Melbourne Storm 52-4 Parramatta Eels
Craig Bellamy (Melbourne Storm):
"I didn't see that coming, obviously. That scoreline surprised everybody. I thought our guys really prepared well this week. What we planned to do, we basically did out there. One of the biggest things that went in our favour was the completion rates. They weren't very high in their completion rates, whereas in the second half we were exceptional. If you're that good with your ball control early in the season, that goes a long way to get the result that you want.
We had two debutants there tonight, Cooper (Clarke) and Preston (Conn). I thought they both did a really good job. They work hard, we could see just in their families how excited they were. The boys really took that onboard and were very intent on playing our best footy tonight. We went close to it."
Jason Ryles (Parramatta Eels):
"Very disappointing. We didn't get to the ends of our sets like we planned to. Then fatigue grew. I thought we did pretty well before half-time even though it was 18-4. But then after half-time we fell away and spent that whole half down our end on the back of our own errors. They've got three of the test spine, and if you give them that much opportunity and don't tackle well, then you get what you deserve.
If you asked me before the game if it's going to end up like that, I definitely would have said no. I've got to reflect on our preparation, what went well and what we need to work on. The bottom line is we just didn't give ourselves a chance tonight, and they're a quality opposition regardless of who they put out there."
New Zealand Warriors 42-18 Sydney Roosters
Andrew Webster (New Zealand Warriors):
"Happy with two points in Round 1. It's good to get the monkey off the back. Lots to be happy about but lots to tidy up. The scoreline probably flatters us, but it was a nice watch for the last five minutes. There were big momentum swings where we looked on top. There was one point where Roger (Tuivasa-Sheck) almost scored in the left corner and then they scored in their left corner, so that sort of stuff we've got to tidy up.
I thought we scrambled well and there was some really good resilience, but there were times where we gifted them. Individually, man for man, I think they (Sydney) are the hardest team in the league to tackle. Their offloads and passing is so gifted. I just felt like we didn't make our tackles enough at times."
Trent Robinson (Sydney Roosters):
"It was a disappointing first half. Things swung against us there. I really enjoyed the way we fought back in the second half. It felt like momentum had shifted and we had made a move but we just didn't execute well enough. We had enough possession with 15 minutes to go after them, but credit to them for holding us out. Then it turned around.
The story is that 42 points is unacceptable, no matter how you feel it went. There's no way that's acceptable in any performance and we know that. It's pretty simple: we've got to fix it up. We want to be a team that you can have an 11-2 (penalty count) against you but can hold onto it no matter how far it swings. Round 1, we weren't able to do that. Round 2? We'll see."
Brisbane Broncos 0-26 Penrith Panthers
Michael Maguire (Brisbane Broncos):
"If you're completing at about 61%, you're putting so much pressure on yourself. But that came from the opposition. They came here and applied pressure and we had too many errors to put ourselves into the game. We've just got to get back to the game we know we can play. We all need to chip away to make sure we can find that game.
"The last couple of weeks we've been really good. It was just one of those nights tonight. If we take away half of those errors and put ourselves in a better field position, the whole game is different. I wouldn't say we have a problem, it's just something we need to make sure we work hard at. They were uncharacteristic errors, and to our credit our boys forced a few errors on them too. But where we were turning the ball over, we were just putting too much pressure on ourselves."
Ivan Cleary (Penrith Panthers):
"A good result, and defensively definitely happy with the scoreline. There was plenty of Round 1 about it, but I thought there was enough defensive pressure from both sides to cause a few errors. In terms of the things we worked on in pre-season, I thought we were looking good, and then a few too many times we'd come up with an error. The way we responded defensively was really solid, so happy to come up here and get the win especially with a performance that we can build from.
"We didn't really talk about (Brisbane's comebacks) at half-time. Everyone knew what they are capable of. I felt like, regardless of the scoreline and the time on the clock, we just stuck to the task throughout the whole 80 minutes and that was most pleasing."
Cronulla Sharks 50-10 Gold Coast Titans
Craig Fitzgibbon (Cronulla Sharks):
"Very pleasing. We put in a hell of a performance there. But it's also important to cool the jets - it's only one round. I think with the tightness of last year's competition, we figured out that some weird things will happen along the way, but I know we will get better. But I also know Gold Coast too, they know what they're doing and they too will get better.
