the nuances of their weekly efforts.
3 (+2)		The Eels bounced back from their loss to Penrith in emphatic fashion as they put the cleaners through the high-flying Raiders. Corey Norman and Kieran Foran finally found their rhythm together and dialed in the beating for the men from the nation’s capital. On the back of back of the newly wrought synergy of the two Parramatta play-makers, the left-edge of the Eels caught fire with Manu Ma’u terrorising Blake Austin and Michael Jennings giving Joseph Leilua a bath on the way to scoring a double. Brad Arthur’s Eels are still on pace to establish themselves as a historic defensive unit after conceding a miserly 65pts after 6 rounds – their best start through the first quarter of a season since 1986.
4 (=)		The Bunker was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons again as Ben Barba profited with a long range try from an extremely contentions decision not to rule a knock on against James Maloney in the lead up of the play. Beyond that, the Sharkies did enough to get the win at home against the valiant Gold Coast outfit. Mind you the Sharks had to overcome a pretty hefty handicap as they lost both James Maloney and Luke Lewis to the concussion protocol in the first half and would also lose Andrew Fifita late in the game due to an arm injury. While I do not think they are as outright imposing as the three teams above them in the power rankings, the Sharks have shown they will be a highly competitive unit in 2016.
5 (+2)		Des certainly brought the bounce-back factor into play on Monday night as the Dogs ground out the Storm in their Melbourne fortress that is AAMI Park. The inclusion of Kerrod Holland proved to be crucial as the late-blooming centre scored the final try of the night and kicked the game beyond the reach of Cameron Smith and company, knocking over three conversions from as many attempts. The play of their halves has improved since they lost to the Eels in Round 3 but there are still serious question marks over their ability to steer the Bulldogs to victory when their pack is outmatched.
6 (+2)		The Panthers lost the battle and the war but get the terrific consolation prize that is sixth place in TCT’s power rankings! The mountain men move up two places in spite of the loss after proving they can mix it with the heavyweights of the competition. They may be 2-4 on the ladder but their two wins have come against the Broncos and Eels while they also had narrow losses to the Cowboys, Bulldogs and to a lesser extent the Raiders. Peter Wallace is proving far more useful to them as a hooker than he ever did as a halfback and has mitigated the injury to James Segeyaro a great deal more than most pundits would have anticipated. Their ability to compete and spoil the game for other teams is commendable but they will need to start finding a way to shut said games out if they want to hang around with the big boys in the power rankings.
7 (+4)		Much like the Panthers the Titans find themselves climbing the rankings in a losing week as they continue to show they can push the best teams in the NRL. Their lack of class and experience in the championship moments of a game is costing them dearly but Neil Henry has the Titans playing well above their supposed ceiling and only a fool would be taking them lightly as it stands. Henry has little choice but to continue to develop the young and inexperienced charges in his team with the rather intensive learning-on-the-job experience that is first-grade Rugby League but look for them to knock a few teams off as they learn their trade.
8 (-2)		Disastrous result for the lone Victorian franchise. Not only were they beaten in their backyard but they also lost their star centre Will Chambers for an astonishing 12-14 weeks due to foot fractures. The pressure now swings onto senior players like Smith, Cronk and Green to find a way to redistribute the load for a make-shift backline. Only a fool would write them off but the loss of Chambers will potentially be the difference in the closer affairs with Top 8 calibre teams.
9 (+3)		Trent Barrett and his Northern Shore charges traveled the Trans-Tasman on the weekend and ran out fairly comfortable winners over the woeful Warriors. Apisai  Koroisau continued his solid run of form in the halves but it has been a cohesive improvement across the entire roster rather than the form of a few individuals that has turned the fortunes of the Sea-Eagles around. Prime Time footy against the Eels will be a telling litmus test for Manly and the return of Foran (among other ex-Eagles at the Eels) to his former home will make for a fascinating sub-plot to the game itself.
10 (-7)		Probably too heavy a fall from grace for my liking, but the consensus rankings have spoken and the Raiders come out of Round 6 reeling as the biggest losers as they careen down the chart to #10. The 36-6 thrashing at the hands of the Eels would have left Ricky Stuart with plenty of problems, even before he contemplates injuries to star hooker Josh Hodgson and boom prop Paul Vaughan. Much like how the Eels laid out the blue prints to beating the Bulldogs, teams now have the tape on how to exploit the right-edge of the Raiders. Austin and Leilua will need to aim up quickly lest they cost their team again in the coming rounds.
