Sick of criticism that there is no tangible reward for the side that wins the minor premiership, the NRL has come up with a novel approach to ensure that the team finishing first receives a guaranteed week off in the finals, after little more than a training run in the first week of the finals. This inspired approach sees the Dragons, Eels, Broncos and even the Tigers salivating at the prospect of finishing first and pocketing the undoubted rewards that await the feat. The NRL has paid the Under 21s side from Bourke to masquerade as the once proud Manly Club and has engineered an eighth place finish on the Premiership table to ensure that the minor premiers face little more than a speed bump on the first weekend of finals action. The team is lead by Captain Calamity, a skipper so inept that he cannot even find it in himself to utter a word to his players as they stand behind the posts after conceding try after try. Apparently the words “pride� and “ticker� are not in his limited vocabulary. Up front their “go-forward� is led by the pea-hearted “Princess� (aka Jason King). He is now infamous for being the first prop in the history of First Grade Rugby League to be on a field for more than 40 minutes without taking ONE hit-up. Which will be the lucky ground to see the first century racked up in the NRL? Will it be Lang Park, WIN Stadium or Parramatta Stadium?
