GET READY FOR ROUND 20 - All You Need to Know Before Kick-off

With the Origin period now over, we’re back to the full slate of eight games per round for the rest of the regular season. In Round 20, we see two top-eight clashes, with the most critical being the fourth-placed Sharks up against the fifth-placed Knights. Before time on is blown for the first game this round, the BettingTop10 team goes through all the biggest stories!

With just eight rounds to go before we lock into the finals, can anyone challenge the Penrith Panthers for the Minor Premiership? The Penrith side is sitting four points clear of the next best team, and is obviously still the favourite to take out the whole thing, according to NRL betting odds.

They face off against the Brisbane Broncos this round, which should have been an epic battle, but with the Broncos sitting in 14th, it’s a bit meh. The closest rivals to the Panthers are the New Zealand Warriors. 

The Warriors haven’t exactly been lighting the world on fire in their last few games. However, all their recent losses have been by just two points, so things could have certainly been a lot different! 

The New Zealand side has a great opportunity to lay further claim to a top-two spot this round when they take on the bottom-of-the-table St. George Illawarra Dragons at Go Media Stadium. Both the Warriors and Dragons won their last game, and the team they were both victorious over were the Tigers.

In some massive news coming out of the Melbourne Storm camp in the last 24 hours, Cameron Munster is set to have surgery on his knee. He was set to line up against the Gold Coast Titans last round, but was pulled just before the game. Now we know why.

The five-eighth has sustained a cartilage injury and is expected to miss at least six weeks. With Munster out, the injury toll is really starting to add up, as it has all season, really. Both Xavier Coates and Eli Katoa have missed the entire season so far. 

Another team that is in with a chance of making the finals, but that chance has taken a hit, is the Canterbury Bulldogs. There were scary scenes in the Bulldogs’ last game, when captain Stephen Crichton ended up being stretchered off.

Crichton suffered from nerve issues, but was later seen walking around the field just before full-time. He lost feeling in one of his arms, and the trainers took all necessary precautions to ensure he was safe and waited for the medi-cab instead of letting him stand up and walk off.

Speaking of the Storm and the Bulldogs, centre Bronson Xerri has just penned a three-year deal to move from the Bulldogs to the Storm starting next season! Xerri has been a Bulldog since 2024 and has racked up 54 games with the club since then.

In my article last week, I put the Wests Tigers on wooden spoon watch. You better believe I’m keeping them right here. Realistically, I don’t think they’ll be handed yet another wooden spoon, but the way they’ve been playing as of late, they might deserve it anyway.

The talk of the town right now is Jarome Luai. He sparked drama when he announced he was leaving the Tigers to join the PNG Chiefs in 2028. Now, the Tigers and Luai have agreed to part ways at the end of this season!

Where to next for Luai? Well, it’s looking increasingly likely that he’ll land at the Parramatta Eels for just one season before moving on again to the Chiefs. The Eels have certainly turned into a revolving door for players as of late, haven’t they?

Any Tigers fan will know just how poorly the team has performed ever since Luai announced he was leaving for PNG. So, are there fractions within the club? People siding with and against Luai? We’ll never know for sure.

If there’s someone who can unite the club, it’s Benji Marshall, but he’ll have to do it quickly before the Tigers’ season is well and truly over. The Tigers play the Bulldogs this round, a matchup that has been turned up to 11 ever since Lachie Galvin defected. 

Obviously, we can’t forget to mention the true wooden spoon contenders, the Dragons, who have managed just two wins this season. They had their bye last round and now head to New Zealand to take on the Warriors.