It’s the final round. Which teams are finals bound and who are our skillful prize winners for 2025?
The final round of the NRL regular season had so much promise but alas, it was all over before if began.
Thursday’s win by the Broncos over the Storm sealed the Top 4. The Roosters win over the Bunnies on Friday finalised the Top 8.
At least Spoon Bowl went the distance but there is still plenty to unpack for Round 27.
The Finalists
The ladder positions for the Top 8 at the start of the round were unchanged by the end. But it’s the teams that decided not to rest players that will feel the impact during the finals.
The Storm were trying to send a message to the competition expecting another strong showing against the Broncos.
The Broncos, however, flexed their Premiership muscles to claim a Top 4 spot while the Storm were again poor and now face injuries to Jahrome Hughes, Ryan Papenhuyzen and suspension of Big Nelson Asofa-Solomona in a game that had no impact to the Storm’s final position.
It gets worse if you are a Sharks or Bulldogs supporter. Their match had zero impact regardless of the outcome. The Doggies losing both Bronson Xerri and Marcelo Montoya to injury and Sharks Nicho Hynes to suspension.
The Panthers look the goods having rested their entire squad the previous week and the Raiders will go into the First Qualifying Final super charged having rested ten of their starting players.
But…
The Dreaded Red Pen
The red pen has made a return for the final round of the competition.
Has the Raiders decision to rest their team backfired with the Dolphins scoring 62 points?
Or will the Raiders make history winning the competition having had 50+ points scored against them?
Sorry Raiders supporters. They are gone.
Legends Take A Bow
Congratulations to Titans Kieran Foran and Sea Eagles Daly Cherry-Evans winning their final NRL matches for their Clubs at home.
The Titans overcame a 28-12 halftime deficit against the Wests Tigers to pile on the points to win 36-28 and hand the wooden spoon to the Knights.
The Sea Eagles 27-26 win over the Warriors was courtesy of a wobbly left foot field goal by DCE.
Foz, enjoy retirement. DCE enjoy whatever it is you are doing that you won’t tell us about.
The Wooden Spoon
The Titans massive comeback handed the wooden spoon to the Knights who could not compete against a strong Eels team losing out 66-10.
The Newcastle Knights are without doubt the worst team this season amassing a -300 point differential score which is more than 100 behind 2nd last placed Titans.
Both Titans and Knights are making changes for 2026 starting with new coaches. Good luck next season.
Try of the Round
I couldn’t go past the Warriors quickest try in NRL history from the kick-off against Manly.
RD27 Stats and Ladder Predictor
Apologies if you downloaded an earlier version of the Stats and Ladder Predictor. We had to make a correction, and you might be in for a nice surprise.
This Round’s Results
This Round’s Stats
| Standouts Correct | 41 |
| Standouts Wrong | 7 – Adel Messih, blakey94, Chunka, isha68, Robert Cook, Westy, Yackas |
| Round High Score | 9 – Bart Simpson, Big Baba |
| Round Low Score | 1 – Westy, BillyB, Stallion, Fouad Khochaiche, UpthePamfers, Lukebrooksbiggestfan |
| Average Score | 3.8 |
| Biggest Mover | +7 – Big Baba |
| Biggest Drop | -8 – Robert Cook, BillyB |
The Standout
85% correct in the final round.
The ones that missed out would think themselves unlucky picking Storm or Bulldogs. But the Raiders? Guess you didn’t see the team lineup.
The Winners
Main Competition
Looks like our Tipsters were not willing to take a risk and much like the NRL Top 8, not much changed.
Congratulations gdadisho, Wiley C and murch for taking out the major prizes and to the remainder of our Main Competition Winners.
Second Competition
Big Moose not only scraped into 6th place in the Main Comp but has rocketed into top place in the Second Comp as well.
Congratulations to our Second Competition Winners.
Bart Simpson Weekly Jackpot
Big Baba and Bart Simpson himself were the closest we got for the Jackpot to be won.
So, it’s off to the random draw. If you want to know how we determine this, I posted an article that included your lucky number below.
The winning number was Number 9.
Congratulations MJP181 for, well, putting your tips in and winning the final Bart Simpson Weekly Jackpot of B$40.
Thank You
To my partner MLC for your continued support and putting up with an obsession that takes up a major chunk of the year. I love you heaps.
To Pablo, thanks again for supporting the competition and running the back-up and weekly audits. Without your assistance we would not have been able to launch.
To Shagger, our Queensland Correspondent. Thank you for your… insightful… Origin articles. It was very much appreciated. Now let’s not talk about Origin again.
To Bart Simpson. Record breaking athlete, world traveler and philanthropist. Thank you again for your generous sponsorship. Everyone in the competition is grateful for the extra prize money on offer. Good luck with your Sea Eagles in the finals. What? Wait?
And finally, Tipsters.
Without you there would be no competition. Thank you for your continued patronage. I hope we added to the enjoyment of your season.
There is still plenty of footy to come with the NRL Finals, the Kangaroo Ashes tour of England and Pacific Championships.
If you have teams in the Finals, good luck I hope they do well and provide you that winning memory. For the rest of us, cheer on your surrogate team(s). Go Broncos and Raiders!
It will be Vegas26 before we know it.
It’s time to clock off but sport never ends. I will enjoy watching my Denver Broncos in action, the BBL and of course Ashes cricket.
Enjoy your summer and we will see you again in 2026.
Rob & Paul
The Creator & Pablo
Creator, Pablo and Bart,
Thank you all for conducting and participating in the running this year’s tipping competition.
See you all again next year
Thanks Adel. Always nice to see your name on the leaderboard (even if it was a long way down for me to scroll).
Well done again Rob. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this. I know you spend a lot of time creating all those posts (been there done that). I hope others have been following all your insightful commentaries. See you again in 2026 – Year of our Dragons. (Well probably not, but we can all dream.