What an amazing week that was:

The Dragons finally recorded a win after 295 days and 15 consecutive defeats, crushing the Broncos 30-26 at Suncorp, the third consecutive year the Dragons have defeated the Broncos at Suncorp and it should be noted there was a coincidence in there because the Dragons were the first team to lose their first 11 games of a season since the 2006 Rabbitohs (Who lost their first 12)… The 2006 Rabbitohs recorded their first win of the season against the Brisbane Broncos, and the 2026 Dragons recorded their first win against the Brisbane Broncos.

Another fun fact – The Dragons have never won at Lang Park during Magic Round since it began in 2019, but in that time, they’ve now won 5 games against the Broncos at the same stadium.

Of course, it got even uglier for the Broncos as they got a royal roasting for inviting accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith into the rooms, because they were trying to distract everyone from the fact they lost to the worst team in the league and their premiership defence is up Shit Creek.

Another piece of good news for the Dragons is that the 15-game losing streak will only stand as the 2nd-worst losing streak of the NRL era, just behind the Knights losing 19 consecutive games from Round 7, 2016 until Round 1 of 2017.

Moving on, Manly’s search for a coach lasted all of 2 months and didn’t even have to leave the Insular Peninsula as Kieran Foran has the head coaching job permanently, ironically after the Sea Eagles lost last Friday night… a mere 208 days after his last NRL game, Foran has been appointed as a head coach, which the Sydney Morning Herald and statsman David Middleston noted was the quickest transition in 46 years, when Easts & Parramatta hero John ‘Bomber’ Peard retired from playing in 1979 and coached the Eels in 1980… of course, Bomber was out after one season and was replaced by his old Easts coach Jack Gibson, who finally ended Parramatta’s quest for a premiership in 1981.

Aaaaaand the TV rights bidding war for 2028 and beyond, believed to be seeking a price of some $4 billion AUD, is nicely brewing into economic warfare, as Channel Nine are in it, Foxtel’s owners DAZN are in it, Southern Cross Media/Channel 7 put in a bid to bring back Monday Night Football and secure rights to State of Origin, which would also help the Foxtel bid as they seemingly want to bid to get all 9 games live (Given the Bears will be in next year), then according to the AFR story they’l get Seven or Channel 10 into a WWF-style tag team to wipe out Nine.

It seems that someone like Channel 10 have nothing to lose given they have barely any sports on their current lineup, Channel 7 love a team up with Fox as the cricket and AFL rights have shown, while the group that has the most to lose is DAZN, who bought Foxtel (and by extension Kayo, which is owned by a subsidiary of Foxtel) from the Murdochs + Telstra last year – If they lose the NRL rights, which as it stands comes with the Fox League channel + every game live (Except State of Origin and the Grand Final) plus exclusive coverage of 5 games a week, that’s a shitload of their investment in Foxtel down the tubes, given the NRL rights (Plus the AFL and cricket rights) are one their primary drivers for subscription, Fox Sports channels are typically the highest rating on Foxtel, and losing the rugby league would be like losing their liver and right lung.

Channel 9 losing the rights would be a huge blow for them, considering State of Origin is the highest rating TV programme in Australian television and they were the flagship network for Australian cricket for 40 years, but they’ve still got the Summer Olympic Games, the focal point being Brisbane 2032, and the majority of their business model isn’t built around 3 sports.

If anything, it looks like the NRL will successfully stunt the TV coverage of the game in favour of taking the cash by having 3 games on Nine, 4 games on Fox, 1 game on Amazon Prime and 1 on Channel 7, Because after all, making TV access even more difficult for the average punter worked out very well for rugby union in Australia.

