Bizarrely, if there is one team that demonstrates the sheer length of the NRL season, it might be the Penrith Panthers. Having topped the ladder since round three, the Panthers, with their early dominance, were seen as inevitable Grand Final lock-ins. They were left to go about their business quietly, away from the limelight, with the knowledge we would see them again in September. In the meantime, we focussed our attention on more pressing teams and matters, like are the Wests Tigers actually good this year (no), or whether it is possible to win a Premiership one year and finish second-last the next year (yes). Yet, with three rounds left, you’d be hard-pressed to find many that still see the Panthers, through almost no fault of their own, as still the favourites for the competition.

Superlatives were aplenty on Thursday evening in the aftermath of the Sydney Roosters’ tight 12-6 victory against the Panthers. Game of the season? Could be. A Grand Final-worthy contest? Looked it. A Grand Final preview? Potentially.

Of the limited attacking opportunities, it was the Roosters who were able to convert more effectively. Once they had withstood Penrith’s early goal line barrage, and seen Brian To’o’s try disallowed after the Samoan international was judged to have stepped outside a few metres before the line, the Chooks embarked on a spell of attacking dominance that would end in them breaking the deadlock after twenty minutes with Daly Cherry-Evans going over. 

If the evening belonged to anyone, it was Cherry-Evans. Creating and scoring his side’s only two tries in a game defined by defensive efforts, DCE, along with his ever-strengthening combination with Sam Walker in the halves, made the difference. The victory sends the Roosters top of the table, and should they go on to win the Premiership, this game will ultimately be viewed as a turning point. 

Thus, it’s perhaps strange that the victory comes in the same week that both halves have been linked with moves to anywhere apart from the Roosters come the end of their respective contracts. Mere hours after the game, Cherry-Evans, now 37, extraordinarily confirmed a move for next year to Hull FC, having only signed a one year deal in Sydney. The reports created a frenzy on social media, as Super League viewers drew parallels to the signings of other NRL and Kangaroos legends such as Greg Inglis and Andrew Johns to English clubs. Johns himself provided us with one of his best sidemouth reactions in recent years, asking why Cherry-Evans would ‘want to sign for ‘hell’?’

If DCE was the difference on Thursday, then Walker has increasingly looked like the reason the Chooks could be a force beyond this season. A surprise pick for Origin mid-way through the year, Walker was arguably Queensland’s best player throughout the series, and, had the Maroons’ effort not been a losing one, Walker probably would have taken home  the Wally Lewis Medal. In the rounds post-Origin, Walker has cemented his position as one of the next big things in the NRL, and potentially a future Kangaroos halfback should Nathan Cleary give it up. With his contract up at the end of 2027, Walker is free to speak to clubs from November 1, and has entered the best form of his career at an opportune time for him (and his manager) but precisely the wrong time for the Roosters.

With uncertainty in both halves, the departure of Mark Nawanqanitawase to Japanese Rugby Union, and the aging of James Tedesco, the Sydney Roosters’ Premiership ‘window’ may be closing as quickly as it opened. They’ll have the services of Walker for at least one more year, but who’s to say what the team will look like by the beginning of 2028.

And what of the Panthers in all of this? If last night is anything to go by, the absence of Isaah Yeo is going to put a serious dent in their Premiership hopes. Without the best ball-playing lock in the competition, Penrith’s attack suffered immensely, with Nathan Cleary having to take on a slightly different role. Cleary was often forced to overcompensate for Yeo’s absence on the ground, relying on his running game more than he would have liked, shifting Jack Cogger to first receiver most of the time. As a result, Penrith were nilled in the first half for the second week in a row. This neutering of the Panthers attack in combination with the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Roosters’ goalline defence was the key to the game’s outcome. The bulletproof Panthers have, it seems, acquired a vulnerability.

That’s not to say that the Panthers are no longer the best team in the competition or the Premiership favourites, but more that they are not the certainty they were in April. Instead, they’ve been joined at the top of the pecking order by the Roosters, who have been reminded by their own uncertainty of how fleeting time at the top may be. In discovering the formula to beating Penrith, they may now be forced to consider what life looks like without it.