NRL’s Magic Round kicks off with all-singing, all-dancing spectacular

Roosters coach Trent Robinson summed it up. “I had a bit of a chuckle to myself on the circus that our game is.” He was speaking on Friday an hour before kick-off of Magic Round this year, and specifically about Gold Coast’s David Fifita cooling off on his move to the Roosters.

But on the first day of rugby league’s great weekend of excess Robinson could have meant any number of things. Day one of Magic Round had it all. Like an all-singing, all-dancing carnival spectacular. On-field comedy. Off-field theatrics. Tension, nostalgia, and two great footy contests.

There was Selwyn Cobbo, in for the injured Reece Walsh at fullback for the Broncos, loping down the sideline like a vintage Greg Inglis. Drifting over, Jock Madden’s field goal to secure the Broncos victory with four minutes to go.

Before that, Canberra’s 19-year-old five-eighth Ethan Strange, showing a veteran’s ball-playing nous to ignite a famous Raiders comeback. And then, wildly celebrating the result like it was his very first victory, coach Ricky Stuart.

Magic Round is only five years old and the traditions are still emerging. This year it had, for the first time ever, a hard act to follow. The ratings for the first Women’s State of Origin the previous night landed on Friday morning. An average of 941,000 tuned into the broadcast, with the NRL proudly announcing Channel Nine’s audience was higher than free-to-air viewership for any NRL match this season.

To mark the start of the weekend’s festivities, rugby league’s conductor Peter V’landys assumed centre stage. For more than half an hour he, Queensland deputy premier Cameron Dick and lord mayor Adrian Schrinner held court with seemingly half of Queensland’s press pack to announce a deal to keep Magic Round in Brisbane until 2027.

But V’landys also took the opportunity to elevate the issue of NRL expansion into Papua New Guinea. He claimed he would walk away from the option unless the federal government came to the party at a meeting later that day: “You play poker with me, we don’t bluff,” he warned.

The public commentary came as a surprise to the office of Pacific Minister Pat Conroy, who was due to announce government funding for a Queensland Rugby Union trip to Tonga that day. At his press op Conroy was measured but deliberate: “when I negotiate with people I do it behind closed doors”.

But within hours the bluster has subsided. By dinner time, both parties issued statements saying they had resolved their differences, and were “aligned” in their vision. The dispute appeared largely theatrics, but – like so much of the V’Landys craft – it got people talking. And on Friday evening he flagged a decision on expansion – including possibly more than one side – might come as soon as two to three weeks, “if the balls fall into place”.

The day’s off-field drama needed some comic relief, and the first act on the card delivered. In a start appropriate for Magic Round, the Canberra Raiders went up 12-0 by making something out of nothing. A towering Kaeo Weekes bomb landed in the lap of Dogs fullback Connor Tracey. But the number one spilled it straight into the arms of Xavier Savage, who ran over the tryline with a wide grin. Not long afterwards, a low tackle from Strange popped the ball out of the bread basket of Dogs winger Jacob Kiraz. It fell to Seb Kris, who scurried in for another try.

But the Dogs got one back with another comedy of errors. Bulldogs halfback Drew Hutchison put in a regulation grubber. A wild swing of the leg from Rapana didn’t connect with the ball, but it did with Savage. Onto the turf the two Raiders fell like a fine slapstick routine, and in swooped Jacob Preston.

The momentum shifted further towards the Bulldogs with two Canberra sin bins midway through the match. But the Green Machine tapped into the gritty Raider spirit, rippling around Lang Park on this warm Queensland night, to mount a second-half comeback. The Raiders and hundreds of fans were there celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1994 premiership, and when the final whistle sounded Stuart celebrated like he was lifting the Winfield Cup.

Another comeback marked the night’s second clash. Two second half tries for Manly and Reuben Garrick’s sideline conversion with nine minutes to go levelled the score against Brisbane, who then edged ahead again in the dying stages. The standouts were two fill-ins: Cobbo at the back, who ran close to 200 metres and broke a barely believable 14 tackles. And Madden, deputising for halfback Adam Reynolds, who was calm in slotting over the deciding field goal.

Magic Round could barely have offered more in a dynamic first day. V’landys described Caxton St as a “bucket list item”. Some on the march home on Friday night were swaying, some stumbling, but most were smiling. Watching this coloured throng, dressed in all the colours of rugby league, it seemed V’landys wasn’t bluffing.