Brad Fittler to the NSWRL after Origin III

Alrighty, on to Round 17, and right as Queensland still celebrates tearing the arse out of New South Wales for yet another year, the Titans decided it was time to win the 2023 Sack Race by dumping Justin Holbrook effective immediately, Jimmy Lenihan will drink the poisoned chalice for the next 3 months, and yet they didn’t even waste any time naming a successor for next season, because they picked up one that Manly left on the kerb in October last year….

Yes, Des Hasler will coach the Gold Coast Titans in 2024.

That is outstanding work keeping that a secret from the notorious NRL media pack, and I can only imagine how that exit meeting for Holbrook went down.

“So that’s it, after 3 and a half years, so long, good luck?”

“I don’t recall saying good luck.”

Now, looking through the 7 games over Round 17, with Canterbury, Cronulla and Wests all having byes, which means Josh Addo-Carr can have a bit of time to work on his right hook.

– The Dragons play host to the Warriors in The ‘Gong on Friday night, and amazingly Ben Hunt wants to back up and play for the Dragons after featuring for Queensland on Wednesday, which seems like a contradiction in desire, considering he seemingly doesn’t want to play for them in 2024.

– The Dolphins host Parramatta in Redcliffe, the Eels having completed Part 1 of their comeback mission by getting into the Top 8 for the first time all year, as the Dolphins start to feel the strain of a long debut season.

– Penrith host the Knights, as Jarome Luai, sent off for swinging handbags with Reece Walsh at Lang Park last night, put up an Instagram post saying “Chill, all you idiots have work tomorrow morning“… Out of context it sounded like an insult to the many working class folk of rugbaleeg, but it was apparently targeted at the people sending him death threats on social media, which doesn’t make sense, because those mongoloids don’t have jobs.

– The Melbourne Storm host Manly at AAMI Park on Saturday night, and let’s just say Manly are now stuffed with a capital F in 2023 after Tom Trbojevic’s season-ending injury last night, as if that belting from the Eels wasn’t painful enough, while the Storm had a few Origin players out last week but still comfortably got over Wests in Campbelltown.

– Sunday afternoon gets the latest edition of a Queensland Derby as the Brisbane Broncos host the Gold Coast, and hopefully by 2pm Sunday we’ll figure out who Jim Lenihan is, because he sounds like a New Jersey gangster who would get buried in concrete shoes under Giants Stadium…. in all seriousness, he actually played in St George’s last NRL game before the joint venture.

– The Sunday Channel 9 game sees South Sydney host North Queensland at the Olympic Stadium, while the Cowboys had to go to Golden Point to get over a very understrength Penrith team, which will naturally lead to everyone writing them off against a Souths team without Latrell Mitchell.

– The last game of the round sees the Sydney Roosters host the Canberra Raiders in the dreaded 6:15 Sunday slot, a genuine 50/50 game that is starting far too late in the evening for Roosters fans to attend, given they need to be up at 7 the next morning their Monday latte.

Round 16 Score = 3/5, Progress Score = 73/121 (60.3%)

So anyway, here we go for Round 17 of the Succinct NRL Tips, as I prepare to spin the random tip generator, HERE WE GO…..

Round 17 =

Riveting stuff.

Round 16 Lock of the Week

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

So last week the Knights continued their ineptitude as they managed to keep the Roosters to a sub-20-point score, at Hunter Stadium, and still proved unable to win the game, despite being anointed by the Lord as the Lock of the Week.

Fair dinkum, the only thing that’s caused more harm to the local Hunter environment than the Newcastle Knights is the coal industry, and much like the Knights, people are hopelessly dependent on them to prop up the community.

So, the Round 17 Lock of the Week, and I haven’t gone to this particular team for a while, but it’s high time I did, because they’re playing Top 4 football and they’re going to be winning on Sunday afternoon…

THE BRISBANE BRONCOS, THE HORSES WITH NO NAME, TO DEFEAT THE TITANS IN THE OLD SEQ DERBY.

Hahahaha – I only just realised that means I’ve gone from Europe to America in a week!

Random off-topic note: Right around the time of his death in 2009, it was revealed that Michael Jackson (who once had the same manager as America) had recorded a version of the song called ‘A Place With No Name’, which had actually been recorded back in 1998 when Jackson was recording material for Invincible, but the song got put on the backburner until the final version was compiled in 2008, and was ultimately released on the posthumous Xscape album in 2014, with America’s Dewey Bunnell receiving songwriting credits.