NRL NRL 2025 - Round 7

[balmainforever]

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/pickem/picks/2025-official-bigfooty-nrl-tipping.183/?week_id=430

Thursday 17th April
Manly-Warringah vs St.George-Illawarra (4 Pines Park - 19:50)

Friday 18th April
Canterbury-Bankstown vs South Sydney (Accor Stadium - 16:05)
Dolphins vs Melbourne (Suncorp Stadium - 20:00)

Saturday 19th April
New Zealand vs Brisbane (Go Media Stadium - 17:30)
Sydney Roosters vs Penrith (Allianz Stadium - 19:35)

Sunday 20th April
Gold Coast vs Canberra (Cbus Super Stadium - 14:00)
Newcastle vs Cronulla-Sutherland (McDonald Jones Stadium - 16:05)

Monday 21st April
Parramatta vs Wests Tigers (CommBank Stadium - 16:00)

Bye: North Queensland

 

[balmainforever]

 

[balmainforever]

NRL Team Lists: Round 7

Official team lists, updates and injury news for Round 7 of the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership.

www.nrl.com

NRL Late Mail: Round 7 - Schuster in mix; Kikau on track

See all the late mail, official team news and updates for Round 6 of the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership competition.

www.nrl.com

 

[LebaneseForces]

Dogs V South Sydney anticipated crowd 60,000+

 

[PhatBoy]

Not that I’m in a tipping comp and I’ve given up the punt but do I dare hope and think that we will win against the Panthers this week?
As sure as I actually start to think we are building something we will turn in another error riddled performance, start pushing passes on the second tackle with 3 men holding us up on our own 20 metre line to a guy already looking for the next play. And Penrith will start playing percentage football, kicking to corners, sending it through hands on the fourth play instead of the first, and run in an AFL score more akin to what you’d see if the Giants played the Eagles.

Should be interesting.

My fantasy team is utterly f**ked now after hanging on by a thread, I know that much. Down to 17 likely-to-be selected players, one of whom is the barely used Owen Pattie.

 

[Jatz]

Think the Roosters will win that one.

Unless Cronulla only score 2, I don't think we'll be winning.

 

[nobbyiscool]

I watch a lot more NRL than AFL nowadays. But having grown up in AFL territory, NRL contracts will never not be weird to me.

The notion that you can sign for another team a year out...
The notion that you can announce nearly 2 years out that you're not resigning...
The argument that everyone in rugby league is "professional enough" to deal with it...

And then you get the Galvin example which shits on everything they try and tell you.

I get that there's an issue with reports that he's not happy with coaching and development at Wests (ie. the fact that information became public) - but jesus, the only team as happy with Penrith's winning streak as the Panthers are is Wests, cos no one seems to remember that they've just jagged 3 spoons in a row.

They aren't good enough that players can go to the coach and say "we don't want to play with this bloke."

 

[Jatz]

I get dropping him for the week but I'd be staggered if this doesn't end up in an early release.

 

[nobbyiscool]

I get dropping him for the week but I'd be staggered if this doesn't end up in an early release.

Certainly looks like it's heading that way, despite what they said yesterday.

There's every chance he's somewhere else by next weekend.

 

[Jatz]

Certainly looks like it's heading that way, despite what they said yesterday.

There's every chance he's somewhere else by next weekend.

Very hard to do midseason (due to the cap) but I'd be staggered if he doesn't move on in this off season.

Makes no sense for either parties to still have him there next season.

 

[phantom13]

Very hard to do midseason (due to the cap) but I'd be staggered if he doesn't move on in this off season.

Makes no sense for either parties to still have him there next season.

I’d actually think if the tigers refused to move him on in the off season the NRL would intervene. It’s gotta be a restriction of trade and earnings I would think.

I get why the tigers did what they did but I also think they’ve come out of this looking pretty silly

 

[PhatBoy]

I watch a lot more NRL than AFL nowadays. But having grown up in AFL territory, NRL contracts will never not be weird to me.

The notion that you can sign for another team a year out...
The notion that you can announce nearly 2 years out that you're not resigning...
The argument that everyone in rugby league is "professional enough" to deal with it...

And then you get the Galvin example which shits on everything they try and tell you.

I get that there's an issue with reports that he's not happy with coaching and development at Wests (ie. the fact that information became public) - but jesus, the only team as happy with Penrith's winning streak as the Panthers are is Wests, cos no one seems to remember that they've just jagged 3 spoons in a row.

They aren't good enough that players can go to the coach and say "we don't want to play with this bloke."

They also aren’t good enough to be in a position where they can thrive in an environment where they know their key player thinks he is, more or less, too good to be there. Maybe a Melbourne could. Maybe a peak Panthers or 18-19 roosters could. This side can’t afford that.

No one wants to play with someone like that. Not all, but most successful clubs in rugby league are built off the back of unity across the board - that whole is against the world mentality. You get the odd occasion where there’ll be a club who does well with a major clash of personalities within it but for the most part they just don’t work because you get one guy over calling the other and players not knowing who to go to on the field, and guys not wanting to work hard off it. It’s a game built on harmony and loyalty even though its transient nature with player movement does sort of go against that a lot.

