The St George Illawarra Dragons have a player in Lyhkan King-Togia.

He's 28 games into his NRL career, but after an inconsistent start as a young half, an extended period in reserve grade has set him up well in his return to the top side.

I covered his influence in the Try of the Week in Round 23 and he's laid on another good one for Hamish Stewart to score against the Wests Tigers in Round 24. There is a log jam in the halves for the Dragons next season, and if they can't find him regular time in first grade, somebody else will.

"I feel like physically we're saying all the right things and we know what we need to do. But it looks like we're just not able to kind of meet the physical challenge at the moment.

No excuse here—third game in 11 days and it just looks physically like we're spent at the moment. ... We got a bunch of guys just strapping themselves up to get out and play at the moment."

Josh Hannay's press conferences are always worth watching. He speaks with an honesty and level of detail we don't always get from coaches.

I initially thought he'd run a perfect fade to the outside shoulder of the centre to entice the winger, but with Keano Kini out the back and in no position to legally receive the ball, perhaps Jaylan De Groot got a bit lucky?

AJ Brimson was denied a try earlier in the season running a similar fade from centre, but the look is different...

It's something to keep an eye on in the Titans attack for the rest of the season as they continue to build towards 2027.

Some great quotes from Nicho Hynes in here.

That 2022 season, while fantastic, set the bar far, far too high. He's playing better football now than he ever has but doesn't have the same counting stats to show for it.

"There's more to the game than highlight reels.

"In 2022 I had a lot of highlight reels. I had come to the club and had some big moments and everyone looked at me as I need to set up three tries or score a couple to play the Dally M style of football I was playing.

"I've grown, I know I'm probably playing better than the Dally M year but only people look at me back then was for the try assists and the highlight reels. I'm more than a highlight reel and all I want to do is do the hard things.

"Make my tackles, run the ball and kick when I have to, just build my game off that, staying patient and being an all-round footy player. Maybe I didn't have that mindset back in 2022 and I do now.

via - NRL.com

“How can one mob get a tax exemption over everybody in the competition?

“I’ll tell you what really p’s me about it is, that we’ve had clubs lose competitions, we’ve had clubs lose points over salary cap breaches.

“That’s how strictly they (NRL) value the salary cap and it’s what has given us the game we’ve got today because each club has the same amount of money to spend.

“And all of a sudden you’ve got a team that has a different salary cap.

“It’s just not right.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: It’s just not right. It’s not fair.’’

There isn't a lot to cover on the Sydney Roosters thrashing of the North Queensland Cowboys.

Anybody following the game from an analytical perspective stopped tacking notes after halftime. Todd Payten himself said they wouldn't even review it.

What else is there to add beyond what Payten already did in the press conference?

"As coach of this club, it's one of our darkest days if not the darkest day. I'd like to apologize to our members and fans that turned up here today and those that watch it at home. It's just not good enough."

Reuben Cotter added his own take:

"Embarrassing. It's the most embarrassing game I've ever been a part of I reckon. We just didn't we didn't turn up physically and we were loose all across the park."

It's a Cowboys performance so bad that it's difficult to take anything away for the Roosters. We will learn more about Trent Robinson's side next week against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Crazy, crazy numbers from the Roosters in the first 40 minutes:

The Cowboys simply can't keep up in the ruck. Their markers are rarely square and the line is struggling to get set. The Tommy Talau try is a prime example with four players within touching distance of the play-the-ball leaving four players defending half of the field.

Roosters are too quick over the advantage line to be anything other than top-shelf in defence.

Round 21 proved to be a brutal one for injuries, so I'm looking over the teamlists for Round 22 with an eye on the replacements. There are a few reshuffles worth noting, too.

Tommy Talau is back for the Sydney Roosters, playing only his third first grade game of the year. I’ve not caught a lot of Roosters in reserve grade recently, but I’ll be looking at how he carries in yardage after failing to crack 100m in his last two. He has big shoes to fill in place of Daniel Tupou (shoulder). As expected, Mr. Fix It, Hugo Savala, is in for the ill Billy Smith. Savala is going to make a long NRL career out of this sort of role.

Hayden Watson is expected to make his NRL debut off the bench, with Trent Toelau named to start in place of Harry Grant (hamstring). Watson is a half, but does have some form playing out of dummy half.

While unlikely, we might see Tyran Wishart move into cover hooker and Watson play his minutes in the halves. I’d imagine the Bulldogs will have Watson circled in defence wherever he lines up. Elsewhere for the Storm, Manaia Waitere replaces Jack Howarth. He's not been able to secure a spot as a regular first grader quite like I expected, but Waitere ability in attack will shine through at some point.

Jaxen Egar remains at fullback for the Panthers while Dylan Edwards nurses a shoulder injury. Edgar was solid in his first NRL start, even if he did look small returning the ball. He’s not out of the side due to injury, but Blaize Talagi is making way for Jack Cogger. Talagi is taking the brunt of the struggling defensive showing from the left edge in recent weeks. Per Stats Insider, the Panthers left edge has conceded 40% of their tries this season.

The Knights suffered a horror injury toll last week, but are boosted by the return of Kalyn Ponga. He allows Sandon Smith to slide straight into halfback for Dylan Brown (ACL) and Fletcher Sharpe to five-eighth. Brown has exceeded expectations as a #7 for the Knights. He played with a lot more poise than pre-season commentators gave him credit. Smith will struggle to replicate Brown’s influence like-for-like, so expect the Knights to throw a few different looks at the defence this week. Ponga's total touches will be something to refelct on after the game. Meanwhile, Jermaine McEwen is fit in time to fill the gap left by Dylan Lucas (ankle).

The Tigers have triggered another reshuffle after a wild week. Adam Doueihi is back in the halves alongside Jarome Luai as Javon Andrews drops out of the 19 entirely. I, for one, agreed with Benji Marshall and moving Doueihi to lock. It wouldn’t have been to debut Andrews, who, particularly in defence, didn’t appear ready for first grade.

Fittingly, just after I mentioned Jason Ryles speaking about the Parramatta Eels' focus on yardage metres, Rugby League Eye Test has come up with the goods.

It's not great reading for the blue and gold, though...

The Rugby League Eye TestRun meters over expected (RMOE) update after Round 21 - The Rugby League Eye TestWith just five rounds to go in the 2026 season I thought I’d use this week to check in on my Expected Run Metres metric and see which teams and players are performing the best (or worst). I’d first looked at this after six rounds, and again to a smaller extent in my mid-season advanced statistical leaders post. It’s not been another eight rounds since then and a great time to check who is making the most out of their running metres. For the uninitiated, this site’s expected run metres model works like this. It takes the starting position of...

Gold Coast Titans dynamo Jayden Campbell faked his weight to prove he was ready for an NRL debut.