Now, on to Round 14 and the King’s Birthday Round, and this is the only full round of 8 games before Origin II in a fortnight with the Warriors getting the bye, and it’s also good to see the NRL embrace Queensland Day on Saturday by scheduling two Queensland Derbies:

– Thursday night has Manly hosting South Sydney at Brookvale, and a nice fact is Souths have the most wins of any visiting team in the history of Brookvale (24 wins from 59 games)… it’s also worth noting that Manly are coming up on 2 major milestones – They’re currently on 497 wins at Brookvale, which is the most any team has had at any ground in the history of First Grade, and they’re also sitting on 997 all-time First Grade wins

– The Melbourne Storm host the Newcastle Knights in the Friday 6pm game at AAMI Park, on the same night that there’s an AFL game at the MCG, and it is a familiar game between these two with one team sitting 13th and the other in 4th… only difference is the team in 13th is the betting favourite, given the Knights have a terrible record in Melbourne, having not won there since 2015, and they only have 2 wins against the Storm in that time.

– A rare Friday night Channel Nine game in frozen Canberra as the Raiders host the Sydney Roosters, the clash of the last two Roosters premiership coaches in Ricky Stuart and Trent Robinson as the Raiders get their fourth consecutive home game, while the Roosters have struggled against the Raiders of late having lost 4 out of the last 5, and their attack is struggling without old Marky Mark Nawaqanitawase having scored 16 points in the last 2 defeats.

– The first of the two Queensland Derbies on Super Saturday as the North Queensland Cowboys take on the Dolphins in Townsville, and I would surmise that there will be a fair few points scored in this game as the Dolphins attack, after a slow start, is back firing at levels that we saw throughout 2025 (Their defence is also now 4th for Points Against), while the Cowboys can score points and give them up in equal measure… you just have no idea what week they’re going to do it.

– The Saturday night Queensland Derby on Queensland Day has the Brisbane Broncos hosting the Gold Coast Titans, as Michael Maguire appears to have a violent run at Tuesday selection in the wake of losing to the Dragons with Pat Carrigan injured and gone from Origin, Ezra Mam sent to the bench and Thomas Duffy starting in the halves… ironically the Broncos are wearing their black jerseys for the annual Mental Health awareness game, while the Titans get Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Jojo Fifita back from Queensland duty, so don’t be surprised if they spring another upset on the Broncos.

– The clash of the former Penrith players at the Wests Tigers (Luai, Koroisau, Geyer) and the Penrith Panthers as the Wests Tigers host Penrith at Commbank on Sunday afternoon, the Tigers back on the right track after the Canterbury win last week, and Api Koroisau is back from suspension, while the Panthers now back at full power with To’o, Yeo and Cleary all back after putting their feet up watching the narrow win against the Warriors… seems like the kind of game in recent years where the Tigers have been folded like a piece of bread.

– The Channel Nine Sunday afternoon game sees Cronulla hosting the rampaging St George-Illawarra in the Shire, and forget about the game, the noise is getting louder that Shark Park will be gone after the 2026 season, as the NRL have seemingly had enough of the sub-par suburban facilities in the 21st Century, the rebuild of the Cronulla Leagues Club is now dragging into its 7th year and keeping capacity down, and it would seem this is the last Sharks-Dragons derby in the Shire, with the Sharks having to play their games out of Allianz and Kogarah from 2027…

Surely it’d be insane on the NRL’s part to finish off Shark Park, considering they own the Quest hotel which is NEXT TO SHARK PARK – Ah yes, buying hotels next to football grounds, what could go wrong.

– And finally we have the annual King’s Birthday game as Canterbury host Parramatta in the second game between the age old rivals this year, the 40th anniversary of Parramatta’s last premiership against Canterbury, and I should note that returning to subject of historical milestones, last week was Canterbury’s 2000th match in First Grade rugby league.. they have won 1006 of them with 53 draws.

And now, the Round 14 Succinct Tips:

Round 13 score = 3/7

Round 13 progress score = 64/100 (64%)

And for the random musical act this week, today is Michelle Phillips’ 82nd birthday, and considering there’s a Monday game this week, here’s The Mamas & The Papas with the song about that day Garfield hates… Monday.