On Sunday:

“Raiders star Wighton accused of biting”

Now that he’s played his last game for the Raiders, it was re-titled:

“Souths thug Wighton gets 3 matches for biting”

Just getting his last few bites in before his teeth fall out once he settles in Redfern.

So on we go, just five games remaining in 2023, the Qualifying Finals weren’t much chop, but the Elimination Finals were superb sudden death contests.

– The Broncos vs Storm was expected to be a fair bit closer after the Storm won the second-string contest in Round 27 to deny the Broncs top spot, but with their rested players back and firing, the Broncos, mainly in a merciless forward pack, delivered a brutal shutout on their chief tormentors, their first win against the Storm at Lang Park in 14 years, the Storm’s first finals shutout defeat since the 40-0 flogging that Manly gave them in the 2008 Grand Final, and capping off a horror night for Melbourne was Ryan Papenhuyzen’s serious ankle injury that ended his season.

– The Panthers were the Panthers against the Warriors, as they moved to within 2 wins of history and completing the first threepeat of the National era of First Grade, and the interesting note I’d make is that the last Repeat Premier to actually win a final was none other than the ’94 Broncos, who defeated Manly in the Minor Semi Final, but got sent packing by a late Jason Taylor field goal against North Sydney.

– The Roosters looked in all styles against the Sharks, trailing 6-12 in the 2nd Half with James Tedesco in the bin for a professional foul, but as the Chooks have done for the last 6 weeks, they just kept plugging away, tied the scores, then took the lead with 7 minutes left when Sam Walker struck his maiden career field goal, and saved themselves with two superb chargedowns from Tedesco and Luke Keary to preserve their second 1-point finals win in 2 years.

The Sharks crash out without winning a final once again, with Trent Robinson once again conjuring a win out of nothing for the Chooks by swinging the magnets with half a Reserve Grade team, although they now march down to Melbourne without Joey Manu and Joseph Sua’li’i.

– The Raiders upended the Newcastle fairytale script in the 1st Half, but the game seemed to change when the Jack ‘Bite-on’ incident occurred 7 minutes into the half, as the parochial crowd was incensed, and the Knights shot back with 4 tries in 15 minutes to lead 28-16, the Raiders pulled themselves off the canvas and tied the scores just before full time, then after nothing of note for 8 minutes of extra time, Kalyn Ponga faked a field goal, got clobbered high by Matt Frawley 15 metres out for a penalty, and the Knights No.1 did the rest as the Novocastrians held on to win an all-time great final, their first finals win in 10 years.

Now, on to the Semi Finals:

– The Storm host the Roosters at AAMI Park, with both teams devoid of many key players, and it looks like Jahrome Hughes might be added to the casualty list for the Storm, and another note I’d make is that the Roosters are one of only 4 active teams with a winning finals record against the Storm (3-1), the others being the New Zealand Warriors (2-0), Newcastle Knights (2-1) and Canterbury Bulldogs (3-2).

Not that any of that matters, because the winner of this game is set up to be cannon fodder for the Penrith Panthers next weekend.

– In the other Semi Final, The Warriors host the rampaging Knights on Saturday evening at Mt Smart, in what is the first final played in New Zealand since the Warriors won the 2008 Semi Final against the Roosters, coming about thanks to the old rules of the McIntyre Finals system, when the two lowest-ranked winners of Week One hosted the Semi Finals…. of course, the Warriors finished 8th and stunned the Storm in the last final at Olympic Park.

The winner gets to play the Brisbane Broncos in front of a full Suncorp next week, which probably won’t be that big of a disadvantage for the Warriors, considering Queensland is pretty much Little Aotearoa.

Now, it’s time for the random tip generator to do its thing, and it seemed to do pretty well last week as I wound up with 4/4, which was my par score up until August.. but we’ve come charging home:

Finals Week One Tips = 4/4, Progress Score = 140/208 (67.3%)

Semi Final Tips =

Dunno if the Roosters can cover the Smokin’ Joes against a massive step up in opposition, and the Warriors might just be able to halt the Knights’ enormous run of momentum with the home crowd at Mt Smart.

Lock Of The Week

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

Another successful Lock to start the Finals as the Knights squeaked over the line at the death, and we’re spoiled for choice this week as they need to flip a coin, so here we go, this week’s Lock is…

THE WARRIORS WIN TO THE SOUNDS OF DAVE DOBBYN….. with Herbs!

I’ve gone against last week’s Lock… the jinx is on!