 

[nobbyiscool]

They also aren’t good enough to be in a position where they can thrive in an environment where they know their key player thinks he is, more or less, too good to be there. Maybe a Melbourne could. Maybe a peak Panthers or 18-19 roosters could. This side can’t afford that.

No one wants to play with someone like that. Not all, but most successful clubs in rugby league are built off the back of unity across the board - that whole is against the world mentality. You get the odd occasion where there’ll be a club who does well with a major clash of personalities within it but for the most part they just don’t work because you get one guy over calling the other and players not knowing who to go to on the field, and guys not wanting to work hard off it. It’s a game built on harmony and loyalty even though its transient nature with player movement does sort of go against that a lot.

I feel like this is really naive. It's professional sport. It's the NRL.

Luai just joined on $1.2m a season. Taruva just joined cos Wests offered him more than Penrith. They brought in professional journeyman Bird - who literally behaved in a similar manner early in his career.

And then we have Royce Hunt. Who had a contract for this year, which he severed to join Wests for more money.

More power to all these players, I'm almost always pro-player in these scenarios - they risk their bodies and their long term brain health, and they have short careers to make as much money as they can.

I'm just not sure why no one sees the hypocrisy of how Galvin is being treated.

Totally understand the point you made in the other thread, I'm certain that Galvin would have his time back in his reasoning for not wanting to extend, it was an awful look.

But he hasn't jumped out of the boat, he hasn't demanded an immediate release like Hunt did, he committed for the next 18 months. Regardless, they've thrown him out of the boat because he did away with the conventional, bullshit niceties of conducting contract negotiations in public - which are exactly that, bullshit. It's lip-service that treats fans like idiots, and these moron team mates who are on social media making the next 18 months untenable all behave in exactly the same way, with the exception that they feed us the bullshit.

On culture?

That's the worst thing about this whole saga.

If I'm a 20 year old kid being offered a contract by Wests - nevermind the fact that Galvin says Marshall can't coach, why the **** would I ever agree to play there if this is how their senior players treat kids for grievous crime of... being a professional footballer and seeking out the best contract, exactly like those senior players do (and should.)

 

[PhatBoy]

I feel like this is really naive. It's professional sport. It's the NRL.

Luai just joined on $1.2m a season. Taruva just joined cos Wests offered him more than Penrith. They brought in professional journeyman Bird - who literally behaved in a similar manner early in his career.

And then we have Royce Hunt. Who had a contract for this year, which he severed to join Wests for more money.

More power to all these players, I'm almost always pro-player in these scenarios - they risk their bodies and their long term brain health, and they have short careers to make as much money as they can.

I'm just not sure why no one sees the hypocrisy of how Galvin is being treated.

Totally understand the point you made in the other thread, I'm certain that Galvin would have his time back in his reasoning for not wanting to extend, it was an awful look.

But he hasn't jumped out of the boat, he hasn't demanded an immediate release like Hunt did, he committed for the next 18 months. Regardless, they've thrown him out of the boat because he did away with the conventional, bullshit niceties of conducting contract negotiations in public - which are exactly that, bullshit. It's lip-service that treats fans like idiots, and these moron team mates who are on social media making the next 18 months untenable all behave in exactly the same way, with the exception that they feed us the bullshit.

On culture?

That's the worst thing about this whole saga.

If I'm a 20 year old kid being offered a contract by Wests - nevermind the fact that Galvin says Marshall can't coach, why the **** would I ever agree to play there if this is how their senior players treat kids for grievous crime of... being a professional footballer and seeking out the best contract, exactly like those senior players do (and should.)

It’s not the seeking out the contract: it’s the not backing of the coach. Even if you don’t think he can coach or you think you can do better under someone else, you don’t let that shit get out.

I am 100 per cent certain given that some of the players you correctly point out have played on at clubs after announcing they were leaving, and have also played successfully with other guys (think Luai winning a comp with Burton when he’d announced he was leaving for example) that if Galvin just said ‘look I think I might be able to get a better deal elsewhere so I am going to see what I’m worth’ they probably wouldn’t have reacted anything like this.

But when you’re at the club you’re at, you have to be all in for the period you are there, about saying the people you’re playing with, and under, are the best possible people for me to play with and under.

I don’t have a good enough memory to say this unequivocally but I doubt that any of these guys aside from maybe Bird ever went down that path and Luai definitely didn’t, neither did Api.

It’s very, very hard to take a teammate seriously if he or someone who speaks on his behalf, is basically saying ‘we don’t think the guy leading this team can do the job.’

 

[Jatz]

I’d actually think if the tigers refused to move him on in the off season the NRL would intervene. It’s gotta be a restriction of trade and earnings I would think.

I get why the tigers did what they did but I also think they’ve come out of this looking pretty silly

How? He's got a contract for next year. There's no way the NRL would intervene.

 

[Jatz]

Some of the Tigers players are looking a bit silly out of this.

Turuva's post in particular is piss poor. It's not like Turuva didn't just move for money as well...