11 (+3)		Who is that in eleventh on the power rankings? Why hello Newcastle, welcome out of the cellar! The Knights backed up their courageous loss to the Melbourne Storm in Round 5 by fending off the erratic Tigers to claim their maiden victory of the season. Dane Gagai played an assured hand from the back for the Novocastrians but the headlines all centred around a bizarre moment in the second half that featured a second ball on the field. Tigers fans have a reason to feel aggrieved given the referees made the incorrect call, which in turn led to the Knights scoring. Beyond that it felt like the Knights out-enthused the Tigers and credit definitely falls to coach Nathan Brown there. He might not be extracting polished performances out of his men but he is finding a way to get them up for a tussle.
12 (-2)		Fittingly, the Tigers slip just beneath the Knights this week following their loss to Newcastle. Bad officiating definitely contributed to the loss but Tigers fans also need to level with themselves and acknowledge that their team should have put the game beyond doubt before that point (much like how Eels fans had to reconcile that The Bunker over-rule against Penrith was just a piece in the puzzle of that loss). The Tigers are now 0-3 since Robbie Farah made his return from injury. Coincidence? Quite possibly. Still, the joint-venture had a highly publicised fallout with their former captain last year before patching things up, at least on the surface. While Farah may be contributing to their slump, Luke Brooks also deserves a solid chunk of the blame as his game bottoms out to newer and newer levels of mediocrity. With captain Aaron Woods riding the pine for 4-6 weeks due to an ankle injury and rumours swirling about the potential loss of talented young rake Manaia Cherrington to the Panthers, the Tigers have the odds stacked against them in the coming weeks.
13 (-4)		The Rabbitohs were knocked on their backsides by a one-man wrecking crew by the name of Dylan Napa. Napa’s monster individual game was underscored by his obvious and incredibly effective attempts to dominate talismanic forward Sam Burgess. With the heart and soul of their team spending more time eating dirt than anything else, the Rabbitohs were left to stagger and stumble their way through the game. Greg Inglis was once again invisible yet remains free of any intense scrutiny from the media. The double standards for certain superstar fullbacks are baffling at times! Fortunately South Sydney will be boosted by the return of Adam Reynolds in Round 7, who could not have made a more timely recovery given their struggles. On the other hand, his inclusion has come at the expense of Cody Walker which has left many fans of the Bunnies miffed given that they have gone cold on Luke Keary.
14 (+2)		Napa’s effort on Friday was so good that it deserves the headline spot in the comment section of two teams. Sam Burgess might still be shy of full fitness following the alarmingly brief recovery he allowed himself for a neck injury but he was completely dominated by Napa in a way that perhaps no other forward has managed to do in the NRL. Burgess was made a non-factor in the game (well, by the standards of Burgess) by the fiery red head and it allowed the likes of Jackson Hastings and Aidan Guerra to step up and steer the tri-colours home. The win gets the Roosters on the board, albeit still at the bottom of the premiership ladder with Newcastle’s victory over the Tigers but more importantly – off the bottom of TCT’s power rankings!
15 (-3)		I want to say ‘I give up’ in regards to the Warriors following their loss to the Sea-Eagles. I really do. Everyone knows their team is absolutely laden with talent, in particular their spine, which should be one of the premier combinations in the NRL. We have touched on the culture issue at the club in previous iterations of the power rankings but the insidious nature of the matter reared its head again in the loss to Manly as the Warriors were repeatedly found guilty of not putting effort into the plays that would keep them in the fight. McFadden at least has finally rung in some changes, dropping Robson for Tui Lolohea and bringing in young winger David Fusitua into the vacant wing position. The opportunity for Lolohea to get his hands on the ball more times in the game piques my interest as I rate the young utility back quite highly but is it a matter of shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic at this point? You decide.
16 (-1)		The Dragons arrive at rock bottom following TWO consecutive weeks of getting shut out by the opposition. It doesn’t escape me that they had to deal with away trips to the #1 and #2 teams in TCT’s power rankings but it is inexcusable for a NRL-calibre team to be left without a single point for in two weeks of competition – especially when they are fielding a relatively healthy outfit. To make matters worse, the Cowboys and Broncos easily accounted for them, padding their own attacking and defensive statistics along the way. The Dragon’s desperately need the South coast equivalent to ‘pizza at Hindy’s place’ lest their season slip away from them in the near future.

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