Sorry everyone, I would’ve posted this earlier, but I missed a mid-season review and got dropped by the Roosters.

Well, Brandon Smith always seemed like New Zealand’s answer to Forrest Gump.

On another note, what a hilarious moment during the King’s Birthday game between the Eels and Bulldogs:

The Eels put in a grubber kick that goes dead late in the 1st Half, giving the Bulldogs a 7-tackle set from the 20.

Clint Gutherson issues a Captain’s Challenge, knowing the Eels will still be defending the next set, after claiming that Mitch Moses knocked on during the build-up, realising that Canterbury only getting 6 tackles was the lesser of two evils (Also it allowed the Eels to set-up their defence).

Sure enough, The Bunker looks at it, finds Moses knocked on, and so the Eels win the Challenge despite not getting the ball.

So that could well make Clint Gutherson the first captain to ever win a Captain’s Challenge after pointing out the referee missed an error BY HIS OWN TEAM.

It’s the equivalent of calling a HawkEye challenge in tennis on your own 1st serve that landed in, only for your opponent to hit that serve for a clean winner on the return… you’re trying to hope it was a fault.

On another note friends, what a great line-up this week in the annual edition of BEANIES FOR BRAIN CANCER ROUND, as the Mark Hughes Foundation celebrates 10 years in action this year raising money for Brain Cancer research.

Of course, Mark Hughes was a very handy player for the Novocastrians, with 2 premiership wins, a handful of Origin appearances for New South Wales, and 66 tries across 161 games for the Knights from 1997 to 2005.

On paper there’s 8 games that look harder to pick than a broken nose, which could be said for just about every Round this year:

– Thursday night has the clash of the great sea dwellers as the Cronulla Sharks host the Redcliffe Dolphins at Shark Park in a Top 4 duel, with the Sharks getting themselves back on track with a huge win at Lang Park against the Broncos, with the Dolphins coming off the bye after that Golden Point loss to the Raiders a fortnight ago, and if natural selection is to be believed, the Sharks should win this with a big bite.

– The first Friday night game has the Raiders hosting the Cowboys in Canberra, and once again I have no idea if any of these teams are actually any good, although given how shithouse the Cowboys were at home last week, the Raiders seem like a logical choice.

– The feature Channel 9 Friday night game has an awkward matchup with South Sydney hosting the Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium, and honestly this could go either way with how Souths look much improved last week, while the Broncos have got the wobbles up once again after that defeat against the Sharks to leave them hanging on to 8th spot on points differential.

– The early Saturday game has the Wests Tigers hosting the Gold Coast at Leichhardt Oval, as the honeymoon period that Benji Marshall never actually had has well and truly ended, while the Titans managed to undo all of their good work in one lazy afternoon against Souths.

– The clash of the round at Mt Smart has the rising New Zealand Warriors, now up to 10th and just 1 point off the Top 8 host the Melbourne Storm, who rose from 3rd to 1st in Round 13 without playing a game, then held it last week by defeating the Knights at AAMI Park, and of course the Warriors haven’t defeated the Storm since 2014, having had several near misses since then, namely Round 2 of this season when Xavier Coates scored a world beater in the last minute.

I still get a laugh seeing the look on the touch judge’s face.

– Saturday night has the Eels, coming in off a 5-day turnaround after a heartbreaking defeat against the Bulldogs, host the Sydney Roosters in Parramatta, with the Roosters team being made up of the players that actually attended their mid-season review.

– The Sea Eagles return to 4 Pines/Brookvale to host the rising St George-Illawarra, a random note about this game is that Ben Hunt will be the most experienced player in this game (Even greater than DCE) being his 325th game, breaking a tie with Luke Lewis and Andrew Ettinghausen to join Ryan Hoffman and Josh Morris, while DCE joins Billy Slater on 319 games.

– The lucky last game of the round, the Channel 9 Sunday game and the centrepiece of Beanies for Brain Cancer Round has Mark Hughes’ beloved Newcastle hosting Penrith in the Hunter Valley, a game that looks utterly uninspiring given the form of both teams pointing it towards the Panthers violently assaulting the Knights, but if they raise a fair bit of money out of it, then it should be worth it.

Also, I had to look this up and confirm it was true, but the Knights haven’t defeated the Panthers since Round 23 of 2018, a time when Cameron Ciraldo was caretaking the Panthers after Anthony Griffin was sacked 2 weeks earlier, Nathan Brown was coaching the Knights, and Nick Meaney (Now with the Storm) was the fullback for the Knights in his 3rd NRL game.

Anyway, with Canterbury getting the Bye, it’s time for the Round 15 Succinct Tips, here we go…

Last week I couldn’t even remember if I tipped the Bulldogs or Eels, then I saw the Berries get the late winner and had my heart in my mouth…

Turns out I had tipped them.

Round 14 Score = 4/7

Running score after Round 14 = 66/108 (61.1%)

61.1% strike rate and I’m still only just outside the Top 10% on FootyTips.

Lock of the Week

Does it even matter by this point?

For no reason at all, here’s Kermit the Frog to sing a song for the Canberra Raiders, who will WIN on Friday night.