I like the way you think Harry.
If they can crawl through a Storm then I am onboard and will update accordingly for next week.

Bit sour on the Sharks there buddy, coming from a Storm fan the phrase “glass houses” comes to mind. Would you be this upset if we didn’t beat the Storm in that final?

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Roosters v Panthers
Have you ever met a rooster in real life? I have and those little birds are freaking fearless, don’t let the popular myth of “being chicken” fool you. A Rooster will tear you to pieces then peck around in your remains looking for the worms that come up to commit your corpse to the earth.
I’ve never met a panther, but I have been to Penrith looking for the fabled creature only to come across a black house cat casually ignoring everyone whilst sunning itself on a fence. That seems close enough for me to make an informed decision.
Bird of Death v Puddy Tat

Roosters by plenty

Raiders v Sharks
This is a tough one. While the Raiders have a wildly culturally inappropriate version of a Viking on their logo, they aren’t called the Vikings are they? They are called the Raiders. The dictionary defines a Raider as “someone who attacks an enemy on their home territory, a maurader” which, while still sounding formidable leaves them at a disadvantage. The Raiders are playing at home, they aren’t geared for battle, they’re tending crops, fixing roofs and generally feeling safe and relaxed.
Sharks on the other hand don’t have a home. Sharks swim freely, being fearsome, biting stuff just to see if it might be tasty or not, being sharks. Sharks are the nightmare inducing wetsuit warmer that strike from the deep like a bloody chainsaw of death, but really quite awesome once you get to know them king of the ocean (if you discount killer whales who own both that actual title and also the one for coolest name). The Sharks biggest issue is that they are next to useless out of the water.

Raiders by plenty (unless it rains).

Storm v Eels
The Storm, violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually snow, rain and lightning. Storms are a destructive force of nature that can’t be tamed, only possibly endured if you are hard enough. Storms make you run for shelter and try and ride it out. Storms at sea will sink the mightiest ship, Storms on land will level the mightiest cities and bring whole civilisations to their knees begging the Gods to please stop.
Eels live underwater and as such care very little about Storms. Sure there may be an occasional flood but all that really does is shift them a bit further downriver. It can blow and snow and rain and carry on like a two yer old who has had his favourite toys take away all it likes and it will matter very little to an Eel. Plus Eels have teeth, big ones, and some of them are electrified in case they needed any other reason to be awesome, mud dwelling, underwater bringers of misery.
Unfortunately, much like their other finals bound aquatic brethren, Eels are next to useless on land. Unless the Storm get a bit too carried away and “bring the noise” with lots of rain the Eels will struggle and have to take their creepy muddy selves back to the river to tell tall stories to each other as nobody else wants to hang out with them because they are creepy.

Storm by plenty (probably even if it rains).

Rabbits v Knights
I’m not going to bother running you through the virtues of both Knights and Rabbits as this clash is one that has been told through the ages.
Ignoring the wise advice of “Tim the Enchanter” a group of proud, capable and noble Knights (except Sir Robin) led by the great King Arthur himself engaged in a full frontal attack on the fabled Rabbit of Caerbannog in a misguided and gross underestimation of the rabbits capabilities. The attack did not go well and required a serious rethink over tactics and weaponry.
The NRL, I am fairly certain, does not allow hand grenades onto the field. Even holy ones. As such, without divine intervention, the Knights are doomed to be taken down one by one as “death awaits you with nasty, big, pointy teeth”. It is inevitable and is foretold.

Rabbits by a mauling.

Sounds about right, though we will probably start with the loss 😂

Something interesting that has happened to the Sharks this season:

Matches played 20: Wins 10 / Loss 10
Points: For = 480 / Against = 480
Home games 10: Wins 5 / Loss 5
Away games 10: Wins 5 / Loss 5

Perfect season right there for an accountant 😛

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Let’s also not forget that second is just the first loser 😉

Thanks mate.

Plus if I am right the mighty Bears will make the finals twice in the same year 😛

DPS if you are going to make bold predictions then go bold son, go bold.

Dropping out of the 8
Storm – Just because it has to happen eventually right? And because nobody likes them anyway.
Roosters – No fourpeat as they struggle for consistency after losing their most valuable asset SBW.
Raiders – They normally play an in-out game with the 8 anyway so they are due.
Panthers – After losing to the Roosters in the final the wheels fall off the bus.
Knights – After scaring themselves with an appearance this year they go back to the bottom of the table where they belong.

Coming into the 8
Tigers – It has to happen one day, they can’t finish 9th forever.
Titans – But only if they change their name to the Bears.
Dragons – Without Mary to blame they realise Cory Norman was really the problem all along, dump him and sprint up the table.
Broncos – And they will all be sporting better tans after losing their regular Friday night slot and get relegated to Saturday afternoons by channel 9 as punishment for 2020.
Warriors – But only if they move to Gosford full time and call themselves the Bears (I’m doubling down on this one).

What is more, after the Sharks are fined for some kind of breach (we just can’t help ourselves), Parra are stripped of points for being Parra, PVL has another bright idea and appoints the Bulldogs a wild card entry into the finals.

They become the first team in the history of the comp to win from 16th place beating the Tigers who, through a statistical anomaly, are then deemed to have finished 9th.

It’s very easy to stand on the head of a man sinking into the mud, it’s much harder to pull him out.

