NRL Round 2 Review: Johnston's Record, Grant's Service & Joey Walsh Impressing

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NRL Film Room - Round 2 Highlights

Quick Hits

The Feature Reel: Try of the Week

Harry Grant is constantly creating highlights for his work around the ruck, darting out from dummy half to score tries few others at the position could. But sometimes it’s just simple service that can create highlights for others.

The Melbourne Storm laid on a beauty in Round 2 by distrupting the defensive line, compressing one side of the field and cashing in on the other.

Having played two short balls down the left edge, the cue presents itself on the longside: The backrower inside the posts. That is enough to tell Grant and the Storm attack that there is room on the edge.

Grant’s pass is exceptional. He passes across five Dragons defenders straight to the chest of his five-eighth. Cameron Munster plays a simple block inside Luciao Leilua who is already caught further infield than he’d like to be.

With Leilua caught on the lead, Jahrome Hughes is able to make his way into the three-man to create the three-on-two situation out wide. As the defence responds, so too does Sua Fa’alogo¹ who completes the action with quick hands to Will Warbrick on the wing.

While Warbrick ended with the points and Fa’alogo the try assist, Grant’s on-the-money pass played a key part in the ball getting wide at speed for Melbourne to open the scoring.

Round 2 NRL Notes

Broncos v Eels

• Broncos Kick Defusals: Eight of the last nine tries the Brisbane Broncos conceded coming into this game came after they failed to defuse a kick. Mitchell Moses tested them early with Josiah Karapani looking to be his main target. While they cleaned them up well early, Parramatta’s first try of the second half came on the back of a Reece Walsh drop. He dropped another one later in the game, too. It’s something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks as opposition kickers no doubt scheme to take advantage.

• Broncos Left Edge Defence: While the Broncos seemed to do as they pleased with the ball, they offered little resistance in defence. Starved of possession to have played with only 38% of the ball as the Eels scored their third try in the 34th minute, the visitors didn’t have to work particularly hard to score when getting into Broncos territory. Parramatta scored 22 points in the first half with only two tackles inside the Brisbane 20-metre line…

• Parra Attacking The Three-Man: It feels appropriate to highlight the first try out of halftime, which came on the back of Reece Walsh failing to defuse a kick, and displayed the same traits as the first-half four-pointers. Parramatta found a lot of success down their right edge. They generated particularly dangerous looks by getting into the three-man with a lead inside two.

  With Jonah Pezet able to slot in at first reciever and put Mitchell Moses on the second layer, the Eels right edge is going to cause some problems this season.

Roosters v Rabbitohs

• A More Comfortable Cherry-Evans: Following a week of being told he’s too old, Daly Cherry-Evans looked a lot more comfortable within the Sydney Roosters attack this week.

  Plenty questioned how Cherry-Evans could work alongside Sam Walker, how the two would link up and who takes control of the side. Like a lot of halves pairings in the NRL these days, it looks as though it will be a week-to-week thing based on the hot hand and opposition in front of them.

  “I took my opportunities (against Souths). I didn’t wait for anything to happen. Along with the rest of the team, I feel like we went after the game.” - Cherry-Evans

  Both Walker and Cherry-Evans are capable of playing the team to points and taking advantage of the cues in front of them. The more they play alongside eachother, the better they will look in attack² .

• Collins Responds: A bit like Cherry-Evans, Lindsay Collins caught a few barbs throughout the week. He responded by generating 149 running metres and making 30 tackles in 63 minutes. Collins isn’t a prop that will always put up big counting stats; it isn’t always his role within the team. Instead, he thrives in the actions that often go unnoticed: Kick chase, first contact, effort plays. He thrived in both areas this week, though.

Sea Eagles v Knights

• Knights With Ponga: Kalyn Ponga registered 50 touches of the football in Las Vegas and continued to slip into his new-look role before being forced from the field in this one. Rather than throwing the last pass of a shift in good ball, he’s taking possession in more central areas in a halfback-like role at times. Unfortunately, it’s going to be six weeks before we see it all again.

• Knights Without Ponga: And Dylan Brown…

  It remains to be seen how they approach yet another new-look halves pairing, but based on what we saw in the second half on Sunday, Newcastle will likely adopt a more traditional approach to their service. Sandon Smith took over as an on-ball halfback to finish with 66 touches for the afternoon. He’s the best positioned to take on the guiding role now required without Ponga and Brown. Fletcher Sharpe is set to return while Tyson Gamble laid on four try assists in the NSW Cup on Sunday afternoon as possible partners.

Player Spotlight - Alex Johnston

It can only be one man this week…

Alex Johnston wrote his name into the history books by scoring his 212th and 213th career try on Friday night. Fittingly, he did it on the back of a Latrell Mitchell pass, crossing the line effectively untouched before thousands stormed the field.

He’s the mark of professionalism and consistency. Without being the strongest or fastest winger in rugby league, Johnston has made a career out of putting himself in positions to benefit from the work inside him. An elite finisher and, from all reports, an even better person, Johnston will deservedly go down as one of the games greats.

For the Rabbitohs, they can start to turn their focus to winning football games with the talk of the record, when it might happen and how it should be celebrated dominating the discourse throughout the opening two rounds.

The Pipeline - Joey Walsh, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles

Looking beyond the bright lights of the NRL to the lower grades, one player caught my eye this week.

With the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles reportedly holding the first honesty session of the 2026 NRL season, changes might not be far away.

Joey Walsh is a name known to most by now, but he’s been a slow burn on arrival from Rugby Union. He’s always had the physical tools to look the part isolation, but is now adding the footy IQ to become a consistent influence in rugby union.

He scored a try and assisted on another in a strong performance against the Knights Cup side on Sunday afternoon.

The first step in becoming a top tier half in the NRL is dominating reserve grade for an extended period. With an excellent 80 minutes under his belt in Round 2, Walsh looks as though he might be ready to make the leap.

Member Mailbag

What are the key takeaways after the first two rounds of the NRL season?

Any suggestions for the Player Spotlight of The Pipeline? Get in touch…

1  How Will The Storm Attack Without Papenhuyzen? Just fine by the looks of it. Fa’alogo has already exceeded my expectations with how well he’s getting around the field, into the right spots, and making the right play under pressure.

2  It’s important to highlight “attack” here. Defensively, they’re going to be targets. It’s whether or not they can generate more points than they contribute to conceeding that will determine the Roosters’ premiership hopes.