So Jarome Luai might be the first player in NRL history to have 3 contracts SIMULTANEOUSLY.

He’s got the contract with Wests, which was until 2027 but will end in 2026…

He has the 1-year contract with Parramatta for 2027…

And then will go to the PNG Chiefs in 2028.

In short, what I’m gathering is that Jarome is his own grandfather.

So while the Wests Tigers get destroyed by another wantaway star, it’s time for Round 20, and this weekend is WOMEN IN LEAGUE Round, appropriately held on the same weekend as Round 3 of the NRLW season, and it’s also a major milestone because it’s the 20th edition of the Women In League Round since it began in 2007, and what a fantastic period of growth it’s been for women in rugbaleeg, primarily with the long-awaited establishment of the NRLW in 2018 finally giving women (And young girls) a proper pathway to playing the game at a national level instead of the local and state competitions they were restricted to for nearly a century.

– Penrith play the Brisbane Broncos on Thursday night, another rematch from the Preliminary Final and if it’s anything like the Round 1 game this could end in a cricket score victory for the Panthers as the Broncos come off the bye with 8 consecutive defeats and regain 6 starters from Representative duty and injury… although it is Penrith against a Bottom 9 team, so anything’s possible.

– A mega clash of 4th vs 5th as Cronulla host the Newcastle Knights at Shark Park, as the Sharks are now well and truly back in the premiership hunt after utterly annihilating the Dolphins 66-0 in Redcliffe, which amazingly is only the second-biggest shutout win by an away team in 2026 (After Penrith won 68-0 against Wests), but it is now Cronulla’s greatest winning margin in First Grade rugby league (Surpassing the 68-6 win against Manly in 2005), and the Knights had that slip up against the Rabbitohs to slip below the Sharks and out of the Top 4, but the good news is Bradman Best is back after finally recovering from that 95 metre try in Origin III..

I suppose it’s not surprising seeing that result last Saturday, Sharks are a natural predator of Dolphins.

– The Sydney Roosters host the Melbourne Storm at Allianz in the Friday night feature, as the Roosters have to keep the heat on the Warriors in the fight for 2nd spot against a Storm team who have beaten them up several times in recent years, as the Storm smuggled another dodgy win against the Titans as Jack Howarth’s try in the 1st Half stood despite a double movement, and when you’re in the Storm’s position of being 2 wins outside the Top 8 every game is a must win, especially when they’ve got Souths, the Bulldogs and Manly in the coming weeks… but things did get infinitely tougher with Cam Munster off for knee surgery and Jahrome Hughes hamstrung.

– The game that’s harder to pick than a broken nose as the Canberra Raiders host South Sydney in Canberra on Saturday afternoon, and I say hard to pick because the Raiders have shown signs of life again after smacking the crap out of the Bulldogs 40-16 last week and Zac Hosking popped up to score a hat-trick, making him the first Raiders forward to score a hat-trick since Trevor Thurling off the bench against Penrith in Round 22, 2008 when the Raiders won 74-12, while Souths had a massive win for their finals hopes by defeating Newcastle on Jai Arrow’s birthday, and Alex Johnston is also back, while another key note is that the Raiders have won 5 straight against Souths dating back to 2021…

Also interesting, the previous last time a Raiders forward scored a hat-trick and started in the game was when Jason Croker scored 4 tries against North Sydney in 1999 (He started at Lock), and this is the first year since 2018 that Souths and Canberra have played twice in a home and away season.

– The New Zealand Warriors host St George-Illawarra at Mt Smart, and barring a meteorite hitting Auckland on Saturday evening, the Warriors are going to win this game with a leg in the air, especially considering the Dragons haven’t defeated them in New Zealand since 2011.

– The Lachlan Galvin Cup as Canterbury host the Wests Tigers at Accor Stadium, and won’t it be fantastic to see Jarome Luai booed to death by both sets of supporters, and after Wests played at Campbelltown where their record is nothing short of terrible, they have to play at the Olympic Stadium where they’ve lost 10 straight games since 2018 (Last win was against Souths in Round 19 of 2018)

– The Gold Coast Titans host Manly on the Gold Coast, the Titans having been dudded by what they felt was more questionable refereeing in Melbourne as they let in a late try to lose to the Storm, while Manly blew another lead and lost by a field goal in Golden Point for the third time this year, this time to the Cowboys, and in a season of such fine margins a win in any one of those Golden Point games would have them sitting 6th, 2 would have them in 4th ahead of Cronulla on Points Differential, and all 3 would have them 3rd ahead of the Roosters… but they wet their pants at the wrong moment in all 3, so they’re 9th and Kieran Foran’s perfect record at Brookvale is over.

Also, the Sea Eagles still need that one win to bring up 1,000 wins.

– And finally there’s another very crucial Queensland Derby as the 7th-placed Dolphins come off their atomic bombing at home last week and play the North Queensland Cowboys at Suncorp, and that club record blowout defeat to the Sharks last week has incinerated any chance the Dolphins had of being a threat in 2026 (Although the 52-18 defeat to Manly on Easter Thursday probably did that already), and the Cowboys are back into the Top 8 after toppling Manly at Brookvale, and they get an even bigger test as the Dolphins have won 4 straight against the Cowboys, and they’ve won 5 straight at Suncorp… good game to win!

And now for the Round 20 tips:

Round 19 score = 3/7

Round 19 progress score = 89/140 (63.57%)

And for this week’s highlight, it’s 2 years to the day since David Morrow, and in tribute here’s some of his finest pieces of commentary, namely Mal Meninga’s winning try in the last minute of the 2nd Test of the 1990 Ashes Series at Old Trafford, saving the series for the Kangaroos, who went on to win the deciding 3rd Test at Elland Road:

And of course, being the man who stood beside Paul Vautin on his TV commentary debut for the ABC during the 1988 Finals… Fatty promptly drops on F-bomb on live television, ending his time at the ABC as quicky as it began, and eventually he wound up at Channel Nine when they got the rights in 1992.