Only Round 25… of 27

So it’s Round 25, and for once every rugby league club in Sydney is glad they’re not the Sydney sporting club caught up in a sex scandal right now.

Ah yes, what on earth were the Sydney Swans doing in that hotel in East Melbourne… well, several things if the reports are to be believed.

So, looking ahead to Round 25, and for the first time since Round 3 the Panthers go into a round without being on top of the ladder… if you do the math they got top spot on the ladder on March 27 (When Wests defeated the Warriors which put the Panthers on top via Points Differential), and were finally displaced on August 13, approximately a 140 day run on top.

Now, the lineup for Round 25, and it should be mentioned that this round is TOGETHER ROUND, sponsored by Telstra, and the use of Round 25 to mark the round is no mere coincidence, as it will also celebrate 25 years of Telstra as naming rights sponsor of the National Rugby League… Ah, life was simpler in 2001, there was no South Sydney to worry about, the Panthers won the wooden spoon, and the Melbourne Storm had a losing record.

– The Thursday night special has the Melbourne Storm hosting the Penrith Panthers at AAMI Park, a matchup that has lost it’s luster over the last few months as the Storm struggle, although the Panthers are now well and truly on struggle street as they have to win this game just to hang on to 2nd spot with the Warriors now only 10 points behind on F/A, and there is another major milestone to come as Ivan Cleary coaches his 500th NRL game, joining the exclusive club that only features Des Hasler, Ricky Stuart, Brian Smith, Tim Sheens, Wayne Bennett, and his opposite number on Thursday night in Craig Bellamy.

Another interesting stat – Melbourne have won 9 out of 10 games against Penrith at AAMI Park… the lone win was 2018, a game that cost the Storm a third consecutive minor premiership.

– The 6pm Friday game has the Canberra Raiders hosting the Brisbane Broncos in Canberra, as the Raiders still cling to life after that upset win against Cronulla, so much so that Corey Horsburgh has been returned to the interchange by Ricky Stuart for what will be his last game in Canberra as a Raider (Having signed the contract with the Bears), and the Broncos just want to end the season before the Dragons catch them.

– The Channel 9 feature Friday night game has the Dolphins hosting Parramatta at Suncorp, in what will mark the Dolphins’ last home game before their maiden Finals appearance in September, and it will also be the start of Ray Stone’s retirement tour against his old club in the Eels, and the ball is well and truly in the Dolphins’ court thanks to the Sharks’ disasterclass last Saturday – Win out and finish Top 4, while Mitchell Moses will be doing more milking than a dairy farmer after that dodgy penalty to win the game last Saturday.

– Another great modern rivalry is renewed as Newcastle host Manly in the Hunter in what is the annual Old Boys Day in Newcastle, historically the biggest Knights’ crowd of the season to mark the last home game of the season, and they’ll be flocking back this year with the Knights on the way to the finals and still half a chance at finishing in the Top 4 in this great revival by Justin Holbrook, while Manly are still hunting for that 1,000th win, and they’ll have all 3 Trbojevic brothers in the starting 13… dunno how many more times we’ll see that.

– One of the toughest games to pick this weekend has South Sydney hosting the Warriors at Accor, as the Rabbits come off winning that big 4-pointer against Canterbury to sure up 7th on the ladder, which also gives them 8 consecutive wins at Accor Stadium, while the Warriors simply need to win out to have a shot at the Top 2 and the minor premiership as they have the F/A on Easts, and there is another coaching milestone as Andrew Webster coaches his 100th NRL game, after he had 2 games as caretaker for the Wests Tigers in 2017 after Jason Taylor was sacked before Ivan Cleary took over, and it’ll be his 98th in charge of the Warriors, and very shortly he will join Cleary as the only coaches to lead the Warriors for 100+ games…

Still, if you include the one game he served as caretaker for Penrith in 2022 when Cleary and Cameron Ciraldo were sidelined, it’s actually his 101st.

– Another great historic rivalry has St George-Illawarra hosting Canterbury at Allianz on Saturday night, a game that will once again be broadcast by Channel 9 as just about the only national FTA sport broadcast on Saturday night, and this is a rematch of the Golden Point shootout in Las Vegas with Canterbury needing to win to maintain any hope of the Top 8 with the North Queensland Cowboys getting a rather crucial bye and a cheap 2 points, while the Dragons maintain that realistic yet faint hope that they can avoid the wooden spoon, going for 3 consecutive wins for the first time since March 2023.

Also a fun fact – This’ll be the first time the Dragons have played a game at the new Allianz that wasn’t against the Roosters.

– The Gold Coast Titans host Cronulla at Cbus, as the Titans come off an honest showing against Newcastle last Sunday in which they actually kept the Knights honest, while the Sharks’ season has suddenly gone from hopeful to collapsing within the last 2 games, as they’ve not only lost to Bottom 10 teams, Braydon Trindall dislocated his shoulder scoring a try, and there’s now the great story of Toby Rudolf being charged for mooning a council ranger during a walk around Cronulla on January 11th, and if what we know of Australian council rangers is true, the bloke had it coming.

– And the last game of the round has the Sydney Roosters hosting the Wests Tigers at Allianz… yes, this may not look pretty.

On to the Round 25 tips, as the Cowboys get a rather crucial bye as the 2 competition points will see them retain 8th spot, regardless of what happens between Canterbury and St George-Illawarra:

Round 24 tips = 4/8

Round 24 progress score = 118/180 (65.55%)

So for this week’s random musical number, it’s a ZZ Top tribute after the passing of Frank Beard, which sadly leaves Billy Gibbons as the last surviving original member of the group after Dusty Hill’s death in 2021…

Of course, it was one of the great ironies in music – The one guy in ZZ Top that didn’t have a beard was a guy called Beard.