NRL 2018 - Round 20

It’s Thursday afternoon, which means it’s time to rub my crystal ball and predict some NRL results… “Concentrate and ask again.”  Sorry, wrong ball.

This week, there has been a lot of kerfuffling about the refereeing from last round, in particular the hatchet job that was the Raiders vs Cronulla game, where there were at least three game-changing moments that all seemed to fall into the Sharks’ flippers.  It was a bit shit, to be honest, as it has more-or-less put the death-knell on Canberra’s season officially, but obviously there are other things for the team to worry about; like working on some defensive lapses, how to catch a ball, why BJ Leilua doesn’t play like that every week, how to stop getting dicked by the ref so much because who cares how well you defend when they are just going to gift tries like that anyway, and also improving second-phase play in attack. 

As we draw ever-closer to the finals, we can see that the top eight is basically sorted by now, but the real interest is on the bottom four teams who are all fighting and struggling to stay relevant.  The shitfight that is the bottom of the ladder involves Parramatta, Cowboys, Bulldogs and Manly - they are all looking to avoid the wooden spoon, and all of them have a very realistic and well-deserved chance to win it.  It’s probably not the bottom four that I would have predicted at the start of the year, but it’s also nice that Canberra isn’t involved. 

Round 20

Brisbane Borncos vs Cronulla Cheating Sharks

I hate to say it, but the Broncos are actually looking halfway decent at the moment.  In last week’s routing of Penrith, Milford almost looked like he was giving half a shit and not just thinking of the new Spicy McNuggets at McDonalds (which are actually pretty good).  We’ll see how the fat little fuck goes this week, but my tip reluctantly goes to the Horsies.

North QLD Cowboys vs Newcastle Knights

The Cows will only be trying to win so they don’t come last, which always ups the intensity by about forty (forty what?).  Newcastle, in an unprecedented situation, don’t even have that incentive this year.  They will be welcoming Kalyn Ponga back from injury to wreak havoc on his old team in a “yeah nah no hard feelings but hey” kind of way.  Despite their lack of purpose, I will give the Knights my blessing for this game.  I’m sure they appreciate it. 

Canterbury Bulldogs vs Wests Tigers

FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL WOOOOO oh wait, it’s a game between the Dogs and the Tiges.  The only good thing about this game will be that when you acknowledge 10pm on a Friday night, it means you have the longest time you’ll ever have before the next Bulldogs game.

Manly Sea Eagles vs Penrith Panthers

Both had a cricket score put on them last week, so who knows what’s going to happen this week?  Hopefully a cricket match.  Manly were amateur last week and were actually lucky to “only” concede 56 points. 

South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Parramatta Eels

Souths came back to earth with a big ol’ crash last week and will hopefully take some of Sam Burgess’ advice and “get up you weak cunt cat.”  While I do love seeing the underdog win, usually the underdog is somewhat likeable.  Go Souffs.

Melbourne Storm vs Canberra Raiders

It will be interesting to see if the Raiders can pull themselves back up from last week’s disappointment and the fact that they now have nothing to play for and will probably be struggling to find any real meaning in everyday life and be unable to find enjoyment in regular activities.  But you know, that’s fine.  Hopefully they just don’t drop their bundles completely and either spend the next few weeks fucking about on the field or trying to inflict some kind of career-ending injury on their opposition.  There’s gotta be a fine line there somewhere.

Gold Coast Titans vs NZ Warriors

Yeah nah, dunno.  Reckon the Tits might be a good option for this one, but I’m going to tip the Warriors because for some reason it just seems more sensible. 

Sydney Roosters vs St George Dragons

The Dragons haven’t been traveling all that well lately, and were pretty unconvincing in their win last week.  They were obviously less convincing in their loss the week before, and even less so the week prior to that.  But before that, some time around 1912, they were very strong.  And fuck the Roosters.

It's hard to tell from this angle if the flag is up and the play should have stopped.