Enjoy the long weekend folks!

Score so far after Round 3: 15/24

Picks are UNDERLINED

Manly Sea Eagles vs Penrith Panthers at Brookvale Oval, Thursday 8:05pm AEDT

In case you haven’t seen, I can tell you that the Sea Eagles are currently 9/1 odds with the bookies for this game.

If you’ve seen them through the first 3 rounds, you’ll probably be left thinking they should tack an extra pair of 0s onto those odds.

Friday

Canterbury Bulldogs vs South Sydney Rabbitohs at Stadium Australia, Friday 4:05pm AEDT

The Rabbits are playing with heavy hearts on Good Friday after the passing of Russell Crowe’s father John, and you know, perhaps it was fitting that the last game the Rabbits played before his passing was a win over the eternal enemy in Easts.

Souths could’ve won this game on talent alone, but now, they’ve got the motivation as well.

Melbourne Storm vs Brisbane Broncos at AAMI Park, Friday 5:05pm AEDT

It seems the universe hates the Broncos more than Gorden Tallis does, because the moment they finally get a bit of joy and a win under Kevin Walters, Brisbane goes into a COVID lockdown and they have to flee the Sunshine State.

It also doesn’t help that out of all the places in Australia the Broncos had to travel to, they just happened to be scheduled to travel to Melbourne to play the Storm, the one team in the league that have routinely made them squeal like a pig for the last 20 years.

And the Storm are playing under threat of Craig Bellamy sacrificing a player to Satan in they lose three games in a row for the first time since Methuselah was a boy.

Saturday

Cronulla Sharks vs North Queensland Cowboys at Kogarah Oval, Saturday 5:15pm AEDT

Here is an artist’s impression of how this game will go:

Gold Coast Titans vs Canberra Raiders at Kogarah Oval, 7:35pm AEDT

The Titans couldn’t have found a worse time to get sent into exile, after they beat the crap out of their Queensland cousins in consecutive weeks to look like the team they promised to be in the offseason, although this is a genuine coin-flip against a Raiders team that got run over by the injury bus in the 1st Half last week, and based on the Warriors coming at them in the final 30 minutes, I think that bus was being driven by Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, with Nathan Brown working the pedals.

The Canberra Milk kids can blame the referees as much as they want for missing a blatant forward pass, but when you cough up a 31-10 lead at home, that just means you weren’t good enough to run out the game, even if they almost pinched it at the death.

I imagine Ricky Stuart’s going to be inventing yet another siege mentality for the Green Machine, but I flipped a 20 cent piece two minutes ago, it came up heads, so I’m taking the Titans.

Sunday

Newcastle Knights vs St George-Illawarra Dragons at McDonald Jones Stadium, 4:05pm AEST

As of Wednesday night, the City Of Newcastle has been renamed Tszyu-castle in honour of Tim Tszyu, and I imagine the Knights might need Timmy to play in the centres after they fell back to earth without Bradman Best, losing to the Tigers in the upset of Round 3.

The Dragons pumped the Silvertails down in The Gong to jump into the Top 8, but they’ve also lost key players, with captain Ben Hunt going down with a knee injury, one of the major casualties of the league-wide injury Armageddon in Round 3, and Jack Bird got suspended after pulling a Romper Stomp on Moses Suli’s leg.

So in another coin toss, I’ll take the home team.

Sydney Roosters vs New Zealand Warriors at the SCG, 6:15pm AEST

Based on both starting halves Luke Keary and Lachie Lam going down with knee injuries, and Lindsay Collins being concussed to join Jake Friend and Boyd Cordner in the infirmary, the Chooks’ season has been declared as finished by the Fourth Estate, which makes you question why they’re even bothering to show up on Sunday night, let alone the remaining 5 months of the season, so on that note….

LET’S GO THE WARRIORS IN AN UPSET, DAVE DOBBYN AND HERBS STYLE

Easter Monday

Wests Tigers vs Parramatta Eels at Stadium Australia, 4:00pm AEST

The traditional Easter Monday game between the Westies, and this is a rivalry the Eels have enjoyed great success with in recent years, winning 5 in a row over the Tigers, and 9 of the previous 11, including the inaugural game at Bankwest Stadium 51-6 in 2019.

What relevance that has to 2021 is minimal, because this game is at the Olympic Stadium.

That said, after the belting the Tigers copped against the Roosters, I couldn’t have seen the Orange & Black winning in Newcastle, but Madge Maguire picked them up by their bootstraps during the week and restored a bit of pride at Concord by plucking out their first win of the year, just to give them a bit of hope that they can finish 9th this year.

So that said, I’ll stick with the Eels.