BRADMAN NAME TO AGAIN FEATURE IN TESTS
A little under a century ago, people around the country were starting to say 'This Bradman kid could play for Australia'.
And now in 2021, I'm prepared to say the same thing.
Not The Don and not cricket, but Bradman Best of the Newcastle Knights in rugby league.
The stocky centre was just all power and speed as the Knights upset Canberra at Suncorp Stadium.
It was a remarkable performance by Best, still only 19 and coming back from an injury layoff.
The teenager carved up the Raiders out wide and it seems not so much a case of if he will wear the green and gold, but when.
DWZ BREAKS WORRYING WINLESS STREAK
There was no happier player in the Warriors' team after the stunning upset over the Tigers than utility back Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.
A mid-season transfer from the Bulldogs, the luckless DWZ hadn't won a game all season before the brave Warriors fightback.
Watene-Zelezniak's season read 13 games, 13 losses until the Warriors clawed back from 10-0 down to score a famous win.
And DWZ played a major role in the win, running for 173 metres, more than any Warriors player on the night.
ROOSTERS' BIG IMPROVER RUNNING RIOT
There are few more improved players in the NRL this season than Roosters back-rower Sitili Tupouniua.
With the Roosters down on troops, Tupouniua has really come to the fore and was outstanding in the splendid win against the Eels on Thursday night.
The rangy back-rower is having a field day running off playmakers Sam Walker and James Tedesco and bagged his fifth try in four games against a bitterly disappointing Eels outfit.
Tupouniua has now scored 11 tries for the year - remarkable considering his career tally was just six tries in 36 games coming into 2021.
Only one forward has scored more meat pies than him so far this season - Titans colossus David Fifita.
KEVVY EASES CRUSHING PRESSURE
The Broncos' 37-18 win over the Cowboys has taken some of the massive pressure off the shoulders of embattled coach Kevin Walters.
All season, critics have questioned if Walters was the right man for the job as the Broncos lurched from one disaster to the next.
But the Broncos have now won four games, one more than in all of last season, and scored the most points they have all year against their arch rivals.
It's baby steps, but the Broncos can now say they've improved on last year and the real test for Walters will come in 2022, when he has a better roster at his disposal.
WIGHTON LOSES HIS WAY FOR RAIDERS
Jack Wighton's strength is his running game - but he seems to have lost it this season as the Raiders tumble towards an early end to the year.
Wighton made just four runs for 35 metres in his team's dreadful upset loss to the Knights yesterday.
Playing at five-eighth, where he was so good last season alongside Englishman George Williams, Wighton struggled big time.
He seemed more intent on trying to set up his outside men and kicking - and was only average at both - as the Raiders were totally out-enthused by the Knights.
For the Raiders to have any hope of making the finals, Wighton needs to get back to doing what he does best - running the football.
SMITH CASHING IN AS LATEST STORM SUCCESS
If you were asked to name the top try-scoring centre for 2021 at the start of the season, I doubt anyone in rugby league would have chosen Reimis Smith.
But Craig Bellamy has waved his magic wand and after 20 rounds, the unheralded Smith leads the game's glamour centres.
In his first season at the Storm, Smith touched down for his 13th try against the Panthers yesterday - already the most tries in a season in his career.
Smith is making the most of the service of the likes of Jahrome Hughes and Cam Munster and is another of 2021's big improvers.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/mole-hits-and-misses-bradman-best-kangaroos-dallin-watene-zelezniak-warriors-win/5bb1e7ce-de24-4b98-bbe3-8476756a51fc
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