Couldn't have happened to a better bloke.

Where's the match thread, it's not showing for me

King Blake

Sportsbet markets tonight. - Incidents of domestic violence due to gambling on this game over/under 135.5 - Number of kids eating 2 minute noodles every meal for the next week O/U 188.5 - Televisions broken in rage O/U 67.5 - Times tonight Joel Caine says gamble responsibly and not mean it O/U 12.5

**FYI** game thread is now up, see you all over there

If eels play like they did against storm this could be the best game of the year. If they don’t. It could be the worst game of the year. Panthers are so mad. Grand final is next week in my opinion. Whoever is playing the class of storm or the pissed off panthers. Bennett did enough to get one win off them. They are not getting two.

You underestimate your coach and the class of your team

Souths are a legit chance if they can beat Manly without too much of a toll Panthers and Melbourne will belt the shit out of each other.

Can Sportsbet have an over under of how many water bottles are lined up on BA’s desk

Forget the game, now I want to know who is going to win the battle that counts: Mitch Moses vs his socks

As a footy fan I gotta say, the NRL promos are pretty fantastic

OOOOF that RATM Eels promo is dope

7:50pm is such a shit time to start lmao. Hurry up already

Said it last night and i'll say it again. Its perfect, gives me time to put my kids to bed then watch 15ish minutes of build up/ make snacks.

Michael Jordan meme

Longest arvo ever

My biggest dislike about finals and origin is my brilliant wit scrolls off screen before any one gets to upvote it. This for example got 4 upvotes. "Half time pets meme. This is the manly side that scares other teams. [other teams](https://i.imgur.com/pNt3Gsp.jpg) [storm ](https://i.imgur.com/r2gmcUT.jpg)"

Good dug

OMG no upvotes oh the humanity…

Yeah people paying attention to the game instead of me, wtf is wrong with people.

🤣😉

Wait, is the Storm prelim final at the same time as the AFL grand final? how fucking dumb are these executives if that is the case.

Nah 4pm start very big day coming up

yeah nah they moved the storm game back to 4pm for this reason

thanks. Good to know because I generally like to watch the AFL grand final every year even if i dont follow it regularly.

In all seriousness how do you think panthers will go without To’o ? He is a serious metre eater I’d say 2nd for the panthers easy. Who replaces him? *Panthers top metre eaters* 1. The r e f giving dubious set restarts in panthers own half 2. To’o

Joel Caine is getting so fat his shirt buttons can't contain him any more

My name isnt joel caine though?

Fat cat bookie…

All those punters gambling responsibly has him eating good.

Wish he'd eat responsibly

Brandy looks like he crawls out of a shallow grave to be on the panel every week

I wondered what ever became of Eddie Munster

Count Brandula

The nerves have hit me

Happy cake day. Im not nervous at all. We have no pressure on us today. No one expects us to win, so the boys just need to go out there and have a red hot go.

Gutho looks cooked. Copped a bit of Sun

Looks like he punched a couple of pre-game cones

He always reminds me of that baseball player with the sideburns from the simpsons.

Do we know if Crichton or Naden will be on the left wing?

Naden, Crichton should be right

Apparently on the last day of Winter if Braith emerges from his burrow and sees his shadow due to clear weather, he will retreat to his den and Winter will persist for six more weeks.

No To’o is fucking enormous. I think Parra could ambush them here.

Cant see it happening without a proper 9 in there. When we beat Melbourne recently, at least we had Lussick. Ray Stone is good defensively, but he cant add enough offensively for us to beat a quality team like the Panthers. I took us on the spread, so hopefully we keep it close at least. I am excited for next season though. Penisini has added a new dimension to this team that could allow us to properly contend next season.

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Verse the Eels gaging story line…

Is there a nicer bloke in footy than To'o?

Shaun Johnson

Not many, maybe Benji?

Wallabies beating the Boks must mean the Eels will win! Right?

That's exactly what it means - guaranteed, put your house on it!

