AFL are having a week off because some teams were getting in the habit of resting players in the final round a couple of years ago. Not that it actually helped those teams win grand finals.
Melbourne found a novel way to miss the finals after being in the eight for sixteen of the twenty-three weeks of the season. Western Bulldogs will spend the off-season wondering if their premiership was simply a fluke.
In NRL the final round offers numbers of permutations for everything except the minor premiership. Saint George will get in the top eight if they win on Sunday, and by then they’ll know which team they’ll leapfrog over.
Last weekend Brisbane and Paramatta apparently enjoyed the Bledisloe Cup game so much they re-enacted it.
Three top eight sides lost, two to other top eight teams. Manly got out of jail. Somehow.
NRL (last round 5/8; season tally 123/184)
Brisbane
Parammata
Easts
Penrith
Melbourne
Cronulla
Saint George
Wests
AFL (last round 7/9; season tally 125/198)
next week
