So Round 9 wasn’t quite as simple a round to predict, though the upsets came from different angles and have shown up some deficiencies where one would not have expected. The Panthers lost a game, that at least can stop the speculation that a team could go through undefeated in the modern age. The Broncos came to Sydney without arguably their two most important players and still towelled up the Rabbits. The Knights and the Titans continued their decline and with it the health of the employment of their coaches going forward. The Storm failed to score 50 points in their clash against the Dragons, probably the one thing Craig Bellamy can get stuck into his team for this weekend, while the Warriors have again seemed to have changed their team with one from the underworld from the horror movie Us, as they got smashed by a 12 man Sharks team that had no right to win.

On today's episode we’ll have a look back at the round to try and decipher just what the hell is going on. Today’s Talking Point will discuss the mooted possibility last week of PNG becoming the 18thteam in the NRL, and whether that is a way to offset the discussion that there isn’t enough depth of players to allow a 17th team let alone an 18th. And of course we’ll look ahead to next week’s Magic Round and try to sort out whether we will see as many players dismissed this season as we did last season.

All of that and much much less on today’s edition of “In League With the NRL”, on the podcast that has as much credibility as a Will Smith apology, “Thoughts from the Metal Cavern”.