A happy 300th game to Manly/Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans, the best player that ever wiggled his way out of a contract with the Gold Coast Titans

And to celebrate this milestone, here’s when DCE appeared on an episode of Perfect Partners on The Footy Show.

Among many things, DCE has the equal-record for the most Field Goals in the NRL era (26, tied with Jamie Soward), with Adam Reynolds one behind, and he’s just the second player to reach 300 games for the Sea Eagles, joining fellow Clive Churchill Medal winner Cliffy Lyons, and technically speaking Steve Menzies did play 349 games for the Silvertails, although 69 came while Manly was in the Northern Eagles merger agreement with North Sydney, so Beaver can piss off.

Now, while the players continue their pay dispite with the NRL, to the point they’re now covering up the NRL logo on jerseys this weekend, Round 22 marks the annual Women In League Round, and it does make me think, given the NRLW started LAST week, wouldn’t it have made more sense to have it then, and just have a nice big celebration to start the new women’s season?

Just feels like the cart has been put in front of the horse, and to be honest, the Parramatta women might be a late scratching from the festivities, because they’ll be celebrating their victory in Try July Celebrations:

Quite appropriate to set a high bar for try celebrations by doing the Limbo, and it completely helps you forget the small fact that the Tigers wound up smashing them 36-8.

Round 21 produced plenty of upsets, namely the Knights defeating the Storm for the first time in 8 years, after I pretty much said the Knights wouldn’t win, then on Sunday the Sea Eagles decided to bomb Cronulla into submission during the 1st Half to lead 26-0, then survived and almighty comeback as the Sharks brought it back from 0-30 to 26-30 with a good 6 minutes to win the game, but Manly held on despite having 3 injured forwards out of the game.

That game did prove that the Sharks don’t just lose exclusively to teams inside the Top 8, they can also lose to bottom teams.

The events of the upcoming Round:

– The Broncos return to The Gabba to host the Roosters, and normally a game between Brisbane and Sydney at The Gabba would be played between the Brisbane Lions and the Sydney Swans, or the Brisbane Heat vs the Sydney Sixers/Thunder, but nope, the Roosters are the first team from outside Queensland to play a First Grade match in Woolloongabba.

– The early Friday game sees Wests Tigers host South Sydney (Now stuck down in 9th) in Australia’s capital of Country Music in Tamworth, and in a town renowned for its Golden Guitars, both teams have been hitting quite a few brown notes of late, so much so the teams’ combined records in their last 10 games is 6 wins of a possible 20.

– The Melbourne Storm return to Marvel Stadium to host the Parramatta Eels, and the Eels do have a bit of history against the Storm at Docklands, given the gunslinging 2001 Eels gave the Storm their greatest home defeat back in Round 20 of 2001 with a 54-10 belting under the roof, and in 2007 the Storm defeated the Eels 26-10 in the Preliminary Final before going on to win a stripped premiership, and fun fact, that Prelim is the last Sunday afternoon Preliminary Final to date.

– The Raiders host the fast-rising Knights in Canberra to start Saturday afternoon, and after nearly pulling off an all-time great comeback in New Zealand last Friday, the Raiders now just have to keep on winning games, because their Points Differential is still by far the worst in the Top 10 at -56…. amazingly the Knights, despite being 5 places lower on the ladder, are 106 points better off!

– While Moses Mbye said goodbye to the Dragons, The Red V will stay in The ‘Gong for another week, this time to host Manly for DCE’s 300th game, and if it weren’t for that fact, then this game would be as watchable as a crab race.

– The Saturday night game sees Penrith host Cronulla in the mountains, and the only guess I need to make is what the final margin will be, because it might exceed the final margin for the 5th Test at The Oval.

– Sunday afternoon sees the Bulldogs dispatched to Bundaberg to play the pod of Redcliffe Dolphins that have migrated up there as the winters starts nearing its end, and the Bulldogs are more than likely 1 win away from ending the wooden spoon debate in 2023.

– Aaaaand the lucky last game for the weekend features another Queensland Derby between the Titans and the high flying Cowboys, and while the Titans revert back to disappointment, it seems incredible to think that the Cowboys are a very real prospect of claiming a Top 4 spot… assuming they can keep winning, that is.

So anyway, here we go for Round 22 of the Succinct NRL Tips, as I prepare to spin the random tip generator, HERE WE GO…..

Round 21 score = 5/8, Progress Score = 97/156 (62.2%)

Round 22 =

Round 22 Lock of the Week

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

Another week of shooting fish in a barrel as the Dragons got the job done over the Tigers, despite falling behind at half-time, but a 2nd Half try got the Red V back in front and over the line 18-14, a game that you wouldn’t dare watch twice.

Now, for another thoughtless crack at the LOCK…

I won’t pick on Wests for another week, so instead, Penrith will belt the living crap out of Cronulla, so here’s some nice appropriate backing music…

Squeeze with COOL FOR CATS!