Well friends, just 6 teams remain in season 2024, although we know that only 2 of them can win it and they’re both having the week off (Melbourne & Penrith), so why we’re even bothering to play the Semi Finals is beyond me, but we are..

And the big story of the week is the North Queensland Cowboys having to force the NRL to help them pay for a charter flight down to Sydney, because all the Cowboys fans had bought all the direct flights in Townsville down to Sydney, many of them paying four figures just for a direct flight:

The NRL has come to the rescue of the North Queensland Cowboys by helping to fund an emergency flight to Sydney for their semi-final, following fears the team would be left stranded in Townsville.

The NRL has allayed the Cowboys’ travel fears with the governing body to help fund a $100,000 emergency charter flight for Friday night’s finals blockbuster against the Sharks. ‘NRL Airlines’ has come to the rescue to ensure North Queensland stars arrive on schedule for their sudden-death semi-final against Cronulla at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium.

The Cowboys were forced to explore an urgent contingency after two commercial flights that fly direct to Sydney were all-but sold out – ironically due to demand from their own North Queensland supporters. Commercial flights from Townsville to Sydney are costing as much as $1700 return as Cowboys fans flock to Sydney to get behind a North Queensland team that is two wins away from their first NRL grand final since 2017.

Outraged Cowboys supporters have taken to social media slamming Qantas and Virgin, accusing Australia’s leading airlines of price gouging, adding: “Help the fans”.

The mad rush for airline tickets had ramifications for the Cowboys, who appealed for the NRL’s help to transport their squad to Sydney.

The NRL has stepped in to fund a charter flight for the Cowboys to travel to Sydney. NRL bosses have come to the party, rubberstamping a Covid-style charter flight to ensure the Cowboys’ preparations for their biggest game of the season thus far are not impacted. It’s understood the NRL and North Queensland will share costs on the venture, which can range in cost from $50,000 to $100,000. The Cowboys will touch down on Thursday before returning home on a charter flight regardless of Friday night’s result.

This does me think, Jonathan Thurston, the greatest Cowboy of them all, owns a big part of the North Queensland-based Skytrans, which has at least 13 aircraft in operation…. surely he could’ve found something in his heart to help out the team that made him an icon, and by association help the fans that cheered him for 14 years?

This also does remind me that Peter V’Landys has been investigating buying an NRL private jet for years, in case of events such as this…

I hope that if or when the league do buy one, they can come in to land on the V’Landing Strip.

Of course, the other big story is the ongoing Josh Addo-Carr drugs story, as he returned a positive roadside test for cocaine a fortnight ago, then the oral test returned a positive, and he fronted up the NRL Integrity Unit on Tuesday to explain himself as there remains a very real possibility the Foxx could very well have played his last game not only for Canterbury, but in the NRL itself.

Either way, it does look like he’s screwed – There’s the potential positive tests that would put him out of the game and tank his reputation, on top of that he was endangering lives driving with traces of drugs in his system, then there’s the potential lies and contradicting stories, followed by the doubling down about the lying, which, even if he retains his contract, would remove any shred of confidence his teammates had left in him, especially after they lost an epic knockout final by 2 points, in which he could’ve made a huge difference.

And finally, the Wests Tigers decided to do something completely random, because they’ve got nothing to celebrate on-field, this time congratulating Luke Brooks, who left the club at the end of last year after 205 games with no Finals, for not only finally appearing in a Final with Manly, but playing in a winning Final after 230 games.

Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson has congratulated Luke.

“On behalf of everyone here at Wests Tigers, I want to congratulate Luke on achieving something that he has wanted for a long time,” said Richardson.

“Luke spent more than a decade as a Wests Tigers player, so he will always be a part of this family.

“He showed loyalty when many didn’t.”

What a statement, it’s like congratulating your ex-girlfriend on getting engaged on their Facebook announcement post.

Now, on to the Semi Finals:

As the last plane to Sydney’s almost gone, the Cronulla Sharks host the North Queensland Cowboys at the SFS on the Friday night, and the Sharks go in having lost 7 consecutive Finals since the 2018 Preliminary Final, and a defeat on Friday night would give them the record run in the NRL era (8), and the Sharks also own all-time First Grade record of 10 consecutive Finals defeats that ran from the 1978 Grand Final Replay against Manly to the 1995 Semi Final against Newcastle… the Sharks ended the run against Western Suburbs in 1996.

Of course, the other part of that losing streak that the Sharks don’t want to remember is they lost one of those Finals to the Cowboys in 2022 in Golden Point, after giving up a try in the last minute of regulation when they had a player in the Sin Bin… 2 years on, we’ve got the same teams, same coaches (Fitzgibbon and Payten) at a different location.

