NRL 2022

Cook's triple treat and a double to winger Alex Johnston were the cornerstone of the Rabbitohs' third win of the season.

In the early stages it was the Bulldogs doing all the attacking and they opened the scoring in the 15th minute when halfback Kyle Flanagan delivered a perfectly timed pass over the top for Brent Naden to cross in the right hand corner. The halfback's sideline conversion made it 6-0.

Six minutes later the Bulldogs threatened to extend their lead but Braidon Burns was held up over the line.

An eight-point loss in round six and a six-point loss in round 19 ranked as two of the Broncos' best showings in a season which saw them win just seven games on their way to finishing 14th.

Hopes were high of a new dawn at Red Hill in 2022 with Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell joining a roster that already boasted Payne Haas and Kotoni Staggs but three straight losses have taken the shine off a promising 2-0 start.

The Rabbitohs had beaten the Bulldogs in the 2014 grand final just six months earlier so the Good Friday 2015 game presented Graham and his men with a shot at redemption.

A controversial late penalty goal handed the Rabbitohs an 18-17 win and left the Bulldogs seething and it's fair to say the bad blood between the teams still lingers, as evidenced by last year's fiery clash which ended with Souths winning on the scoreboard but losing Cody Walker and Keaon Koloamatangi to suspension.

The Raiders cracked the Cowboys at the first opportunity, with Tom Starling darting through a huge hole to cross under the posts untouched just three minutes into the contest. 

Jordan Rapana crossed in the 15th minute off a lovely Corey Harawira-Naera tap-on and it could have been an ugly scorecard had Elliott Whitehead not spilled an attacking Jack Wighton grubber in the Cowboys' in-goal 10 minutes after that. 

Such are the vagaries of the draw that they are meeting for the second time inside the first six weeks, the Cowboys proving far too strong in Townsville in round two.

The Cowboys are coming off a golden point heartbreaker against the Warriors while the Raiders were run ragged by a potent Storm outfit 30-16, the fourth game in a row they have conceded more than 20 points.

Defence is sure to be a key focus for Ricky Stuart this week as the Raiders look to put the clamps on a dangerous Cowboys side capable of producing some scintillating attack on their day.

The Red V got some momentum during the pre-season trials and carried that into a strong first-up win over the Warriors but losses to Penrith, Cronulla and Parramatta have set them on their heels.

The Rabbitohs pushed the Storm to golden point in round two and then outclassed arch-rivals the Roosters in round three but they were no match for the Panthers in last weekend's grand final rematch.

The Storm took the honours in both games in 2021 but the Raiders have fond memories of two emotion-charged wins in enemy territory at AAMI Park in round three, 2020 and also the 2019 qualifying final.

Based on last weekend's form it's hard to see the Raiders troubling the Storm, who dismantled the Bulldogs 44-0 a day after the Green Machine stalled in a 25-6 loss to Manly.

Roosters five-eighth Sam Walker landed a sideline conversion to put his team ahead 18-16 just six minutes from fulltime after they had trailed 10-0 at the interval and then laid on the match winning try for second-rower Sitili Tupouniua.

Roosters centre Joey Manu scored two individual tries to get his team into the match, while Brisbane centre Kotoni Staggs was equally as inspirational for his team.

The win was the Warriors' third in succession after back to back defeats of Wests Tigers and the Broncos, while Johnson's 15th career field goal secured his 100th NRL victory.

The Cowboys dominated most of the game and led 18-6 until just before halftime, when a Chanel Harris-Tavita 40:20 kick gave the Warriors a late opportunity to score and they capitalised.

The lead see-sawed in the second half until the match was decided in golden point when Johnson landed his third field goal attempt.

Match snapshot

In heavy rain in Newcastle, the home side looked to have scored first through Dom Young but the try was overturned for Tyson Frizell's lead run taking out Kieran Foran.

Instead Manly scored the only two tries of the opening half with Dylan Walker's short ball helping Andrew Davey over and a pinpoint Daly Cherry-Evans kick sitting up nicely for Morgan Harper and a 10-0 lead at the break.

A series of ruck penalties and set restarts given away by the Sea Eagles invited the Knights to attack after the resumption and Kalyn Ponga crossed after a nice sequence of offloading.