Who's Deadly NRL R24: Jamal Fogarty, Xavier Savage, Sebastian Kris, Dane Gagai, Alex Johnston, Edrick Lee, Reece Walsh

Guest Author Published August 29, 2022 at 8.32am (AWST)

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Canberra's Indigenous stars may have secured their side's place in the NRL finals, with the Raiders moving into the top eight for first time since March.

Jamal Fogarty, Xavier Savage and Sebastian Kris crossed for tries and Fogarty kicked a further six goals in a 48-6 victory over Manly on Saturday.

The trio's efforts leaves the Raiders two points ahead of ninth-placed Brisbane.

Jack Wighton set up the opening two tries, including the second from a line break that the Wiradjuri man kept on for 30 metres until Savage called for the ball in open space to race away for the 13th-minute try.

Fogarty caught a ricocheted grubber kick that bounced off the knee of halves rival Kieran Foran to score Canberra's fifth try in just the 29th minute.

As the Raiders kept pushing the Sea Eagles' line back, Kris split three defenders from after a quick pick up of a low ball to dive over for a second Torres Strait Islander try.

Dane Gagai played his part in reviving Newcastle's flickering hopes to win on Sunday.

But Gold Coast hung on in the final minutes to take out the home encounter 36-26 between two of the competition's stragglers.

After the Titans blew the target out to four converted tries for the Knights to steal the win, Gagai darted around two tacklers and passed another two chasers in the 40-metre run to score in the 65th minute.

The Yam and Badu islands man found space out wide in the 72nd minute to step back inside towards the posts to leave Gold Coast fans nervous.

Gagai's late double was among four tries from Torres Strait Islander stars on show.

Edrick Lee got the visitors off to the perfect start in the opening minute, flying high in the corner to bring down a high ball over a clumsy Titans defence.

David Fifita put Gold Coast back in front when Jayden Campbell's short ball found Fifita bustling past defenders close to the line in the 11th minute.

South Sydney dramatically escaped with a 20-10 victory on the back of multiple late sin-bins, likely costing North Queensland a home final.

Alex Johnston scored for the eighth consecutive week after Latrell Mitchell set up the final touch to cross from the overlap in the 30th minute.

Johnston did not add again to his 28 season tries but looked on track to go back-to-back against the Cowboys in a chaotic final three minutes.

The winger was held back off the ball in pursuit of Mitchell's dribbling kick to the line that did not result in a penalty try, but did amount to another send-off to leave North Queensland with 11 men.

Reece Walsh's exhilarating opening try in the second minute against Penrith sold false hope on Friday night of an upset from New Zealand Warriors in their 46-12 loss.

Walsh ran onto a pass just over halfway to outpace four Panthers in the race to the other end.

The fullback, playing in his penultimate game for the Warriors before joining Brisbane, finished with eight points after converting both of their tries.

Brenko Lee's regulation put down after Parramatta put on 24 points at almost a point-a-minute was the only saving grace in Brisbane's 53-6 loss on Thursday night.

The Torres Strait Islander was on the end of the Broncos' catch and draw passing play in the 30th minute to score unmarked amid the nine-try-to-one romp in Brisbane.

In other NRL matches, St George-Illawarra overcame a sizeable early deficit to defeat Wests Tigers 24-22 off the final kick of the game, Cronulla defended strongly in a 16-0 win against Canterbury and Sydney Roosters got the jump on Melbourne Storm early to win on the road 18-14.