Round 22

The Gold Coast, who headed into Sunday's match on a 10-game losing streak and without their skipper Tino Fa'asuamaleaui, who missed the game due to the impending birth of his second child, ran riot against Manly for their biggest win of the year.

The result all but ends Manly's top-eight hopes, while they also lost winger Jason Saab to a suspected ACL injury in the second half. 

After making the finals in 2021 the Titans have had a huge fall from grace, winning just three games all season and scrambling to avoid a second wooden spoon in four years.

The Sea Eagles find themselves two games out of the eight on the back of three straight losses and must turn things around quickly if they hope to be part of the finals action.

When these sides met in Round 6 it was Manly racing to a 24-4 half-time lead before taking their foot off the gas in the second term and hanging on to win 26-18.

Currently ninth on 22 competition points, the Raiders meet the Dragons (11th), Knights (13th), Sea Eagles (10th) and Wests Tigers (15th) in their last four matches and will need at least three wins as well as a significant boost to their for-and-against which sits at -33.

The Dragons' narrow loss to Cronulla leaves them two games outside the eight with a points differential of -130, meaning they would need four massive wins to have any hope of sneaking in.

When these sides met six weeks ago and it was the Dragons prevailing 12-10 in a controversial finish at WIN Stadium.

With props Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Matt Lodge leading the way up front and Tedesco typically elusive with nine tackle breaks, the Roosters turned an eight-point half-time lead into their 12th win of the season.

The Roosters needed just four minutes to open the scoring thanks to Joseph Suaalii, who had a saloon passage to the line courtesy of a long cut-out pass from Victor Radley.

Radley was in the thick of the action again in the 17th minute when he put Lodge over next to the posts with a good short ball and the Roosters led 10-0.

The Cronulla forward pack had a field day through the middle, with props Royce Hunt and Braden Hamlin-Uele getting over for tries and Cameron McInnes putting in a huge shift from the interchange, running for 138 metres and making 36 tackles in his 59 minutes on the field. 

Cronulla scored four converted tries and kicked a penalty to lead 26-6 at the break, but while they were in control for most of the match at Scully Park, they never managed to fully shake off their stubborn opponents. 

After dominating the opening 40 minutes to lead 18-0, Brisbane allowed the Knights back into the match in the second period before Cobbo's double inside the final 10 minutes ensured they picked up their 13th victory of the season. 

The win lifts Brisbane to sixth position ahead of a crucial meeting with the fourth-placed Storm in round 23, while also boosting their points differential which is the second-worst among current top-eight sides. 

With games against the Storm and Eels still to come it's crucial that Kevin Walters' men take care of business against the 15th-placed Knights and get their defence back in order after conceding 66 points in the past fortnight.

The Knights are coming off a morale-boosting win over Wests Tigers and will fancy their chances of an upset on the back of Daniel Saifiti, Tyson Frizell and Mitch Barnett up front and Dane Gagai out wide.

Through the dramas of the past decade Wests Tigers have never finished last in their 22 seasons as a joint venture but Sunday's loss to the Knights leaves them precariously placed in 15th, just one win ahead of the Titans.

The Sharks, meanwhile, are sitting pretty in third spot and face teams well below them on the ladder in their final four games but coach Craig Fitzgibbon will be taking nothing for granted in the run home.

The Tricolours have now put a win between themselves and the ninth-placed Raiders, with skipper James Tedesco in fine touch as he led them to a comfortable win over Brisbane, who up until that result had been among the frontrunners to claim a top-four place.

The Cowboys were made to work for it against the Bulldogs last week, with a late double to Scott Drinkwater helping them to a win which keeps the slim chance of them jumping past Penrith for the minor premiership alive for the time being.

With Alex Johnston and Cody Walker grabbing doubles the Rabbitohs beat the Eels for the second time in seven weeks to reinforce their premiership credentials.

The Rabbitohs got the ball rolling in the fifth minute when Damien Cook found Walker from close range and the five-eighth caught the Eels defence flat footed on their own line.

Walker got across the line again in the 11th minute but the came loose as he was attempting to ground it and the Eels were off the hook.