The Dolphins descend on Brookvale Oval

Alrighty, somehow it’s Round 15 – I cannot believe 3 months have gone by…. It only feels like yesterday I was battling to get 4/8 in Round 1.

The first King’s Birthday round since 1951.

Who’d have thought it.

Anyway, looking at the events of the week:

Penrith’s hopes of a threepeat are on shaky ground after Nathan Cleary went down with a hamstring injury against the Dragons, severe enough to sideline him for the remainder of State of Origin, although how much it stuffs up New South Wales is up for debate given they weren’t exactly setting the world on fire with that all-Panthers halves combination…. maybe they’ll go the opposite end of the spectrum and recall Cody Walker, Adam Reynolds and Damien Cook.

And, out of everything else that happened, Parramatta half Dylan Brown suffered the wrath of the No Fault stand down policy after he was charged with sexual touching resulting from an incident at the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay, quite literally making it a touchy subject.

So looking ahead to this weekend:

– The Titans play the Tigers on the Gold Coast in a Round 1 rematch, and it’s a return to the scene of the crime for the Tigers after being cruelly robbed of a victory by the Titans in Round 4 of last year… the score at 6-2 (All of them penalty goals) with a minute to play, and a Hail Mary was answered when a bomb kick hit the goal post, Luke Brooks had the ball stripped in the in-goal, and AJ Brimson scored the winner.

– The Raiders play the Warriors in Canberra in Jarrod Croker’s big 300th game for the Green Machine, and they only just got away with resting him last weekend against Wests, as a few dodgy decisions from the whistle blowers helped get them over the line after blowing an 18-0 lead to win 20-19, while the Warriors diced up the Dolphins in Auckland

– The Redcliffe Dolphins make their first trip to the Northern Beaches to play Manly at Brookvale, as Tom Gilbert paid the price for his Origin 1 shoulder injury with a season-ending surgery, and the good news for Manly is that Tom Trbojevic was cleared from concussion protocols after Manly managed to win an appeal against his mandatory 11-day concussion stand-down, simply due to the fact that he was never diagnosed with concussion… Fancy that, we’ve now gone from appealing suspensions to appealing concussion breaks.

– The Dragons host the Rabbitohs at Kogarah on Saturday afternoon, and Souths are still minus quality players like Latrell Mitchell, Cameron Murray and Jai Arrow, but St George are St George, so it may not even matter in the end.

– The Broncos host the Knights at Suncorp, and once again the Broncos were ultra-impressive at Shark Park in taking down Cronulla, and their confidence was reflected in Reece Walsh whipping out his pink jocks for a photo:

– The Saturday night feature sees the Roosters play the Panthers at Allianz, and the Roosters are without Joseph Suaalii after he got 3 weeks for raising his knee into Reed Mahoney’s head, not the first time Suaalii has been caught attacking with a raised knee, while the Panthers have to figure out what to do without Nathan Cleary, considering the Dragons got too close for Ivan Cleary’s personal comfort.

– The Storm play the Sharks at AAMI Park, and the Sharks continue to perplex as the Broncos handled them comfortably last Saturday in the Shire to leave them in a bog average 4th, while the word out of AAMI Park was that Craig Bellamy condemned at least 7 players to die in Satanic rituals after they gave up 45 points against the Cowboys in Townsville, the most points a Craig Bellamy coached team has conceded since the Bulldogs put 50 on the Storm in Round 22 of 2003…. In fact, that game was so brutal that Chad Townsend’s field goal just before full-time put the Storm into the negative on points differential.

– And lucky last, the Bulldogs and Eels get the traditional King’s Birthday Monday slot at the Olympic Stadium, and it’s a milestone game for Brad Arthur as he matches Brian Smith’s record of 243 games as coach of the Eels, and coincidentally, 243 is the number of water bottles Arthur went through during that game in Darwin in 2019:

Now, enough garbage, I’ve put the games into my random tip generator that never seems to bloody work, so here’s the Round 15 tips

Round 14 Score = 4/7, Progress Score = 64/108 (59.3%)

Round 15 =

Why do I even bother.

Round 15 Lock of the Week

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

Souths were a solid lock last week and they delivered by making the Titans bleed points in the 2nd Half, so we got back on the right track, so this week I’ll go for a team I haven’t used too much season… In fact the last time I used them the game ended in a draw,

MANLY, WITH TOMMY TURBO AND DCE PLAYING WITH THE SPIRIT OF JOE COCKER AND JENNIFER WARNES, ARE GOING TO USE LOVE TO LIFT MANLY UP WHERE THEY BELONG…

WHERE THE EAGLES CRY, ON A MOUNTAIN HIGH!

I’ve gone against Wayne Bennett.

Now I know I’m screwed.