NRL Round 1 Review: 10 minutes of Cory Paix, Paseka in attack, Papenhuyzen inside & a Storm scrum

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Round 1 of the 2025 NRL season took two weeks to complete following the opening games in Las Vegas.

ICYMI: I went through some of the Vegas experience and broke down a couple of interesting moments from the weekend.

What's to come this week:

• 10 Minutes of Cory Paix

• Quick Play-the-Balls

  • Paseka’s attacking involvement

  • Early-season blowouts

  • Sea Eagles flying down the right side

• Setting Up For A Shot: Papenhuyzen Inside

• Try Time: Storm Scrum Brilliance

Big Takeaway From the Week: 10 Minutes of Cory Paix

Tackle one can make or break a set of six. First up here, we’re breaking down what makes for the biggest talking point of the week.

Cory Paix featured 15 times for the Brisbane Broncos in their Grand Final-making 2023 NRL season. While he wasn’t the reason for their success, he certainly played a part with his speed and craft out of dummy half. As a smaller body he can be a spot in defence but, for the most part, he did enough with the ball to warrant a place in the side.

He played 20 games¹ the following season… for the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls.

We’re in for the usual month of “it’s early” talk in response to anything in the NRL, but 10 minutes is all we needed to know that Paix is not only the best option for the Broncos right now but has a future at the position in the years to come.

He played a significant role in three Broncos tries in quick succession.

Spotting the shortside

First of all, having Payne Haas play a little bit wider is something to keep an eye out for moving forward. It’s not a coincidence that he has taken a pass further towards the edge than we’re accustomed to seeing, running a line straight for the three-man and asking the centre and backrower on either side of him to become involved.

Haas not only generates a quick play-the-ball while scrambling the markers, but the Sydney Roosters can’t recover quickly enough down the short side to find the numbers.

A subtle bounce to the right sends Naufahu Whyte (10. retreating late) the wrong way, giving Brisbane three down the short side to Sydney’s two.

Paix isn’t credited with anything here besides maybe two running metres and a pass, but his involvement, and Haas playing the ball² , is where the points are created.

Isolating defenders in the line

Cameron Smith is my favourite player ever. His ability to play two or three tackles ahead of time and manipulate the line is the best I’ve ever seen. The best hookers are constantly scanning and identifying opportunities in the line and out of the ruck.

Paix did a great job of doing both in the build-up to scoring himself.

Siua Wong has already made two tackles in this set and may have been the target on this play. Whether that is the case or not, he’s late out of the tackle, leaving Connor Watson alone at A on the long side.

Watson will know he’s in a bit of trouble with Haas standing in front of him and sprints off the line to buy space behind him. Still, Haas is able to get his arms free to find Paix who takes the space a gassed Wong can’t make up.

This try coming on the 5th tackle makes it even more impressive. First, the confidence Paix has to take over the last tackle is encouraging, and the read on it, when the simple play is to find Ben Hunt or Adam Reynolds, proves his ability to scan the line.

Jumping out from dummy half

The action is subtle, but it’s a direct result of the action above.

There is Haas again charging straight at the smaller Connor Watson and a defender out of the defensive line. At B, Lindsay Collins doesn’t want to release too quickly, and with Paix jumping out to engage Watson himself, holding Collins even further, Patrick Carrigan can make a line for Wong and put Jack Gosiewski on Chad Townsend’s inside shoulder.

Based on how far back the Broncos left edge is behind the play, it doesn’t seem particularly scripted. It’s classic eyes-up footy and line manipulation, which is for nothing if the dummy half doesn’t find the right pass at the right time.

Mentioning Cory Paix and Cameron Smith in the same segment in Round 1 is a recipe for “this aged well” comments in a couple of months, but his development is exciting.

A Reece Walsh, Adam Reynolds, Ben Hunt, Ezra Mam and improving Paix spine rotation is scary for the rest of the NRL.

Quick Play-the-Balls

We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.

Paseka’s attacking involvement

“Attacking from this field position is all about splits and numbers. A quick ruck forces quick retreats and split-second decisions from the defence. Good ball players tie up the right players to hold up the middle and create the space we see out wide in this one.

It all starts with a destructive carry, though.

I’ll be paying closer attention to who plays the ball leading to a try this season.” - NRL Trials: 3 Takeaways From Week 2

There is our first for Taniela Paseka…

His strong carry to the middle adds the left edge backrower to the tackle and forces the Cowboys middle to flip to the other side of the ruck.

Daly Cherry-Evans makes a quick pass which puts Haumole Olakau’atu straight onto the three-man with three outside him.

Paseka’s carry might not seem like much, but look how far back the winger has to travel, how late he is to the line, and how much he misses Tom Trbojevic on the jam…

Early-season blowouts

The return of footy provides enough excitement that we can often ignore what would otherwise be relatively dull games. Seeing two teams concede 50+ and another 40+ in a single round won’t sit so well in six or seven weeks.

Per Rugby League Eye Test: “The result of these games was an average winning margin of 18 points, the highest in Round 1 going back to 2016 when I started tracking these things.”

However, unlike the peak Vlando-Ball where the blowouts extended to the whole NRL season, I don’t think we need to be too worried about this one being the same.

“The 2025 leads ballooned either side of half time and then were clawed back in the final 10-15 minutes.”

There is a bit of early-season fatigue and cobwebs about when teams conceded. The two teams that leaked 50+ are especially injury-impacted to start the season, which tests the depth of the squad, particularly around the periods on either side of half time when the bench comes into play.

Maybe it is something, hopefully, it isn’t. I’ll give it a few weeks before thinking too much about the depth of the competition overall.

Sea Eagles flying down the right side

We’re going to get to a lot of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles stuff this season, I’m sure.

They circled the North Queensland Cowboys left edge defence as a target in Round 1 and made scoring look easy at times.

Daly Cherry-Evans knows how to get at the players he wants while Tom Trbojevic’s hands, as we saw above in the Jason Saab try will distrubute try assists all season. Haumole Olakau’atu can’t be left to defend alone which constantly stresses the edge defence around diminutive halves.

You’d think they would target a young halfback on debut, but seemed to enjoy the space around Jeremiah Nanai most. Is their right-side focus in Round 1 a sign of things to come, or a product of what was in front of them?

Setting Up For A Shot: Papenhuyzen Inside

Teams play to points with the following tackle in mind. Here, I’m touching on something to watch next week as we try to keep ahead of things happening on the field.

It might not be in Round 3.

It might not be until Round 22.

But Ryan Papaenhuyzen will score or set one up through this play in 2025…

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