We’ve hit 10 years since one of the more memorable Good Friday games, the game that really made Good Friday afternoon worth watching…

Bad Friday 2015, when Gerard Sutton had the gonads to give a last minute penalty to Souths for below the knees contact during a chargedown attempt on Adam Reynolds, in effect winning Souths the game 18-17 due to it resulting in a 10m penalty kick, and it ended with Bulldogs fans peppering the field, and the referees, with bottles.

Scenes unseen since Wally Lewis got sin-binned at Lang Park.

Anyway, on we go to the Easter of 2025, and the big story this week is that Wests half Lachlan Galvin turned down a $6 milllion AUD offer and decided not to re-sign with the Wests Tigers because he didn’t think he’d develop into an international-standard player under Benji Marshall’s coaching, for which Benji Marshall and the entire Tigers playing cohort responded by freezing him out and dropping him to NSW Cup, in effect uniting the Tigers playing group behind their coach for the first time in years.

What a deadset shitshow… for one, that notorious manager Isaac Moses has pretty much ensured another player quit on Wests, dating back to the events of James Tedesco leaving for the Roosters in 2017, Galvin also still has 18 months to run on his contract, and thirdly what an insult to Benji Marshall, who basically had his credentials developing a young half brought into question, as if Benji wasn’t one of the greatest halves of the modern era, and a player who players like Jarome Luai looked up to

It was also funny that there were Tigers players going on social media and letting their feelings be known, and it was appropriate that in the same week as Wrestlemania, Sunia Turuva made an Instagram post about Galvin mentioning Shane McMahon’s classic theme song… HERE COMES THE MONEY!

SHANE O MAC, the boss’ son, jumped off a Hell in a Cell for the COMPANY.. would Lachie Galvin jump off the top of the goalposts to save a try for his teammates?

Still, that’s yet another player who decided to flee the Wests Tigers… Josh Addo-Carr, James Tedesco, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Mitch Moses, Josh Aloiai, Jacob Liddle, Jake Simpkin, although I won’t include Moses Suli considering he got the arse from the Tigers for being a lazy trainer.

I could name more names to try and make some kind of contrived argument, but it appears that Galvin will be joining that group of players.

Still, the situation is now so bad that the Rugby League Players’ Association are holding crisis meetings, and what a shame that uncle Russ isn’t still with us running the RLPA to enjoy a time such as this, and in the meantime we’d best look at the games over the Easter Weekend, as the league gives the Cowboys a weekend with their families:

– Manly host St George Illawarra at Brookvale, and by now I have no idea what Manly will turn up and what St George will turn up, but is in the Insular Peninsula and Manly sprout wings at Brooky

– Next up is the latest edition of the Good Friday fixture between Canterbury and South Sydney, and it appears the Bulldogs may have their best chance to win on Good Friday since 2017, although we know what Wayne Bennett can conjure up.

If the Berries do win, it’d make them 6-0 for the first time, in this their 90th anniversary season.

– The Redcliffe Dolphins get their first appearance on Good Friday as they host the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp, and from memory the Storm played a Good Friday at Suncorp many years ago… in fact it was 2013 against the Broncos and Billy Slater scored a hat trick.

In fact, the best game on Good Friday Night? Hull vs Hull KR in the Super League.

– The Wahs host the Broncos at Mt Smart on Saturday night, and unfortunately for the hosts they have been decimated with Rocco Berry, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and James Fisher-Harris all going out, so expect Madge to light a rocket up the Bronx after losing last week.

– A clash of the wooden spoon contenders on Saturday night as the Roosters host minnows Penrith at the SFS, and it’s funny to think back in Round 2, the Roosters thought they’d recorded one of the best wins in club history when they got hold of Penrith…

Turns out all they’d done was beat a Bottom 4 team.

– Easter Sunday has the Titans hosting the Raiders on the Glitter Strip, and we have the tackle shy Untippable Titans against a Raiders team who can anything from score 50 points to inexplicably lose, a great recipe for entertainment.

– Newcastle host Cronulla in the Hunter, and if the Knights’ attacks is as pathetic as it was last week, the Sharks could win the game on Sunday with 1 try in 80 minutes, because even though the Knights do have the 2nd-best defensive record in the league (86 points in 5 games), they’re not even averaging 10 points per game… absolute shit.

– And the ‘traditional’ Easter Monday game has the Westies rivalry between Parramatta and Wests Tigers, and we’ve already established that the Eels are rubbish with a very green head coach in Ryles, while on the other hand with Lachie Galvin as good as gone and apparently trying to flee to Parramatta, the Tigers are either going to be a better,, united team, or they’re going to be worse off without a starting half to partner Luai.

So on that note, time for the Succinct NRL Tips for Round 7, here we go…

Round 6 score = 5/8

Round 6 progressive score = 27/48 (56.25%)

Lock of the Week, although based on the last 4 weeks if this is a lock then the opposition are the key

Alright, the Lock for Easter weekend…

AFTER THE SHENENIGANS OF LACHIE GALVIN, BENJI MARSHALL WILL HAVE THE EYE OF THE TIGER AGAINST THE EELS.