Burning questions for NRL round five

KEY TALKING POINTS FOR NRL ROUND FIVE

* Canberra's response to Ricky Stuart's spray

Stuart took no prisoners following the Raiders' loss to Manly last Saturday night, leaving them 0-4 for the first time since 1997. He labelled his players "soft" and claimed they should be "embarrassed" to wear the jersey. Stuart dropped former Queensland and Australian forward Josh Papalii, a week after Blake Austin's axing.

* Can the Storm fix their attacking woes?

The reigning premier went try-less in last week's loss to Cronulla. West Tigers shut the Storm down the last time the teams played only three weeks ago and will be counting on their defence to do a similar job. There's enough quality within Craig Bellamy's team to do it, but a lack of discipline and costly errors has prevented that recently.

* How far can the Warriors' record run stretch?

Already the best start to a season, the Warriors face an under-fire North Queensland team playing nowhere close to their best. Stephen Kearney's team smashed the Roosters without Shaun Johnson last week, but he's back for the arrival of Johnathan Thurston and Michael Morgan in New Zealand.

* Can Newcastle turn around their horror record against the Broncos?

The Knights' record against most teams in recent seasons has been disappointing, but it's catastrophic when playing Brisbane. They have won just 13 of 47 games against the Broncos and just one of the last 12. Their last win was back in round 25, 2013 when current Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett was in charge of the Knights.

* Can the Eels turn the tables on Penrith

Playing Penrith for the second time in five weeks won't please Eels fans. Their nightmare 0-4 season started to unravel against the Panthers in round one, giving up a 14-0 lead before losing 24-14. In four of their past six meetings, the Eels have held a considerable lead but still either lost the match or just held onto win.