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And just like that, the regular season is done and dusted for 2026.

But before we go to the winners (or welcome back if you scrolled down first) it’s time to wrap the final round.

Panthers On Top

Any thoughts the Panthers dynasty was ended by the Broncos in 2025 is well and truly over with Penrith picking up another minor premiership and the J.J. Giltinan Shield.

They start the finals once again as the team to beat and heavy favourites to win their fifth premiership in six years.

The Panthers needed to beat the Wests Tigers by two points to leapfrog the Warriors into 1st position. Yes, I know it was only the Wests Tigers and even the Dragons beat them, but the Panthers decided to man a full-strength team instead of following other teams by resting players.

They are primed and ready for September football.

The Top 4

While the Panthers had no issues with their final match of the regular season, both the Warriors and Dolphins had their eyes on finals and almost paid the price.

It gets worse if you’re a Roosters fan with the dreaded 50 points scored against them.

Coach Robinson played the scoreline down stating he got what he wanted out of the match. But I can’t help to think of the Raiders last year that also rested their squad and got beaten by 50. Everyone played it off as it wasn’t their main team. But we all saw what happened after that.

If you red pen the Roosters and ‘Phins for 50+ scorelines and teams outside the top four, the final will be the Panthers v Warriors.

Top 8

The poor Sharkies head into the finals having lost four of their last five matches including the Storm’s last second winning try. They now host their home final against the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium.

The Cowboys are definitely the imposters in the room having another 50 points scored on them.

The Rabbitohs will host the other final, after their 50-point thrashing of their archrivals Roosters, taking on a freshened Knights team. These are the only two teams that can threaten the Top 4 and one will be gone in the first week.

Coby Black Raiders

Broncos discard, Coby Black was finally unleashed on the NRL when Ricky Stuart gave him the opportunity and the seven jersey for the Raiders. And wasn’t he impressive breaking the debutant record score with 2 tries, 8 goals for a haul of 26 points.

Coby was in everything and will not look out of place in what is already an exciting Raiders team for 2027.

Tyrell Sloan

The much-maligned Tyrell Sloan kicked the Dragons into the winner’s circle with a massive 44m two-point field goal after Eels whinge-bag Mitchell Moses missed a regulation attempt from in front.

The commentators were amusing in the lead up stating the Dragons haven’t kicked a field goal since last year. And it was Val Holmes. And he was off the field injured.

Step up Tyrell who not only leaves the club with the Dragons only field goal of the year, but also leading try scorer with 12.

Good luck in the Super League.

This Round’s Results

This Round’s Stats

Standouts Correct	43
Standouts Wrong	4 – gdadisho, Timbo, UpthePamfers, Yackas
Round High Score	9 – Shagger, Neville, Splinter
Round Low Score	2 – Yackas, Stallion, Ramin Dadisho, Lukebrooksbiggestfan
Average Score	4.4
Biggest Mover	+5 – Splinter
Biggest Drop	-7 – gdadisho

The Standout

Only Doggies and Eels supporters missed out this week with 43 Tipsters finishing the season in style.

86% correct.

The Winners

Main Competition

Congratulations to all our winners below. Ah, what could have been had the Titans managed to beat the Dolphins.

Big congratulations goes out to Bart Simpson for winning his first competition. Bart has been playing Footy Tipper since its inception 28 years ago and it’s taken 5820 games to manage this feat.

That’s a lot of football.

To put this further in perspective, it’s equivalent to:

• 28 years, 5 months and 25 days
• 1,486 weeks
• 250,000+ hours

Second Competition

Cruella holds onto 1st place in the Second Competition.

Congratulations to all our winners here as well.

Bart Simpson Weekly Jackpot

The Cowboys loss to the Raiders ended any chance of the remaining Tipsters in winning the prize so it was off to random.org to find our luckiest of lucky Tipsters.

Congratulations Splinter for simply putting your tips in and winning B$190.

The irony is if the Cows had won, Splinter would have also won the Weekly Jackpot regardless.

Thank You

To my partner MLC for your continued support even if the Queensland teams continually let you down. Probably best not to talk about Origin here either. I love you heaps.

To Pablo, thanks again for supporting the competition and running the back-up and weekly audits.

To Bart Simpson, who is in England building houses for the orphans, on behalf of all Tipsters thank you again for your generous sponsorship. That B$270 makes a huge difference to our prize pool.

To our Winners, congratulations again. I will reach out to you to transfer your winnings. The Dragons store has a lot of discounted items at the moment.

Finally, to our Tipsters who make this competition possible.

This has been our best season as far as weekly participation goes which makes running the competiton more enjoyable. I hope we kept you somewhat entertained throughout the season.

Thank you again for your continued support and patronage.

To those who have teams in the finals, good luck. The rest of us will find someone to cheer on.

A Wah’s v ‘Phins grand final would be awesome.

The start of the finals series also coincides with the kick-off of the NFL. I have been looking forward to cheering the Denver Broncos since about round 11.

Enjoy the offseason and we will see you in 2027.

Rob

The Creator