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I can picture NSW League fans perched on the edges of their seats, foaming with anticipation at the prospect of the Queensland game this Friday.
Channel 9 viewers will be treated to a showcase in attacking football and tough defence when the Brisbane Broncos take on the Parramatta Eels.
I was wrongly under the impression that the reason for the flexible scheduling in the last six rounds of the year was to ensure the best games were shown on free-to-air.
The NRL and Channel 9 have seen fit to force those of us without Foxtel to watch the Eels play not only this weekend, but three other times in the final six weeks of the regular season.
Is this some conspiracy to con us into buying Foxtel?
As if the game this weekend wasn’t unpalatable enough, it will follow the Sea Eagles against the Rabbitohs.
That game will be a blockbuster whereas the Eels game, just like all of their games this year, will be lacklustre.
It isn’t as if there aren’t going to be exciting games this weekend either.
The Bulldogs will play in Canberra, the Knights will face off with the Storm (to be televised on Sunday afternoon on Channel 9) and the Warriors will be out for revenge against the Panthers.
All those games have implications for the upcoming finals series.
Yes, the Broncos can technically make the finals, but it will require them to win the rest of their games, plus hope that the four teams ahead of them lose all of their games.
Last week I was in Melbourne watching the Storm play the Rabbitohs and was thankfully spared the agony of watching the last-placed Eels beat the second-last placed Tigers.
Round 24 will feature the Panthers against the Broncos and the Storm versus Eels encounter, while arguably the most exciting team in the competition and current ladder leaders, the Roosters square off against the Sharks on Monday night.
Despite the fact that the Sea Eagles will play the Storm in Round 25, Channel 9 has provided us with the Broncos against the Knights.
The final act of the regular season will be the Raiders, possibly fighting for the last finals spot, against the Sharks, who will most likely make the eight.
The last-placed Eels will get four Channel 9 games, while the currently 11th-placed Broncos will get six.
The Broncos can be forgiven for getting all six games, as they plausibly can make the finals and have a massive fan base, but the Eels have had nothing going for them all year.
Teams like the Raiders and Sharks who are desperate for free-to-air time so they can get more sponsors will get precisely zero minutes on Channel 9, despite the fact that the Sharks sit comfortably in the eight and the Raiders just outside it.
Third-placed Manly Sea Eagles will get one Channel 9 game, this against the Rabbitohs, despite the fact that they will play the Storm, plus three teams who could make the eight.
The Rabbitohs, who until recently were in first place, will get five games, while the now first-placed Roosters will get three. Of course, both these teams play each other in Round 26, and thankfully this game will be on free-to-air.
There are plenty of great games that have and will be played over the final six rounds of the competition, and none of them involve the Parramatta Eels.
It is understandable that teams like the Eels and the Broncos have a lot of fans, but since they already get so many games during the year (the Broncos in particular. It should be called the Broncos game, not the Queensland game), surely the NRL and Channel 9 can broadcast a few more games with finals implications.
Better yet, they should broadcast games between not just the finals contenders, but Premiership contenders as well, eg., the Rabbitohs, Roosters, Storm, Manly, Bulldogs and the Sharks.
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