If you were wondering, I’m now in third place in my work tipping competition. A solid run over the last four to five weeks has seen me drag myself up from the lower depths, outside the top twenty, and making a charge for that cash money prize. And unlike the guy coming first, I haven’t had a perfect round so no two bonus points for me to use as a crutch.
That said, it was far from a spectacular round of ISC tipping last week. It did not go well at all, for a second week running, so I guess we’re reverting to mean on that one.
NRL Tips
Warriors at 
North Queensland
I think Archimedes is a little down on the New Zealand Warriors. They’ve been outrated by the Cowboys by both Greeks. I think that’s a little weird because the Warriors are way up on the ladder and the Cowboys are not. Generally speaking, and I’m far from an expert, that means the Warriors are better than the Cowboys.
More to the point, I would take Shaun Johnson, Blake Green and whoever is filling in for Roger Tuivasa-Scheck over Michael Morgan, Te Maire Martin and Johnathan Thurston right now. There’s not been too many points in history that’s been true but in 2018, nothing could be more correct. As for Isaac Luke, he smashed Daly Cherry-Evans last week which makes him my new faovurite player.
Warriors to suplex the Cowboys into submission.
Penrith at 
Sydney
At this stage in the season, the Roosters’ problems are well documented. I mean, I have no idea what the problem is or its cause, just that they’re not scoring as many points as I would’ve expected the Keary, Cronk and Tedesco show (featuring Latrell Mitchell) to manage. Still, the Bondi crew has managed to pull together for a 9-5 season so far, so it’s far from a disaster but we really expected them to be at the pointy end.
Speaking of pointy ends, that’s where Penrith are, just a single point on for and against behind St George Illawarra. They just got home, yet again, against the Raiders last week but considering they had a few big outs, perhaps that’s not so surprising. This week looks like it’s about as close to the Panthers’ strongest 17 as you could hope for. That same 17 has done a lot of damage this year and under the leadership of Maloney and Cleary, they won’t be too worried about facing the likes of the Roosters.
I’m really hoping for a cracking game of Friday night footy and I expect the Panthers to come out on top.
Canberra at 
Wests
I’ve given up on the Raiders. I mean look at this garbage:
I did say last week that I wouldn’t tip the Tigers for anyone on the ladder above the Raiders but here we are. It’s a Sunday arvo game at Leichhardt Oval so it’s pretty hard, with their normally pretty solid defence, to go past the Tigers. Hopefully, Reynolds and Brooks finally combine as an effective halves pairing and they can get themselves a new hooked before the weekend because Elijah Taylor is not doing the job right now. If not, they’re gonna have to find whatever it was that Benji Marshall was on for the first five rounds and pump him full of it. Possibly nostalgia? Lolohea’s been dropped so that will probably help too. He’s been replaced by (oh, would you look at that?) former Souths Logan Magpie, Corey Thompson.
Wests for me.
Other games
Do Parramatta players even care about Parramatta anymore? Souths, easy. Titans might be a chance to jag a win but I think the Bulldogs will be too good and I realise that sounds weird. Dragons, back together again, will roll over the Sea Eagles. I can’t believe I’m tipping the Cronulla Seebohms but I am. They’ve been more cohesive and less flaky than the Broncos. The Knights will put up a spirited fight for about thirty minutes before the Storm destroy them.
ISC Tips
Norths at 
Tweed
Norths are frauds and I don’t just say that because I’m a Souths supporter, although I am and they are. While they may have beaten Redcliffe last week, that snapped a four game losing streak against some very mediocre opponents. That performance, coupled with not having won a premiership since 1998 despite having some of the most talented footballers of all time in their ranks, the Devils are proof that everything north of, let’s say, Kelvin Grove should be excised from the city.
Tweed are not frauds. Sure, they had a rough start to the year but the lineup has been bolstered by NRL talent, including Kane Elgey and Koni Hurrell, and since then, they’ve been 7-1. That’s a record on par with their upcoast rivals at Burleigh. The Seagulls have just about repaired their rating from their poor open to this year and a pretty awful last year and the Greeks have them edging Norths.
Tweed to win for me.
Other games
Townsville will crush Mackay. PNG should be getting back to an approximation of form and Ipswich aren’t great. Bit of disagreement on the jury but I think the Pride have shown some good form so will beat Wynnum-Manly. Burleigh will bounce back from a last round loss to beat the Sunshine Coast. In #NRLPlayersInDeclineWatch, Brodie Croft takes on Dave Taylor in a game that will take Croft’s 2018 ISC record to a massive 4-5 (that is, Easts win). Finally, unfortunately, I think the Dolphins will beat the mighty Magpies at Davies Park on Sunday.
Pythago NRL 