Monday's Expert - NRL 2013 Finals Week 1

Tuesday's Expert? Fired. It's Monday's Expert, where we look back at the first week of the 2013 NRL Finals, plus we track the Player of the Year standings.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs kicked the finals off by bouncing back to form and surprising the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium on Friday night, before a controversial Saturday afternoon double header at Allianz Stadium. The afternoon started with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks edging the North Queensland Cowboys with a glaring seventh-tackle try error from the officials at the start of the clash, bookended with a timekeeping malfunction close to fulltime as the Cowboys tried to steal the game at the death. Later that night the Sydney Roosters and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles played out a dramatic but low-scoring finals contest, with the Roosters' defence helping their side to a 4-0 victory. Sunday saw the Newcastle Knights defeat the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium. The Bulldogs started strongly and took an early lead before the Knights absorbed the pressure and came back strongly as the 'Dogs season fell apart.

The weekend's results mean that Canterbury and North Queensland are eliminated. To see how next week is panning out across all grades, check out our Finals Roadmap for Week 2.

Below you'll find the results, player of the match points and match details for each fixture, plus a look at the final NRL ladder.