Round 1 is done and dusted, and if you tip like I do it was a barren and broken wasteland of rugby league. And let’s face face, it is only round one. You can’t win the comp or even lose the comp in the first round, and in many ways you can hardly judge how a team is going to finish the season on their performance in their first true matchup of the season. And there are a lot of clubs who will be looking for forgiveness from their head coaches and their fans after this weekend’s games.

So let’s look back at those matches, and see if they offered us anything in the crystal ball for the 2022 NRL premiership. Then we’ll get into this week’s Talking Point, and let’s discuss just where we sit with the obstruction rule in rugby league at the moment, and whether it could be administered better to give a fairer assessment on its impact on results through the year. And then we’ll take a look at next weekend’s fixtures and see if we can find a few more winners than I managed this weekend. All of that is coming up on the World’s least informed NRL podcast. This is In League with the NRL, right here on Thoughts from the Metal Cavern.