We were behind on penalties, behind on six agains, behind on field position - but ahead on the scoreboard. We didn't let the scoreboard affect what we wanted to do and how hard we wanted to defend. There are still some lessons in it, but I thought that was a pleasing afternoon."
Josh Hannay (Gold Coast Titans):
"It was disappointing. I thought we got a lesson straight out of the gates about physicality. Our opponent ran harder and beat us to the punch. I know too well their capability when they're on the front foot. Not taking anything away from Cronulla - they gave us a lesson - but we certainly gave ourselves some lessons about starting a game and getting it right.
"I'm not discouraged at all by one performance. Tonight was not going to define us as a club, win or lose. I'm disappointed for the players and the club because there's been a lot of hopes built up over the last four months, but one game is not going to diminish that. I know this playing group is capable of being better, but there is going to be pain for us this year. We're on a journey here. We don't for one moment accept the performance or the result, but the reality is we're going to have nights like this. Our response is probably the most important thing. You have to address what went wrong. We won't dwell on it but we can't ignore it."
Manly Sea Eagles 28-29 Canberra Raiders
Anthony Seibold (Manly Sea Eagles):
"We started really well. I thought the first 20 minutes we were very good, and we showed some fight in the last ten minutes to get ourselves back in the game. Clearly we just couldn't apart when they were rolling us through the middle of the park. They scored three tries in that 10-12 minute period after half-time and we just didn't do a good enough job in that period. Disappointed with the result and with some aspects of our game, but there were some really good signs there as well.
"We probably dominated that first 20 minutes, but clearly after half-time we just couldn't get any field position. Every time we had the ball we were coming off our own tryline. We wanted to perform a little bit more consistently for longer periods. I thought we showed a ton of fight. I'm not sure whether we would fight back into the contest when the game got away from us last year, I've got to say. It's Round 1 and we'll be better. Just disappointed with the periods either side of half-time - that was where the game was lost."
Ricky Stuart (Canberra Raiders):
"I don't care how close it is as long as we win. It was always about possession and I think they had 65 tackles in a row in those first 15 minutes. It was always going to be hard. We made it hard on ourselves, but we fought our way back into. We probably lost the last eight minutes of the second half, but to be winning the first 32 minutes given the fatigue and the duress we were under from the way we started, it was a good win.
"The composure they showed was mature. I thought (Sanders') game was very mature, well beyond the amount of games he has played. That was probably his fifth or sixth game in first grade? He was under more pressure than anyone else on the park and he had a good game. I thought Jamal (Fogarty) was very good tonight too. There was a lot of pressure on him taking over from a very high-profile footballer here at Manly. I thought he aimed up tonight and played a really good game of football."
Dolphins 30-40 South Sydney Rabbitohs
Kristian Woolf (Dolphins):
"I didn't think we gave ourselves a real chance in the first half. We were a bit ill-disciplined and got basic things wrong that we just can't get wrong. They competed harder than us, particularly around kicks in the first half. What I'm proud of is the way we came out with a different energy in the second half and fought back pretty hard. There are a lot of little parts in that game that I thought we did really well, but when you're making that many errors, we're just not giving ourselves a chance.
"We've had a few disruptions from the pre-season and a bit of carry-over from last season. There are some guys that we'd love to have in the team but they're a good enough team out there. For the most part, most blokes showed that they've got something to offer. We've got to be much better than 40 points (conceded), that's for sure."
Wayne Bennett (South Sydney):
"It was a bit patchy overall, especially towards the end, but we came here to win two points and we managed to do that. The rest of it we can fix that. Of our top 20 players, we had only three of them not here today. That's very pleasing. Match fitness is the first thing to improve. Once we get that better, we'll be much better. We stayed out of a fair bit of trouble today, and I was happy with that. That's my number one priority.
"I was very happy with David (Fifita). I don't know what he got the sin bin for. It would be a bit of a waste of time (to ask for an explanation) but I'd like to know why he got it. No idea."