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

I get dropping him for the week but I'd be staggered if this doesn't end up in an early release.

No reason to rush that. Send him to 2nd grade and demand a player back in any early release.

Tell Galvin to find a new club immediately and then work a deal out after. I think you could go for Toby Sexton as a like for like replacement or look for someone like Max King. Make em suffer

Tigers hold all the cards here so use them

 

[Jatz]

No reason to rush that. Send him to 2nd grade and demand a player back in any early release.

Tell Galvin to find a new club immediately and then work a deal out after. I think you could go for Toby Sexton as a like for like replacement or look for someone like Max King. Make em suffer

Tigers hold all the cards here so use them

Won't be this season. He's desperate to get to the Eels seemingly and unless Parra release Brown, it won't happen.

Can see it in the offseason though.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Won't be this season. He's desperate to get to the Eels seemingly and unless Parra release Brown, it won't happen.

Can see it in the offseason though.

I cant see why Parra wouldnt release Brown if Galvin came in. Its easy for a big merry go round to happen from within all this and a bizarre 3 way swap occurs

Id do it this way

Galvin to Parra
Brown to Knights
Pearce-Paul to Tigers

3 way win if you ask me.

 

[Jatz]

I cant see why Parra wouldnt release Brown if Galvin came in. Its easy for a big merry go round to happen from within all this and a bizarre 3 way swap occurs

Id do it this way

Galvin to Parra
Brown to Knights
Pearce-Paul to Tigers

3 way win if you ask me.

Quite a few reasons. To start with, Newcastle can't afford to take on the salary of Brown in this years cap.

I'd prefer to keep Pearce Paul although my patience is starting to run thin with him.

 

[PhatBoy]

Some of the Tigers players are looking a bit silly out of this.

Turuva's post in particular is piss poor. It's not like Turuva didn't just move for money as well...

But again, none of the recent arrivals were cloak and dagger about moving, nor did they in any way level anything resembling criticism at the club they were leaving while they were still there.

You can argue that relative to their value, Turuva and Luai were squeezed out of their clubs. They still gave their best, they never said a word about Penrith or their coach or the idea that they could be better elsewhere.

There was nothing that emerged from them that could be construed by their teammates as putting them or their club’s environment down.

As far as early exits go, they probably couldn’t have done it any better.

On top of that, they had paid a debt to their club for giving them a chance by being significant contributors to success. Galvin is on the cusp of getting that chance. And he’s within his rights to leave but again as soon as you drop any reason approximating ‘I can do better elsewhere,’ prideful footballers will feel insulted.

 

[Jatz]

But again, none of the recent arrivals were cloak and dagger about moving, nor did they in any way level anything resembling criticism at the club they were leaving while they were still there.

You can argue that relative to their value, Turuva and Luai were squeezed out of their clubs. They still gave their best, they never said a word about Penrith or their coach or the idea that they could be better elsewhere.

There was nothing that emerged from them that could be construed by their teammates as putting them or their club’s environment down.

As far as early exits go, they probably couldn’t have done it any better.

On top of that, they had paid a debt to their club for giving them a chance by being significant contributors to success. Galvin is on the cusp of getting that chance. And he’s within his rights to leave but again as soon as you drop any reason approximating ‘I can do better elsewhere,’ prideful footballers will feel insulted.

How was Galvin cloak and dagger about leaving? He's given them a whole heap of notice. It's not like he's left them in the lurch.

You say all that like Luai didn't turn up for training in the days after he signed for the Tigers. Luckily for him, Cleary/Edwards/Yeo aren't like him and didn't jump all over social media to lambast him over it.

I actually think it's incredibly embarrassing the way Luai and Turuva have carried on over it. They've now weakened their team this week because they feel slighted by the defection. Suck it up and get on with the job, that's how you lead. Not by taking pot shots at 19 year olds.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Quite a few reasons. To start with, Newcastle can't afford to take on the salary of Brown in this years cap.

I'd prefer to keep Pearce Paul although my patience is starting to run thin with him.

Not 100% sure on how the rules work with NRL but 99% sure the opposition can take on the salary. Id suggest each team is on the book for each salary and a simple loan is done

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Some of the Tigers players are looking a bit silly out of this.

Turuva's post in particular is piss poor. It's not like Turuva didn't just move for money as well...

Silly comparison

Turuva never went out in the public and said "this is about my playing future" and tried to sell a story like it wasnt about money.

Galvins sob story seems like BS to me. Will be proven so when Eels sign him to a 10 year deal I suppose

 

[nobbyiscool]

I actually think it's incredibly embarrassing the way Luai and Turuva have carried on over it. They've now weakened their team this week because they feel slighted by the defection. Suck it up and get on with the job, that's how you lead. Not by taking pot shots at 19 year olds.

At the very least, they're 2 guys who should've kept their mouths shut this week.

The social media behaviour in particular has embarrassed themselves, they've chased off potential recruits, and they've made Galvin's tenure untenable.

After 3 spoons in a row, this is the culture they're fostering. Hypocrisy from senior players, freezing out of youngsters, a protection racket around a guy who's coaching ability is far from proven.