Here we are, the biggest annual home & away round of the year in ANZAC Day, but starting off the top, it was pretty damn sad to hear the great Terry Hill died at the tender age of 52 on a holiday in the Philippines of all places.

Of course, if it weren’t for Hill (at the age of 19) being the de facto face of the 127 players that took the NSWRL to court in 1992, then rugby league may still have a player draft system today, a circumstance that came about when Hill signed to play with Western Suburbs (from Souths) for 1991, only for Easts to draft him in the ill-fated 1991 player draft to force him to join the Roosters.

Hill initially appealed but lost, forcing him to play for the Roosters in 1991, but another visit to the High Court a few months later resulted in a ruling in the players’ favour, finding that the draft (Which was poorly thought out to begin with) was a restraint of trade and interfered with the players’ right to negotiate.

Thus, rugby league’s only attempt at a player draft failed because, among many things, it failed to take into consideration the interests of the players in choosing a club – A legacy of Terry Hill on the game.

Another fun fact, Hill also scored the first official try at the Olympic Stadium in 1999, playing for Manly against Newcastle.

Of course, outside of a league-changing court case, Terry Hill was a great character of the Footy Show when the Footy Show was the Footy Show, and among many great moments in his gold jacket was his live crosses from the Dapto Dogs, as Terry’s trademark lisp was best demonstrated on the night of his interview with Toothless George Baggana, devoid of his ‘Barry Beath’.

Another great Australian sportsman has gone to South East Asia, and never come back.

So looking at the ANZAC Day Weekend, starting off with the day of commemoration, which the Bulldogs didn’t get an invite for this year:

– The Warriors host the Titans at Mt Smart, marking the first time since the ANZAC Centenary year of 2015 (When they also played the Titans) that the Warriors have played in New Zealand on ANZAC Day, after years of playing the Storm in Melbourne, and amazingly that 2015 game is the only time until Thursday that the Warriors have played a home game on ANZAC Day, and they’ve gone all out with the pre-game ceremony involving 180 New Zealand Army, Navy and Air Force personnel.

– Thursday afternoon has the latest edition of the ANZAC Day game between the Dragons and Roosters at the SFS, which will come to a standstill as 42,000 people stand silent for The Ode, while Trent Robinson finds a way to mope after another loss (Presumably to take the heat off his players), which he’ll do again on Thursday now that Tupou and Radley are out, while the Dragons stunned everyone by deadset clubbing the Warriors after the 20th minute, suggesting that the Dragons are no longer a 16th-placed team under Shane Flanagan, but rather a team good enough to finish in 15th.

– The Melbourne Storm have their annual ANZAC Night game at AAMI Park, this year against the ailing South Sydney, the first non-Warriors team to play the Storm on ANZAC Day since Manly defeated the Storm in 2015, and we all know which way this game is heading, as Souths have never defeated the Storm in Melbourne in 26 years.

– The Channel 9 Friday night game sees a rematch between Manly and Parramatta, this time at Brookvale which has been sold out for the third time this season, as Manly come off a game with no defences against the Titans, and the amnesic Eels come back to Sydney having been absolutely slow roasted by the Dolphins in Darwin… they would’ve been able to stop the blaze, but Brad Arthur drank all the water in Darwin trying to stay hydrated.

– The Wests Tigers host the Broncos at Campbelltown in the Saturday twilight slot, a game that looks as interesting as it sounds, although I’d imagine the Broncos will be disappointed not being able to play underneath 7 feet of water again given how thoroughly they belted the Raiders at Suncorp.

– The Cowboys host the Panthers in Townsville on Saturday afternoon as Nathan Cleary returns for the 3-time premiers, so that’s really all I need to know about which way the result of this game is heading

– The Dolphins host the Knights at Suncorp on Sunday afternoon, as the Dolphins racked up another big win in 2024 to counter out their 2 random big defeats to their Queensland counterparts, while any hopes Newcastle had of a decent season came crashing down when Kalyn Ponga went down last Sunday afternoon in that deadset horror show against Canterbury.

– The lucky last game has the Raiders hosting the Sharks in a rematch of the Round 4 Easter Sunday game, when the Raiders led 18-0 after only 20 minutes, only to get pancaked by a rampaging Sharks team over the next hour as the host team came back to win 36-22 in another vintage Canberra Faiders performance, and the Sharks are now top of the ladder, even in spite of Brayden Trindall getting done during a roadside RBT and co-captain Dale Finucane retiring effective immediately.

What a fantastic career that was for the best product from Bega that wasn’t made of cheese – 251 games, 28 finals in total, he played in 2 Grand Finals for Canterbury, then played in 4 more at Melbourne and won 2 of them, plus a World Club Challenge, he was one of the last Country NSW representatives still going around, and represented New South Wales 5 times.

So on that note, here’s the Succinct NRL Tips for the Round 8 ANZAC Day Round, here we go….

Round 7 score = 5/8

Running score after Round 7 = 32/56 (57.1%)

Lock of the Week

Penrith confirmed they really are Cool For Cats by saluting as the Lock last week, which means by my own self imposed rules I can’t pick them again, nor can I really gang up on Wests again, which would make it about 3 times in 8 weeks that I’ve ganged up on them, so we’re going left field this week…

On a weekend for commemoration of those who have seen the horrors of warfare, expect the Dolphins vs Knights game to resemble this:

THE DOLPHINS to win.