Sydney Roosters and Brisbane are already assured spots in next year's World Club Series, with Melbourne and North Queensland facing off for the third and final berth on Saturday night, it has been revealed. The elimination of Canterbury was good news for the competition, meaning it won't just be a coalition of the willing next year. The Dogs were not interested in the concept. The formula for NRL team qualification is a little complicated. Both grand finalists qualify, plus the next highest on the table. Since Sydney Roosters finished first, they cannot miss out on a spot. Melbourne were fourth, the Cowboys third so they have to make it to the big day. Teams called Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane taking on a bunch of towns along the M62? That's rugby league!

RLPA boss takes job onto the field

Players Association boss Clint Newton. Photo: Ryan Osland ROS

Players Union boss Clint Newton took his role across the whitewash on Sunday when an apparently concussed opponent returned to the field during a NSW Cup preliminary final in which he was playing. "How is he allowed back onto the field?" Newcastle's Newton stormed to referee Liam Nicholls when Mounties' Mitch Barnett came back. "He was like that," said Newton, shaking his hands, "convulsing." Nicholls responded: "I appreciate your concern for player safety. I share that concern. We're out here to do a job. There are other people who come on and off the field to do a job. You just respect their decision." Credit to Canterbury players who put their end-of-season celebrations on hold to check out their clubmates in the other preliminary final. But they endured another loss to the Roosters when feeder team Wyong beat the Bulldogs 44-20. Roosters James Maloney and Jared Waerea-Hargeaves were also in the crowd.

Video refereeing system flawed

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler. Photo: Getty Images

The system that can require video referees to conclusively disprove a guess – while perhaps not at play in the controversial Kane Evans decision on Friday – is deeply flawed even though Friday's coaches, Trent Robinson and Des Hasler, had no problem with it. Hasler believes the refereeing bunker will resolve any issues and Robinson wants referees to have "conviction". But his predecessor at the Roosters, Brian Smith, says the protocol needs fixing. "Someone made a bad call to invoke this process quite some time ago now – hopefully not with the intent to make the system look foolish as it so obviously does from time to time," Smith said. "So all it takes is the head of the decision-making process NOW to say 'this process is foolish, let's change it'. It's called improving. The process is wrong."

Why did Roosters let cat out of the bag?

Roosters coach Trent Robinson. Photo: Getty Images

The biggest surprise surrounding Mitchell Pearce's absence from the Sydney Roosters side on Friday night seems to be why they told anyone. It's a little-understood fact that the biggest beat-up merchants in rugby league are not reporters but coaches – they'll use any perceived slight as motivation for their charges. By announcing Pearce's withdrawal through a hamstring injury on match eve, and using the word "rest", Robinson invited rival Hasler to tell the Dogs the Roosters were so confident of winning they were already planning for the following week. "It also puts pressure on our guys, trying to keep something quiet," Robinson told Set Of Six. "We knew what our job was, we knew what we had to do, we just decided 'let's get it out there, let's make it clear and let's go and do our job' instead of … people getting phone calls, all that. It worked the other way. I got a call saying the team's come out and said that he IS playing!"

Sharks like a Storm

Paul Gallen has news for Johnathan Thurston. Photo: Ian Hitchcock

Johnathan Thurston's normally a humble fellow but he described Saturday's flogging of Cronulla like this on the ABC: "It's good that we can reward our home fans for showing up all year with a home semi and put on a clinic against the Sharks." But despite the "clinic" senior Cronulla players Paul Gallen and Michael Ennis seemed unconvinced they had just played the 2015 premiers. "Melbourne, mate. Melbourne," Ennis told Triple M when asked at full-time for a premier. Gallen added at the media conference: "I don't think they're going to play a Melbourne side that is going to make those sorts of errors." But prop Andrew Fifita is a Cowboys believer, telling the ABC: "Melbourne's been in that scenario a lot of times but I think the Cowboys just want it more. At the end of the day, I'm going to back the Cowboys."

Pooper blooper

Code-hopper Karmichael Hunt was the subject of one of the greatest commentary faux pas. Photo: Getty Images

Have we had a real commentary howler this year? I mean something funny, not a mistake. Sure, a fortnight ago Bill Harrigan dropped the f-bomb on air when he was getting razzed by a fan sitting outside the broadcast box at Remondis Stadium. Of all the on-air personalities to turn the air blue, it had to be the former referee, right? But we've not had anything to match Ray Warren turning "Karmichael Hunt" into a single syllable word in quite some time. Well, we have a candidate, from Eddie Hemmings of Sky Sports, during an absorbing St Helens-Wigan derby on Saturday morning. "They could be the team that poops on all the parties," Eddie confidently predicted.