I’m ready for New South Wales to show more arse than class this coming Wednesday night

Well folks, after an utterly cursed Round 12 we move on to the utterly cursed Round 13, just shy of the halfway stage of the Home & Away season, and State of Origin I in Adelaide is now a mere week away, as Queensland take on Penrith lite, but before I do that, let’s recap some of the tipping carnage that occurred in 5 out of the 8 games:

The Roosters nearly took advantage of the fact that Victor Radley was extremely fortunate to stay on the field thanks to a head-butt, coming from 14-0 down to lead 22-18… Then the Dragons chucked up a hail mary and the lord answered on the siren, and with that win, the Red V jumped up from 16th to 17th after flicking Hook Griffin.

I also noticed the Dragons didn’t celebrate that win with a barbeque, instead they celebrated by naming Jack de Belin captain for this week with Ben Hunt playing for Queensland, because the Dragons are keen to make a rugby league version of Escape to Victory.

Souths have looked like a rampaging premiership favourite for the last 6 games, but they got fat-headed on Friday night, and the Eels played to the level of their competition and proved the old adage that you don’t win Premierships in May, and thanks to that sudden shot of confidence, Jake Arthur has decided he doesn’t need his father’s nepotism anymore, moving from the Eels to the Sea Eagles.

The Tigers decided they weren’t going to play rugby league to celebrate Luke Brooks’ 200th game, instead bringing their cricket bats and slogging the Cowboys for 11 sixes onto The Hill at Leichhardt, to the delight of the huge crowd at the 8th Wonder of the World, as the merged Tigers set a new club record score in a 66-18 ball-tearing…. In fact, 66 points is greater than either Balmain (64) or Wests (65) ever managed in their time as standalone First Grade clubs.

The Titans led by a solid 14-0 at Half-Time against Canterbury on Sunday afternoon, and as the Titans have done several times this season, they absolutely shat the bed and lost 20-18 thanks to a late converted try, and the worst part was their streak of finishing on exactly 26 points ended.

And, just when Manly couldn’t get any more confusing, they go to Canberra on a 3-game losing streak and play a Raiders team that had won 5 consecutive games, and capping off this weekend, the Silvertails smack the Raiders 42-14 and Tom Trbojevic scores his first hat-trick in near enough to 2 years, right before Origin I.

So there you go, 3/8 thanks to the 3 most predictable wins of the week coming from Penrith, Cronulla and Melbourne.

Besides the talk about Origin teams, namely Hudson Young, Tevita Pangai Junior and Nicho Hynes getting their debuts for New South Wales and Reece Walsh getting his debut at fullback over Kalyn Ponga, the other important selection was that of Ashley Klein as referee, an official who not even 7 days ago, officiated a game from The Bunker and had to be corrected by the on-field referee, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

If you ask me, neither team will have an excuse for refereeing costing them victory, because it’ll be piss poor both ways.

Now, time to finish off Round 13, and as is tradition for Origin Rounds, there’s several teams with byes, although thanks to the introduction of the Dolphins there’s now 5 games instead of the usual 4.

– The Dolphins get the Thursday night prime time slot against the Jack de Belin-led Dragons out at Redcliffe, and either way the Dolphins were going to be without Felise Kaufusi + The Hammer, even if Kaufusi hadn’t been a total dickhead and gotten himself suspended for Origin, while the Dragons have to play without their 1 intelligent player in Ben Hunt.

– The inconsistent Eels play the Cowboys on Friday night, and an interesting note is that the Cowboys elected to stay in Sydney after being the victims of a re-enactment of the ‘Squeal Like a Pig’ scene from Deliverance last Saturday evening, so don’t be surprised if the ‘Boys have got a bit of PTSD.

– The Warriors get their belated shot at Indigenous Round against the Brisbane Broncos in Napier, the Nice of the Pacific, and the Warriors will get a nice-old head start with the Broncos having more than a few outs due to Origin, which has been the case for the last 35 years.

– The game of the round is quite easily South Sydney vs Canberra, and it probably would be just another Saturday night save for the fact that Souths are without Campbell Graham, Latrell Mitchell, Cameron Murray and Jai Arrow, which gives the Raiders a very solid chance of victory.

– And finally, the great rivals Newcastle and Manly play in Newcastle on Sunday afternoon, with Kalyn Ponga back in the No.1 position and Manly without all three Trbojevic brothers and Daly Cherry-Evans, giving the Knights a rare chance at a victory.

Now, enough garbage, here’s the Round 13 tips

Round 12 Score = 3/8, Progress Score = 57/96 (59.38%)

Round 13 =

Round 13 Lock of the Week

Well, folks, when you’re right 52% of the time, you’re wrong 48% of the time!

In a move that will go down in the Hall of Fame, I put the Cowboys as the Lock of the Week last week.

I was only 48 points off.

Anyway, for the Round 13 Lock of the Week, here’s a very big hint who I’m locking in, it’s Dave Dobbyn, complete with a very rare video of those blokes actually singing the intro to Slice of Heaven!