Hello all and welcome to what is the penultimate week of the 2009 NRL competition and most judges, now more than at any stage this year, have no idea who is going to win this thing! In fact it’s even proving a hard task working out who is playing where next week let alone Grand Final day! Let’s have a look why:

The following takes place between 7:30pm Friday Rd 25 and 9pm Monday Rd 25

The Broncos defeat a spirited North Queensland but don’t have things going entirely their own way. They scrap hard for a win, drop a lot of football, but eventually out-class their northern cousins.

Parramatta Eels don’t just beat the Panthers, they annihilate the Penrith side in what was meant to be top eight shoot-out. It was a shoot-out alright, a dead set fatality as the Eels blazed Penrith off the park with a 48-6 thumping to all but confirm a spot in the final eight.

Moving on to Saturday where the Gold Coast Titans get locked in an attacking battle with a desperate, yet high octane, Wests Tigers. The visitors fought back a couple of times before the Titans turned to veteran Mat Rogers late in the game to get them home. The win, and future results, gave the Gold Coast a shot at a top two finish and meant they passed their toughest test in a month.

The Melbourne Storm, welcoming back star Greg Inglis, said goodbye to the ‘Graveyard’ by burying the Roosters by 40 points. It was clean, methodical and very ‘Melbourne Storm’. Just when you think this team is slipping, they go and fire a few more bullets.

Then came the big one...

The St George-Illawarra Dragons are beaten, humbled, embarrassed and thrashed 41-6 by Souths…South Sydney Rabbitohs of all teams!! An underperforming unit, a few weeks out of finals contention and a big casualty ward, put the cleaners through the side that spent all year leading the comp and carrying premiership favouritism. The Dragons have lost three in a row and are in some trouble. The one thing in their favour is the master coach Bennett, a man who has seen it all, but jeez they’re running out of time to bounce back.

Enter Sunday and what a Sunday it was. Referees’ rob Cronulla of a victory over Manly which not only resulted in the Sea Eagles moving within a point of a top four berth, but also ended the faint hopes of the Tigers. I ended up watching the whole game and, withstanding the fact I should have won $100 on a Sharkies 1-12 win, I was quite shattered for Cronulla. I don’t support that team, but I felt worse for them Sunday than I did when the Broncos lost to the Storm in the last minute of a semi final last year.

Surely that would be the end of the drama with a day of celebration for Hazem to follow?

Nope, the Bulldogs easily beat the Warriors to move into first on the ladder but lose their on-field general Brett Kimmorley. He controls everything at that club with their entire game played out under his command. They have some decent replacements in Roberts, Ennis and Daniel Holdsworth … but neither of them are Brett Kimmorley. ‘Noddy’ might be back for the Grand Final, but the Dogs have to get there first.

Then there is Newcastle who simply had to beat the Raiders in Canberra on Monday night to seal their place in the eight. Right, sounds easy hey? Not quite…The Raiders explode out of the blocks, bring some weather with them, dominate the game, get in a fight and win quite comfortably. Hhmm…Newcastle v Penrith on Sunday for a spot in the top eight. Wow!

So how do we pick a winner from all this? Parramatta are the form team, the Dragons and Bulldogs have sat at the top all year, Manly and Melbourne have done it before, Brisbane are back, the Titans are new at this caper and whoever makes eighth can beat anyone on their day.

I still like Melbourne a bit but not sure why…stuff it, bet on the Dogs because they’ll pay alright now without Kimmorley...

Who am I kidding, I have no idea!

Tips this week: Dragons, Bulldogs, Warriors, Manly, Cronulla, Cowboys, Newcastle, Brisbane
Last week: 7/8(Total: 107/178)
Winning percentage: 60%

Who do you think can win this thing? You can share your thoughts at andrew.keyte@gmail.com or comment below.

Have fun,
Keyto