A new Broncos forward joins the hundred club, two injured players bounce back with monster scores while the Wests Tigers put Newcastle to the sword both on the field and in Fantasy.
Winners
A powerful young Broncos forward busts his way to 100, but it's not Payne Haas. The season's best Fantasy player scored "just" 57 while teammate David Fifita scored two tries and busted 17 tackles in an even 100 to head the round 23 scores.
The Tigers' huge win over the Knights helped a few of their attacking players to big scores with the combination on the left edge between Luke Brooks (95 with two try assists, eight busts and nearly 600 kick metres) and Luke Garner (76 with a try and nine busts) causing huge headaches.
A hat trick to David Nofoaluma (86) plus another try and over 200 metres to Ryan Matterson (58) rounded out the big scores.
Andrew Fifita (72 in 43 minutes with 12 busts) and Jason Taumalolo (79 in 63 minutes with a try) shook off any doubts over their respective knee and foot injuries to star for their sides.
Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt (89 with two tries) and Dogs centre Will Hopoate (93 with 10 busts and 263 metres) produced out-of-the-box scores while regular Fantasy stars Damien Cook (80), James Tedesco and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (both 76) and Cam McInnes (73) were the other big scores for the round.
Get Caught Up: Round 23
Losers
Latrell Mitchell was a late out for the Roosters with a calf strain which would have hurt plenty of coaches while Sam Burgess (quad) also didn't play after being named on Tuesday.
A somewhat sloppy effort from the Storm against the Titans in a game in which they were expected to post a cricket score led to below-par scores from Cameron Munster (38) and Cameron Smith (50).
Another Cameron, the Souths lock Murray, had an uncharacteristic 14 demerits in his 35. In the same game, Adam Reynolds (40, with eight missed tackles) and Anthony Milford (33) were quiet.
Newcastle's huge loss may have paid dividends for the above-mentioned Tigers but it meant last week's impressive showing from Mitch Pearce and Kalyn Ponga was a one-off as they notched just 32 apiece.
Both fullbacks in the final game of the round were particularly quiet with Tom Trbojevic (23) and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (22) barely cracking 20.
What teammate has the best nickname?
Round 23 team of the week
- James Tedesco 76
- David Nofoaluma 86
- Briton Nikora 66
- Will Hopoate 93
- Kyle Feldt 89
- Michael Morgan 73
- Luke Brooks 95
- Andrew Fifita 72
- Damien Cook 80
- Liam Knight 62
- David Fifita 100
- Luke Garner 76
- Jason Taumalolo 79
- Roger Tuivasa-Sheck 76
- Cameron McInnes 73
- Josh Jackson 69
- Manu Ma'u 66