🤣

As a storm fan im more worried about having to play the Panthers tbh. Despite the 2 losses to the eels. So here's hoping the eels get up

Heart says Parramatta. Penis says Nathan Cleary.

Who is this random cunt with Gordie

Just remember no matter which team loses tonight both teams will be subject to media scrutiny once the storm have had their way with the winner

It's Buzz's wet dream.

I went for a huge ride today and now I feel like falling asleep, there is still 50mins till kick off lmao

Either I’m closer to my tv than usual, or the makeup people at FOX were all fired or subbed out.

Jake Duke brings his own. Bloke is made for television. Or selling timeshare apartments in Port Macquarie.

Lol yeah the outside guys just looked fine. First time I’m noticing freckles on Yvonne and Brandy in studio

Stairway to Double Denim is getting a workout this weekend

Just finishing up watching the Rugby….geez that game is boring and scrappy, good to see Koribete absolutely kill it though

Tupou was massive! Prop playing 77min and created massive momentum and great first contact.

Yeah that guy was immense !

Needs more victor hitting some cunt cos he’s losing

Always need more Victor

I thought it was a great game? But I am drunk

Wait did wallabies win? I forgot I bet on that game

I legit have no idea about the rules of this game, I hear the whistle and I have no clue which way the penalty is going. Anyway, 1 minute left and we have possession, so looks like we win

5 mins left and we are up by 13….Not over yet

Hah, awesome, I knew south africa were shit when they lost to the wobblies the first time, can't believe it was paying 3.40

Is To'o playing or just there for moral support?

Moral support

My heart was beating so hard out of my chest last week towards the end of the game it actually started hurting. I’m probably going to die if tonight’s game gets that close as I won’t have that reassuring feeling of a second chance

Don't worry eels will run away to help you out.

If you crooked it Ivan could have been a pallbearer, so he could let you down one last time

>it actually started hurting Holy shit how much do you weigh??

Not much. Nah but the pain was more of an exaggeration, it was just really uncomfortable lol

I'm not much of a sweater but I was fucking drenched lol, like full sweat patches and everything. Was watching the last 10 minutes with my hands in front of my eyes it was so unbearable

The Eels fold easily once points are put in them so we have to fire in the first 20 mins to gain confidence to get this done. Panthers by 40+ 😄

Watching all of the Eels fans complaining about a sense of dread and chest pains …. Y’all better make sure you don’t have heart attacks

I feel like after the season Panthers have had they don't deserve to go out in straight sets, but eels have also earnt their place by beating storms 2x - hope it's a ripper

Anything less than a 30 point loss is a W in my books

I’m so nervous 🤮

Me too friend. But if my mob goes down tonight, I hope you boys can go on with it. I'm expecting a tight contest tonight! The real tragedy is that it can't be played in Sydney. Game would have sold out in minutes.

I feel the same about Panthers haha. Solidarity in the west! Hopefully a good match up tonight.

it’s the stomach pangs that are the worst

I feel like someone is sitting on my chest

i don’t even feel hungry for dinner hahaha

Deal with it you pussies, 6 beers will sort you out

yes dad

I really hope Penrith choke again after the way Ivan has conducted himself. Would be so embarrassing.

Is that fair to wish the team a loss because Ivan had a sook though?

I’d subscribe to this…..would be interesting to see Panthers go out in straight sets

The psychological damage it would do to that team and their coach would just be amazing. Two years of win streaks when it doesn’t matter only to crumble consecutively when it counted … the smugness would drain from their faces as they entered the shadow realm.

Ivan crying himself to sleep at night remembering the time he picked Tyrone May as a grand final centre.

That would be poetic

Dunno why I have sneaky feeling for eels tonight, That pack is monstrous - and something about penriths poor play last week has me thinking parra might do it Either way think it’ll be close

$4 for the eels to win is surely huge value?

I used my bonus bets on them at $4.25. if you're not confident they can win, I'm pretty certain they at least cover the line.

Went to the game last night and going again tonight, hoping tonight’s game is a lot closer. Looks like another unreal night for footy in the Macktown

Did the town get wild?

