In fact, this was the heated exchange:

Ricky: “England’s greatest Prime Minister was Lord Palmerston.”

Des: “Pitt the Elder.”

Ricky: “Lord Palmerston!”

Des pokes Ricky’s chest

“Pitt. The. Elder!”

Ricky: “Alright, you asked for it Hasler!”

Well, with that out of the way, it’s on to Round 7, and among the highlights this week, we’ve seen three big player moves in the space of a few days:

Zac Lomax got his wish and was released from his Dragons contract to sign with Parramatta from 2025 and beyond… although it looks like he’s going to the Eels right as their begin their downward slope to the Bottom 4.

Joey Manu will depart the Sydney Roosters after 2024 to join Toyota Verblitz in Japanese rugby, where he’ll play alongside Beauden Barrett, the 2023 World Cup Final Player of the Match Pieter-Steph du Toit, and be coached by former All-Blacks bosses Ian Foster and Sir Steve Hansen.

And the more surprising departure was the Panthers granting Kiwis captain James Fisher-Harris (If he isn’t the best prop in the world then he’s bloody close to it) an early release to join his native New Zealand Warriors in 2025, so he can be closer to his family

In other news, Mal Meninga saw Souths play on the weekend and decided ‘You know what – I don’t fancy it’, which can be the only explanation for why Jason Demetriou was not dismissed after the loss against Cronulla, despite the Fourth Estate having written his obituary in whispers.

So as for what lies ahead in Round 7, with Souths getting the bye:

– The Roosters host the Storm at the SFS on Thursday night, with James Tedesco back for the Roosters, and big NAS back for the Storm, who play the Roosters for the first time since nutting them at the death in the Semi Final last year.

– The Dragons return to The Gong to host the New Zealand Warriors, and with Jack Bird getting his wings plucked due to concussion, the Warriors would be on track to make it a hat-trick of successful visits to The Gong… amazing to think until 2018, their last win there was against the Illawarra Steelers in 1996.

– Fresh off defeating the Cowboys, the Eels make a visit to Darwin to host the Redcliffe Dolphins, and if Wayne Bennett was the master psychologist we know him to be, then he’ll be telling the Phins players that it’s like a weekend in Townsville… so the Dolphins are probably screwed, in that case.

– Fresh off the news that their master prop is leaving them, the Panthers return to Bathurst for another year to host the Wests Tigers, and if you remember last year’s game at Carrington Park, it was pissing down rain, they’d got the Panthers against the wooden spoon Tigers… and the Tigers won 12-8.

– The Titans host the Sea Eagles on the Gold Coast as Des Hasler still searches for his first win as Titans coach after last week’s heart-breaker in Canberra, and you can just see in the stars that it’ll probably be against his old team… although, there’s every chance it’ll be a draw with the way Manly approach golden point.

– The Broncos host the Raiders at Suncorp, and this’ll be yet another coin toss, because the Raiders are more than capable of winning at Suncorp, as they proved last year, while the Broncos just aren’t quite at full power yet.

– The Bulldogs host the Newcastle Knights at Accor Stadium, and this fixture last year resulted in a 66-0 drubbing to the Knights (The biggest win in the club’s history), although the Knights were underwhelming in the return fixture, only winning 42-6.

– The Channel 9 Sunday game sees ladder leaders Cronulla host 4th-placed North Queensland, who have obviously been made to hang around in Sydney as punishment for losing to Parramatta last Saturday.

Alright, time for the Succinct Round 7 tips, here we go…

Round 6 score = 4/8

Running score after Round 6 = 27/48 (56.2%)

Lock of the Week

I actually managed to get one of these right last week… Only thanks to the Storm deciding to wait until the last 5 minutes to defeat the Berries.

Alright, this week’s Lock…

Bathurst may be a cold place most of the time, but at this time year it’s COOL FOR CATS as Penrith come to town!

COOOOOOL FOR CATS!