Live: ‘That’s dumb’: NRL great not happy about league missing out on Buddy moment

The Dolphins try to set up for a field goal on the final set but Isaiya Katoa is caught on the fourth, and the Broncos hold out the last-ditch bomb.

What a game this is shaping up to be.

Another Hammer vs Staggs contest. Staggs wins the first contact, throwing him off, but Hammer comes again and carries him towards the sideline.

Staggs flings a ball back inside, which ends up with Kodi Nikorima, who’s hit high by Jordan Riki.

Beautiful ball handling from Ben Hunt and Reece Walsh sends Gehamat Shibasaki through a hole around halfway.

Shibasaki holds off Isaiya Katoa’s attempted cover tackle and finds Walsh looming back up on the inside to dive in.

He converts for 14-14 with two minutes left in the first half.

Some immense defence from Jordan Riki has the Dolphins struggling to get out of there half, so Isaiya Katoa tries the early 40/20, but Josiah Karapani gets back to cut it off. Good game awareness from the Broncos winger.

Pure speed from Jake Averillo, who burns Gehamat Shibasaki on the outside to dive over untouched after Trai Fuller almost crashes over under the posts.

It’s going to be a problem on the flanks for Brisbane, because Shibasaki couldn’t get anywhere near Averillo there.

Isaako’s conversion makes it 14-8 to the Dolphins.

Brisbane is storming up field thanks to powerful charges from Reece Walsh, Josiah Karapani, Gehamat Shibasaki and Kobe Hetherington.

Eventually they get a set restart as the Dolphins scramble sees them caught offside, and Aublix Tawha is penalised for a lifting tackle.

The Broncos had the Dolphins on the rack, but this one’s right in front of the posts, so Reece Walsh slots the two points, albeit somewhat unconvincingly, to make it 8-8.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow breaks through that Kotoni Staggs corridor (what a battle that’s shaping up to be) and gets the Dolphins on the front foot.

Isaiya Katoa spies a gap after the break and gets almost to the line and he’s stopped by Reece Walsh on the last.

But, because it’s a stoppage, the Dolphins can challenge and they do so, finding a high shot from Walsh.

Walsh was pretty unlucky there it must be said. He tried to get low, then Katoa was cut down at the last second.

Regardless, it’s a penalty and Jamayne Isaako converts for the 8-6 lead.

Reece Walsh sneaks down the short side, creates the danger, finds Kotoni Staggs, who brushes off Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and storms his way to the line, holding off the hammer all the way to the line.

Reece Walsh, in place of Adam Reynolds, converts to level the scores at 6-6 after 21 minutes.

It’s a gorgeous cut-out ball from Isaiya Katoa to give Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow a little window between Kotonia Staggs and Deinie Mariner, and that’s all he needs, just ghosting past Staggs to score.

Jack Gosiewski is straight up the tunnel after toughing out a clear shoulder injury for 5-10 minutes.

He was slammed into the ground by Isaiya Katoa and Jake Averillo in a textbook AC joint injury mechanism.

The Dolphins strip the Broncos for numbers an Tevita Naufahu puts a lovely move on to freeze the cover defence, then somehow holds the ball in one hand through the contact from Kotoni Staggs.

He gets the ball down despite the strong contact, but his left hand juuuuust went out before the grounding. Wow.

The Dolphins see out set after set of pressure on their tryline, with Josiah Karapani unable to handle Reece Walsh’s cut-out pass with the line at his mercy.

The ball was slightly behind him, but you’d still expect a winger to take those.

For anyone wondering why Alex Johnston’s tries are so much more than just catching the ball and falling over the tryline, watch how many of those tough balls he catches.

The Broncos are the first team to cross, with Jordan Riki rising for a bomb and the ricochet off Oryn Keeley’s boot ending up in Reece Walsh’s hands over the tryline.

But on-field referee Wyatt Raymond says Riki knocked on, and the bunker agrees.

We’re underway after a stirring Welcome to Country at Lang Park, with Trai Fuller taking an awkward mark to end the first set.

As we reported earlier, South Sydney is urging fans not to storm the field when Alex Johnston breaks the rugby league premiership try-scoring record.

He needs three to tie and four to break it. The Rabbitohs have three games left this year and nothing else to play for, so you’d expect him to get there this season.

But the Rabbitohs have issued a warning to fans to “celebrate from the stands” rather than run onto the field in scenes reminiscent of Buddy Franklin’s 100-goal season or his 1,000th career goal.

“That’s dumb,” NRL great Luke Lewis said in commentary for ABC Sport.

“We’re going into something that we’ll probably never see again.

“I loved it when the AFL had all the supporters run on the field. I loved it, I thought it was an iconic moment, the photos are phenomenal.”

This also means we avoid the hilarious but incredibly awkward potential moment of Johnston scoring, the pitch being rushed, then the bunker intervening to take it off him.

Brisbane’s NRL season was just about destroyed in the space of about seven seconds when Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds went down with hamstring injuries on the same play.

So, from 5:30pm AEST against the Dolphins, we’ll see the makeshift pairing of Billy Walters and Ben Hunt.

There are worse back-ups to have, but still far from ideal for a team fighting for a top-four spot.

Meanwhile, for the Dolphins, Trai Fuller plays his first game this season, slotting in at fullback while Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow moves into the centres.

It’s a similar story between the Broncos and Eels in Brisbane, with Ali Brigginshaw’s milestone match celebrated with a 38-4 thumping.

The Broncos ran in eight tries to one late consolation effort, with Julia Robinson, Romy Teitzel and Mele Hufanga nabbing doubles.

Brigginshaw says it was the perfect way for her milestone 50th NRL game to go down.

“It’s actually been a huge week,” she tells Fox.

“So thankful for all the support I’ve gotten across the game.”

Well, they leaked a few late in the piece, which coach Craig Fitzgibbon won’t be thrilled about, but that’s a pretty nice day out for a Cronulla Sharks side that had slipped down to the lower parts of the top eight.

Ten tries scored and only two late consolation tries from the Titans stopped the score from getting into records territory.

Not only is this Cronulla’s first 50-point game of the year, it’s the Sharks’ first score over 36 (vs North Queensland in round two) in 2025.

It’s their first 50-point outing since round 19 last year.

The only bad news for the Sharks was Cameron McInnes, who was forced off after just 20 minutes with knee “instability”.

Consciously or not, the foot is definitely off the pedal from Cronulla.

Josh Patston has just crashed over under the posts for his first NRL try.