NRL power rankings:

Week one of the NRL season is in the books and there were as many dud performances as there were confidence builders across the competition.

Each week Stuff will rank the top eight sides based on quality of performance and competition in the previous round.

The list is fluid, and here’s the top eight sides after an opening week that saw just one match decided by six points or less.

1. Storm

The juggernaut just keeps on keeping on in Victoria.

Melbourne are the masters of round one and last Thursday night was no different as they put on a clinic against the highly touted Broncos, winning 22-12.

You have to go back to 2001 to find the last time the Storm lost a season opener.

Under the best coach in the business, the Storm looked as if they hadn’t missed a beat since 2018 and, led by Dally M Medal contender Cameron Munster, proved they’re once again going to be hanging around come finals time.

2. Warriors

Coach Stephen Kearney couldn’t help but smile after his side’s 40-6 demolishing of the Bulldogs on Saturday – and why wouldn’t he.

The Warriors put in an 80-minute performance worthy of being ranked No 1 on this list, but quality of opposition must be taken into account.

It was as much bad Dogs as it was good Warriors at Mt Smart, as the Kieran Foran-led side failed to establish any parity through the middle third of the park all night as errors compounded their frustration levels.

Still, the Warriors’ new look spine was firing on all cylinders and off the back of their back five – who all ran for over 120m – the new halves controlled the game to near perfection.

3. Rabbitohs

It was billed as Cooper Cronk’s big night as he brought up 350 NRL matches – but it was the other halfback who stole the show.

Adam Reynolds led his Bunnies to a huge upset win over Cronk and the defending premiers 26-16, at the bog that was the SCG.

The Rabbitohs rolled through the middle of the star-studded Roosters pack and off the back of that go forward, Reynolds steered his side to an impressive first up victory under new coach Wayne Bennett.

Greg Inglis didn’t quite look to be at full fitness, so expect to see South Sydney get even better still over the coming weeks.

4. Knights

They were far from perfect, but the Knights did enough to get the win over top four contenders the Sharks and spoil Shaun Johnson’s debut with a hardfought 14-8 win.

Newcastle have plenty of work to do on attack, plainly finding a way to inject young gun Kalyn Ponga more, but coach Nathan Brown would have been impressed by their defence.

Against a backline featuring