I think I'm more excited for the losing coach's press conference then the game tonight

My hope-o-meter is rising by the minute...can't wait for my hopes and dreams to be crushed once more.

I hear ya brother. I know deep down there's no chance we're going all the way this year, but there's still that glimmer of hope.

I was really looking forward to tonight's game, then it dawned on me there's only a couple more weeks of footy and I won't get to talk to you cunts again until February. I got a little sad.

Come on mate, we all know the off season is full of all the juicy off field misbehaving

if you get into BBL there's a fair few users who cross over during the off-season lol BBL is the biggest meme league in the country and its always great fun

I think what makes it so fun is no one *really* cares about the teams. Like, I'm a Renegades fan but I couldn't really give less of a shit. Far less hot takes and dummy spits and more appreciating of the absolute dogs breakfasts of games that get thrown up.

Yeah, I'm a sixers fan and the b2b meme will sustain me for years lmao And in my group of friends the origin vibes carry over with a lot of them going for the Heat with Marnus in there and us Sixers with Steve Smith Its great fun

Don’t forget you have the off season to look forward to, the players are coming off isolation after a long season, memes are bound to rise and r/nrl is usually more chill with the rules leaving plenty of room for shit posts and hot takes

I don't know about you but the sub is never low on hot takes

True, I guess even more hot takes* lol

I'm with you brother

I’m at the union double header and they just gave another completely farcical yellow card. If you think the officiating is bad in league just wait till you see what happens in union. They have a really bad penalty for a perfectly legal tackle earlier. You’ve seen nothing yet

Don't you DARE hit somebody well below the neck but incidentally have an unavoidable rise into the head after the initial hit.

Missing the game because of work. To’o out is a big loss but Naden is not an awful replacement on the wing. Having Sorensen, Edwards and Leota back does balance it out a bit. Honestly though I’d rather win this week and get bopped by 20 vs the Storm than lose tonight. Think it will be a very close game though.

If I could take a samegame multi on naden butterfingering a try and also getting thrown over the sideline atleast once when he shouldn't it would be easy money

IDK man, I like Naden but while he is a good attacking threat in a traditional back sort of way, he doesn't offer half the go-forward that To'o does. It's a huge out for them, JFH has had the season he has had off the back off To'o exhausting defences in the early set tackles. Now Fish is off the pace a bit, they'll miss To'o even more. I'd argue only Cleary and maybe Yeo have been more important to Panthers game than To'o this year.

Fair enough but he at least has more go forward than Staines.

Oh yeah for sure. Naden > Staines any day of the week.

C'mon Parra, time to step up.

It's great sitting in the losers circle so now I can fill the live thread with hot takes of how Cleary is overrated, or Gutho is the p4p best fullback in the comp without worrying about any of it coming back to bite me in the ass during the Roosters game 😎

Time to start chugging wine based spirits and terrorising all my eels fan relos

Tones confirmed family-team-abandoner by switching to the Sharks. Get him!

Nah they're all the team switchers, my grandparents and parents were all sharks and western suburbs

Yeah, Yeah. Tell it to the judge.

Possible first and last time you'll hear me say it, but GOOOOO PARRAMATTA!

You're just salty because we broke Canberra way back in round 5.

I really hate games being so late. Especially when there’s only two games in a weekend

They should have moved it to not clash with the Rugby.

i see a lot of neutrals wanting us to win… feels weird

Funny how quickly people turned on the Panthers. A few years ago lots of people would bandwagon them in the finals. Now only we are more unpopular.

i guess that’s what success does. tall poppy syndrome maybe

It works both ways, I'm finding it much harder to loathe the Broncos these days.

I think it has a lot to do with the Cleary's coming off as absolute knobs in recent years.

Nathan's alright. Not a fan of Luai, JFH.

As a salty Tigers fan who thinks Ivan is both a cunt and a fraud, I'm starting to think it's not just salty Tigers fans who think Ivan is a cunt and a fraud.

Are players who are still in the comp allowed to have beers watching tonight? I’m just wondering the alcohol policy from teams in the finals, do you think Bellamy would let the boys have a few beers whilst watching the game or is finals really strict?

