By all rights, the final round of the regular season should be the most exciting in the regular season.
Finals positions up for grabs, top four spots to be decided, a battle to avoid the wooden spoon, and if we're lucky a minor premier to crown.
This year we have three of the four.
The wooden spoon has been delivered but we have three teams playing for one spot in the finals, eighth, while one spot in the top four will also come down to three.
Most importantly of all we have two sides in a straight shootout for the minor premiership.
Technically the Bunnies are in the running but in reality, it has come down to the mighty Melbourne Storm and the 2020 minor premiers the Penrith Panthers.
Everything has fallen into position to live up to the hope of being the most exciting round of rugby league before the finals.
Except it won't be. It usually isn't.
I say this because Craig Bellamy, knows full well a win over a desperate Sharks outfit will clinch top spot, the J.J. Giltinan Shield and $100,000.
Yet, he has chosen to rest Cameron Munster, his starting front row, his starting second row, a first choice centre and a bench star.
There's every chance that the below full strength Storm will still get the job done, but Bellamy has shown his hand.
There's also a chance that he may pull a last-minute switch and put those stars he named on the extended bench in.
I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say the Storm, at full strength, would end the Sharks season this Friday evening. I suggest Bellamy knows as much. Josh Hannay also for what it's worth.
The fact Bellamy has risked the Shield and monetary prize proves that he doesn't see the minor premiership as that big a deal.
There's a line of thinking that Bellamy and the Storm have so many they no longer matter. I say this half in jest but seriously can anyone tell me who were the minor premiers in 2016?
The year the Sharks won the competition after losing in the final round, which cost them the minor premiership?
It was the Storm!
Rugby League Outlaws talk the Minor Premiership, the Sharks finals chances and much more
Do you think Bellamy, Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and co. would have gone into the shed at fulltime after seeing Paul Gallen lift the premiership trophy saying "it's okay, we won the shield and a hundred grand"?
No chance in the world.
I'm not saying that the Storm would have reversed the result in the decider if they had rested players in the final round.
But... what if Cameron Munster is injured this Friday evening when he could have sat in the stands with his feet up, resting for the finals?
Truthfully I don't think the $100,000 prize money makes up for losing a superstar who could help you deliver the ultimate prize.
If the minor premiership doesn't mean that much to the best coach in the game, why should it mean something to the fans?
Yeah, it's a cool trophy to add to the collection but as a Sharks fan, we don't have a shrine to our minor premiership in 2000. Only the real deal.
So no, once the finals start, I think it's fair to suggest that nobody cares who finished top of the table in the regular season. The financial windfall aside, why should you?
Second question: Should the minor premiership mean more?
I don't know what more the NRL could do other than offer a massive cash prize and a shiny new shield?
When it comes to a finals series, whatever happens before it is only ever going to be about placings and (not this season) home ground advantage.
Everything a team does is to get to the finals to try and win a premiership.
Not the minor premiership.
That's not to say the Storm or Panthers won't celebrate wildly when they lift the regular season award, but it will all be forgotten within a week or two.
