Round 9, the annual edition of…. MAGIC ROUND.

Last year was another great edition of the Festival of Rugbaleeg in Brisbane with record attendeances, and hopefully we can get the same thing again in 2025 with it running alongside the Federal Elevtion, although the referees can piss off with the mass sin binnings which absolutely ruined Round 8.

18 in one weekend…. 18 in one month is excessive, but 18 in a WEEKEND?

But before we get to the rest of Magic Round, the news event of the year….

STAND ASIDE, THE BEARS ARE COMING BACK IN PERTH

Stand aside or we’ll tear you apart.

The biggest moment for the Bears since the 1922 premiership, or that time Jason Taylor ended the Broncos’ threepeat chances in 1994, and it’d be a big moment for WA rugby league as well, because 28 years after the Super League pretty much killed any chance the Western Reds had to develop a team and a club, there’ll finally be another team in Perth to add some merit to the word NATIONAL in the NRL.

It’s also an appropriate marriage, because the Reds and the Bears got completely screwed by the Super League War, unlike the Bears marrying Manly, which was something from Dante’s fifth layer of hell.

Now for a look at the Magic Round games, with Manly getting the bye this weekend after beating up Penrith:

– The clash of the marine life as the Sharks play the Eels to begin festivities, and it is easy to forget the Eels are now going for a hat trick of victories after that win on Easter Monday

– The Roosters play the Dolphins in the Channel 9 Friday night game, with the Good Friday night rampage on the Storm showing what the Dolphins can produce, and this’ll mark the first time the teams have met in Queensland since the Dolphins inaugural game

– The first Saturday game has Souths playing the Knights, and you can tell Souths have been ravaged by player shortages because the Knights will somehow start as the betting favourite, despite the fact that Kalyn Ponga is now out…

In fact, last week Latrell Mitchell claimed the all-time record for the most sin bin visits in an NRL career, surpassing Victor ‘The Inflictor’ Radley, and what a weekend to get it with 18 players going to the bin.

– The New Zealand Warriors host the North Queensland Cowboys in the Saturday twilight, and it’ll be a true home game for the Warriors with the amount of Kiwis in Brisbane these days

– Wests Tigers have St George in the Election Night slot, the Tigers being GALVIN-ised by Lachie Galvin coming back into the 13 and managing to complete a rare Wests golden point win thanks to Adam Doueihi, while the Dragons copping another atomic bombing from the Roosters in an ANZAC game that was done by half time.

The Titans start up the Sunday games with a game against ladder leaders Canterbury, returning to the scene of the beating they took from the Broncos last Thursday, in which they could very easily have finished with 11 players on the field

The Broncos and Panthers get the Sunday afternoon Channel Nine game, and it’s good to see the national broadcaster helping out poor struggling clubs like the Panthers get some much needed exposure

– And the last game has the Storm playing the Canberra Raiders, always an interesting matchup as we have Craig Bellamy coaching against the team he played for and occasionally struggles against in the coaches’ box, while Ricky’s Green Machine are capable of absolutely anything, from losing badly, falling behind badly and coming back, to winning an arm wrestle.

Round 8 Score = 5/8

Progressive Score = 36/64 (56.25%)

And unfortunately I’ve run out of time for the Lock of the Week, so here’s another song about Magic, courtesy of Marc Hunter and Dragon!