Round 15 of the 2026 NRL season saw many highlights and lowlights, headlined by Casey McLean being ruled out of next week’s State of Origin clash.
NSW BLUES DEALT MAJOR BLOW
While all the attention was on the fitness of Mitchell Moses last week, the NSW Blues have been dealt a major blow to their starting back-line with Penrith Panthers and New Zealand Kiwis superstar Casey McLean ruled out of Game II of the 2026 State of Origin series.
Debuting in the series-opener, McLean originally entered the starting side for Stephen Crichton but went down with a quad injury on Saturday morning, ruling him out for seven to ten days and subsequently the second match of the series.
His absence will see Mark Nawaqanitawase enter the starting team in a direct swap while Dolphins’ Jack Bostock has been called-up into the state’s 19-man squad
“He’s obviously very disappointed,” said NSW football manager Frank Ponissi.
“He’s worked so hard the last few days to get his ankle right and he was feeling fantastic going into the session. For this to happen is really disappointing.”
The Blues have called up Dolphins winger Jack Bostock to debut in Origin 2, after Casey McLean was ruled out with a fresh injury today. pic.twitter.com/X0I4kLA4aX
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) June 13, 2026
BRONCOS SUFFER SIXTH CONSECUTIVE DEFEAT
Brisbane Broncos’ premiership defence is all but over after they suffered their sixth consecutive defeat on Thursday night in humiliating fashion to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, where the entire rugby league community came together to support Jai Arrow.
Outplayed from the opening kick-off, the Broncos never looked like getting in the clash throughout the entire 80 minutes and conceded 48 points with four tries to winger Alex Johnston and four-pointers to David Fifita, Edward Kosi, Jamie Humphreys and debutant John Radel.
To make matters worse, they could be without halves pairing Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds for some time after the five-eighth sustained an AC-joint injury while the veteran halfback limped off from the field with a hamstring issue.
“We’re still well and truly alive,” Broncos coach Michael Maguire said.
“People would probably think I’m mad. But one thing I do know (is) I’ve got a number of guys that are not on the field at this present moment.
“As a group we say we’re not going to use that as any sort of excuse or anything like that. But they’ll all come back and there’s a lot of quality there that I know can come back into the team.
“We’re in a bit of a tough situation at the moment. We’ll get those boys back at some stage and we all know what the team’s capable of doing.
“So once they get back and we’ve got to get through this little period now, which is tough for all of us. We don’t like going through it but it can also be the making of us.”
JOHN RADEL ON DEBUT! 🙌 #NRL pic.twitter.com/gmOqsLftOI
— NRL (@NRL) June 11, 2026
THE HORROR FALL FROM GRACE FOR THE RAIDERS
Nine months after being crowned the 2025 Minor Premiers, the Canberra Raiders have had a dramatic fall from grace, which is set to see them miss out on playing finals football later this year as they continue to drop results and linger near the bottom of the ladder.
While they may have been without the representative duo of Ethan Strange and Hudson Young, due to Origin duties, their struggles in attack continued as the understrength Parramatta Eels outfit made the most of their opportunities and stunned their opponents.
“We addressed our attack at half-time,” Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said, not wanting to blame the loss on the stars he had missing.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Parramatta’s defence because they did a good job holding us out, but I thought we were pretty predictable.
“That’s not being disrespectful to Parramatta…but I thought we were too predictable with the ball and not courageous enough.”
Kautoga crashes over! 💥 #NRL pic.twitter.com/Zxiu6UOpJb
— NRL (@NRL) June 13, 2026