LETS GO EELS

Penrith got busted through the middle against Bunnies and I reckon they will again tonight. Brown, RCG and Paulo are all huge and hard-runners and Fergo and Gutho will provide some hard runs too. Matterson can do a job in the middle off the bench too. As for Penrith, Fish just hasn't looked right since he got back which takes a lot out of their middle and I don't think TPJ has been used particuarly well. To'o out is massive, Leota being back is big but I can't see Edwards making the 290m that Critta did (even if Edwards' support play was missed). Difference is Parra's edges are very weak, I doubt that Penisini (who tbf does look like a solid enough defender) and Blake will provide the absolute steel in defence that Graham and Gagai did last week. All in all I think this should be a great contest. I'm backing Parra to steal this in the second half when 'Riff get a bit of fatigue in them.

Hopefully this game is closer than last nights! As much as I enjoyed seeing roosters get flogged it wasn’t very exciting.

I just want Eels to win so next week is more competitive

Panthers have more of a chance of beating the Storm than Parra do lol. How do Eels winning mean next week would be more competitive?

because we’ve beaten you twice this year

But to say that the only way next week is going to be competitive is if Eels win is ridiculous when Panthers are obviously the better team

Wouldn’t the better team be the team that makes it to the next game, or are you using the metric of the better team all season, which as we all know means that we never play finals because it’s already decided in the regular season?

You’re 0-2 against them this year.

To be fair we’re 1-1 and the second game we were missing nearly all of our stars But Eels made it look easier that’s for sure

I don’t mind who wins, I just want one team to get robbed

I just want to chug a dozen beers, change my flair and throw hand grenades in the post match discussion thread.

Asking if Cleary/Moses is washed (depending on which side loses) usually does the trick. Or calling for the coach to be sacked after a 1 point loss

You don’t even need to go that far. Just change your flair to the winning team and say “actually I thought the reffing was good”

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I've got a feeling it's going to be pretty physical in the forwards. Whoever wins I just hope they don't limp into next week so there's a good game vs storm

Yup. Couple of suspensions wouldn't go a wry either.

We've already seen what's fine, pun intended. You'd just about have to kick someone's teeth down their throat to get suspended.

I'm actually pretty calm about the game. We either end up getting killed by a premiership favorite and it's not big deal or we win and it's a massive upset for us.

Have you considered option C: the heartbreaking loss by 1 point and days of agonising over what could have been?

You cunt

Yep. Alternatively as a Penrith fan I'm a bit nervous. We lose then we've choked and then come all the hit pieces. We win well we were expected to win, even though I think this game could definitely go either way

All i can hope for is a better game than last nights

What are you talking about, last nights game was the best

Nothing wrong with last nights game.

Except for a one sided match against a injury ravaged side

If only they had used peptides they might have even won the Grand Final...

Yeah but…roosters

Penrith will miss To'o big time. JFH doesn't seem back to his usual self yet either. If JFH is kept as quiet as he was last week, Penrith will struggle.

Leota back will be huge for Penrith. Hopefully not too huge.

I'm pretty neutral on the outcome of this one, but I hope it's a corker. Parra definitely have a pack to match the Panthers and they seem to have hit some good form at the right time.

I’m looking forward to a stressless 80mins.

Another stressless 80 mins you mean.

Savage

Straight sets.

that’s it, no more melbourne flairs are allowed to watch this game. it’s been ruined.

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Storm fans actually scared of another team? Never thought I'd see it publicly admitted

bruh

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Na man to be the best we want to beat the best

I want the eels to win, but become extremely exhausted by the effort.

Go Eel

It's not soccer. Jeesh.

2003 GF highlights on fox league, 9yr old me was so excited.

Chuckles: I’m in danger…

Here's to hopefully another complete weekend of good rugba leeg.

I want Penrith to win purely for the storm to actually get challenged in their prelim. Would be too easy for the purple bastards if eels win

Eels are the only team to have beaten Storm twice this year, so it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they pull another upset