Another grand Wests Tigers moment – The 5-year-old kid that was seen on TV crying after the Tigers lost 52-10 against Cronulla in Round 9 was the team’s guest of honour last Sunday against Penrith… only for the Tigers to suffer a hideous club record 68-0 defeat.

You know what those two experiences were for that young fella?

CHARACTER BUILDING.

Anyway, as Kane Evans shows more courage than most of the current group of players, we’re on to Round 15 and yet another club round before Origin II in Melbourne on Wednesday, and as I said a few weeks ago my one prediction for Origin II is that the team that lost Origin I is going to win the penalty count in Origin II, as the ARL Commission do everything possible, short of recreating the Montreal Screwjob, to turn Origin III into a series decider, especially now that they’ve seen the record ratings for Origin I….

Still, if the penalty count doesn’t get Queensland over the line, then Laurie Daley’s New South Wales team selection will.

Also, on the subject of the Origin II teams, with Stephen Crichton now sidelined due to injury, that means there’s now 2 clubs in the league that don’t have an Origin representative for Game II…. none other than the old rivals Canterbury and St George.

That’s actually quite an amazing stat – The Brisbane Broncos have more players representing New South Wales than Queensland, and they very nearly had no players representing Queensland until Reece Walsh got a spot on the bench.

Alright, now for a quick look at Round 15 with just 5 games to get through

– South Sydney host the Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium as Wayne Bennett once again coaches against the club that employed him for a generation, and it’s also the first time Brisbane have played at Accor since they won the Grand Final in October, and for Souths they will of course be wearing their special all-white jerseys in tribute to Jai Arrow – Whited out sponsorship on the front, just the player number and Arrow’s surname above the number.

A nice little note as well is that the Broncos will be wearing a ‘Jai 222’ on the front of their jerseys, in recognition of Arrow’s NRL debut with the Broncos in 2016 as the 222nd player to represent the Broncos.

Another sad fact about this game – Barring a miracle, this will be the last time Souths’ all-time leading pointscorer Adam Reynolds faces the Rabbitohs.

– The Dolphins host the Sydney Roosters at Suncorp on Friday night, and the Dolphins are absolutely rolling now with 5 consecutive wins and their attack firing on all cylinders, although both of these teams have absolutely cleaned out by Origin selection as they combined to lose 12 players to selection, so this won’t quite be the all-star clash it should’ve been… also what a funny couple of days for Marky Mark – Comes back from injury as a late call-up, scores a hat-trick against the Raiders, then instead of another club game gets called onto the NSW bench for his Origin debut.

– The New Zealand Warriors host the Cronulla Sharks at Mt Smart, the Wahs getting a chance to try and keep pace with the Panthers without captain James Fisher-Harris and the Sharks going to New Zealand with a decent record in Auckland, having won 4 out of the last 5 and 6 out of 8 since 2010… all up, this should actually be the best game of the round.

– Parramatta host Canberra at Commbank in a Bottom 4 cripple fight, as Parramatta come off losing a narrow one on the King’s Birthday Monday, which was one of the worst games of rugby league seen this decade, and they’ll have to play this one without Mitchell Moses, while the Raiders got shut out at home and continued their rather forgettable season to date, with this also being Joe Tapine’s 250th game… still, don’t expect Ricky Stuart to ever be under any pressure.

– And lucky last has the Wests Tigers hosting the Gold Coast Titans at Leichhardt, as the Titans get another win against the hapless Broncos while the Titans come off the atomic bombing from Penrith at Commbank, and they’ll learn their lesson and lick their wounds from that game…. DON’T SUBJECT THAT BLOODY POOR LITTLE KID TO ANOTHER BELTING.

And now for the Round 15 Tips:

Round 14 score = 6/8

Round 14 progress score = 70/108 (64.8%)

And now for our tribute this week… today is Ray Warren’s 83rd birthday, so here’s the greatest hits compilation from when Rabbits retired in 2022!

Somehow they ONLY found 11 minutes of gold…. could’ve found 11 hours if they bothered.