That game is also part of an often entertaining Finals history between the teams, starting with 2013 as the Sharks won an Elimination Final 20-18 thanks to an infamous 7th tackle try after the referees lost count on tackle five, calling it tackle four…

Then, the game was also decided by a monster try saver from future Sharks coach John Morris on Kane Linnett, dragging him onto the touchline before he got the ball down with 15 seconds remaining, before the game ended in complete farce as they couldn’t work out how much time was actually left… appropriate, considering they allowed a 7th tackle try.

Then in 2015 the Sharks made a massive roadtrip to Townsville for a Semi Final against the Cowboys, only to lose by a lazy 39-0 as the Cowboys marched on to the Grand Final and their maiden title.

In 2016, the roles were reversed as the Cowboys went down to Sydney to play the Sharks in a Preliminary Final, but it would be the Sharks who ended the Cowboys’ premiership defence with a 32-20 win, in which James Maloney scored 20 points on his own, as the Sharks went on to win their own maiden premiership…

And in 2017, the Cowboys snuck into the Finals in the last week of the season when the Bulldogs defeated the Dragons, and ended Cronulla’s premiership defence at the first hurdle 15-14 thanks to a field goal to Michael Morgan, with the Sharks knocking on with the try line in sight late in the game.

And finally, the 2022 game.

Another major note it that this could also mark Kyle Feldt’s last game in Australia as he prepares to join St Helens in the English Super League next season, and what a brilliant career it has been for Feldty in North Queensland, winning the 2015 Grand Final in which he scored the fabled last-second try to tie the scores and force Golden Point, in which he produced the kickoff that led to Ben Hunt’s error, he was also a World Club Challenge winner, an NRL Nines winner, he’s the Cowboys all-time leading tryscorer on 150 tries, making him part of that select group in rugby league history, and he’s also one of only 3 players in history to score 10+ tries in 9 consecutive seasons, alongside Manu Vatuvei and the greatest tryscorer of them all, Ken Irvine.

And somehow, he only ever played 2 games for Queensland in 2021, one of which was in Townsville… the Maroons lost them both, and he never made it back.

And the second of the Semi Finals sees one of the more understated rivalries in the game, as the Sydney Roosters, having now lost 6 of their last 8 finals, host Manly-Warringah at the SFS, and in a normal world this game would’ve been played on the Friday night, given the winner of this game plays the Melbourne Storm in the Friday night Preliminary Final, but the Sea Eagles would’ve had to back up 5 days after that epic Elimination Final, with no team having backed up 5 days between Finals in some years.

Of course, it is a rivalry with some great finals history, as it was in 1972 that Manly won their inaugural premiership 19-14 against the Roosters after 25 years of struggle, then there was the 2 epic finals in 1996 and 1997, which Manly won by a combined margin of 3 points, despite Brad Fittler doing this in ’96:

Then we get to the 2013 season, Trent Robinson’s rookie year, in which the Roosters defeated Manly twice during the regular season, defeated them 4-0 in a brutal Qualifying Final (The lowest-scoring final of the 21st Century), then came from 10 points down to win the Grand Final 26-18, making them the last team to defeat a team 4 times in a season.

And then we get to 2021, when Manly quite easily defeated the Roosters 42-6 in a Semi Final played in Mackay, which ended the career of Josh Morris.

Of course, more historically, Manly have been Eastern Suburbs’ biggest bogey side, given they have the best record against the Roosters of any active team (62.67%), a record that really holds weight considering they’ve met 142 times over 77 years.

There’s also 2 other interesting parts of this game:

– It’ll be James Tedesco’s 250th NRL game

– And it could very well be Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ last NRL game, after 315 games and 3 premierships, and I’d bet my bottom dollar he’ll probably end it in the Sin Bin, probably be in a fight with Matt Lodge, considering Lodge wants revenge on the Roosters after they cut him loose in the middle of last year.

And now on to the Succinct NRL Tips for the Semi Finals and I would note that last week thanks to Manly spectacularly ending Canterbury’s season in front of 50,000 fans, I finished up with 4/4, which must be the first perfect round I’ve had all year.

Thank you, Anthony Seibold.

Finals Week One Score = 4/4

Running score after Finals Week One = 132/208 (63.5%)

Lock of the Week

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

And the Lock of the Week for the Semi Finals, and there’s a good chance I’ll manage to be wrong with 2 games being played…

THE CHICKENS IN BLACK TO DEFEAT MANLY on Saturday night… speaking of which, here’s the worst music video Johnny Cash ever made

Only slightly less atrocious than the Roosters last weekend.