While there has certainly been a lot of glee early on watching the Ponies get thrashed by all and sundry, by seasons end it has just been sad. Watching the Broncos play is like watching Ferrari struggle to keep pace with the mid pack crowd. It’s just not right and you wonder what went so terribly wrong.

Was it the coach with a game plan so complex John Nash would have trouble figuring it out? Was it senior players who are just turning up to get paid and hoping not to get hurt? Was it a half brought in from Melbourne, the next “Cooper Cronk”, who was saddled with a partner who has seriously underperformed for years and was expected to just fix everything? Was it a forward pack who struggled to adapt to the change in play after the Virus came to town?

There is certainly a lack of something at Red Hill. Darius should have been punted 2-3 seasons ago, and the rest look like they have never seen each other before sometimes, let alone trained and drilled. I don’t necessarily see a total lack of commitment, but there is definitely a lack of something.

Whether they deserve the spoon or not comes down to whether they can beat the Cowboys. Let’s face it unless someone hijacks Ivan’s bus on the way to the ground only the most seasoned, die hard, wearing a kilt and face-paint to every game, only owns bulldogs, drives a XC Cobra because it’s blue and white, kind of Dogs fan would actually believe they are going to topple the Panthers this week. That means the Ponies must beat the Cows to finish 15th. For and against matters little when you have the wins on the board.

This game is for pride, purely for pride, and that will be the real litmus test for where the heads of the Broncos squad are at.

To be fair to the moose though he can only see out of one eye and seems to have a fairly little brain.
He calls for the ball because he can only see 6 blokes on the park and thinks he’s a sure thing to get over the line through that.

Sure, we just lost our star half
Sure, we lost our star centre at the start of the season because he forgot to listen to Mr Mackey
Sure, we have Josh Dugan
Sure, we haven’t beaten any of the top 8 teams this season
Sure, we seem to have pivoted from being a defensive powerhouse to trying to win by just scoring more instead
Sure, our form and performance has been a rollercoaster of great and terrible
Sure, our team is a lot of new faces who are still figuring out the top grade

But, we are in the 8 and have a team that is hungry and have played with each other (mostly at Newtown, but still) for quite a while. The combinations are there, the skill is there, the desire is there and the chance is there for the taking. You don’t need to beat every team all year, you only need to beat them once each in the last few weeks.

In it up to our eyeballs, very proud of the baby sharks this year and our future is looking good. Let’s see how they step up to the finals. First victim – Raiders or Eels.

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I thought Manly considered anything south of the spit bridge to be out of Sydney.

Shhhhhh.

You’re not supposed to name them.

Mercedes are a class above right now, and Hamilton is a class above in the Mercedes paddock.

He gets a lot of shade but this bloke is far and away one of the all time greats. Remember as well he doesn’t have Eddie Irvine running interference and letting him past to win.

Won’t be the Sharks eh??

Hold my beer 😁

Mango stop bringing logical anaylsis and reasoning into the argument.

You’re harshing my buzz.

The mighty Sharks can beat anyone on their day, it’s just that those days are a bit too scattered this year. If things click in a few weeks time you need to look out.

Striking from beneath like a great white chainsaw of death.

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My eternal thanks your highness for pointing out that error 👍

For some reason in my head I thought 83 was Newtowns last hurrah. At least I got the Parra part right 😛

Ah the mighty Magpies and those other blokes.

Fun fact, the NSWRL tried to kick out Wests back in the early 80’s and they only survived by digging in and eventually moving from Ashfield to Campbelltown in 87. The Newtown Jets were the other team on the block, going from being in a grand final in 83 to extinct in 84, and they tried unsuccessfully to move to Campbelltown as well while in exile in the mid 80’s but hard financial times for the club killed the move and left the door open for the Magpies.

I am agreeing with you mate.

What I am trying to say there is the defence of “I didn’t mean to” doesn’t wash because he jumped.

But he swears he saw an extremely endangered caterpillar and was simply trying to avoid squashing it.

Honest.

16 reduced to 13 if he agrees to shave his head.

And K Ponga would not have just bounced back up either.

I love the Sharks, and I am a fan of Chad, but I just can’t justify this action in any way shape or form.

I was genuinely amazed that he would be back again this season (assuming we make the finals of course) and was expecting to see him around round 5 next year.

Was it a brain snap, probably. Chad isn’t someone who plays really dirty so it was a bit out of character.
Was it deliberate, maybe, maybe not. The intent of a big hit certainly was but there is always the chance it got away from him, I can give him the benefit of the doubt on that, but it’s suspect.
Was it reckless and dangerous, absolutely. Whether Chad meant to hit him that high or not is irrelevant, he did and was very lucky it wasn’t worse. He clearly came out of the line hard with the intention of shutting down the quick restart, then he jumped and shoulder charged, then he hit him after the whistle. There was a real possibility of doing serious damage and it’s just amazing that he didn’t. The fact he didn’t shouldn’t be taken into account, that was just luck.

Once again the judiciary befuddles me with the penalties they hand out.

the disaster being he hit KP with all he had and the Newcastle custodian didn’t even need to go off for a head impact assessment. If you get sent from the field, you at least want to do a bit of damage first. Pretty lame, Chad.

Hahaha that is gold 👍

Sharks will make the 8,
then the 6,
then the 4,
then the 2,
then get beaten by 60 by the Panthers because that’s how we roll this season.

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