NRL Round 21 Donkey’s Expert Tips & Opinions (2026)

Ducking for cover like a Melbourne Storm Assistant Coach, in training for the next mascot race, spending time in the lab working out how that magic spray works on soccer players at the World Cup and trying to find a new way of funneling money to FIFA for various reasons, it’s time for some Rugby League tips and opinion from The Gurgler’s NRL Donkey. The NRL Donkey provides his NRL Donkey’s 2026 NRL Round 21 Expert Tips as well as offers an alternative, slightly unhinged view full of sass of the world of rugby league and beyond for another week.

Related

• NRL Round 21 Tips Predictions & Stats
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• NRL Round 20 NRL Weekly Stats & One Minute Match Reviews
• NRL Donkey Round 20 NRL Review

The NRL Donkey’s NRL Round 21 Weekly Opinion

Now that the World Cup and State of Origin is over, and Formula 1 about to go on a four week break, it’s really time to get back into rugby league. That’s why this Donkey is offering up two pieces a week on the NRL.

Not that anyone asked for it, aside from my barn buddies who get rid of me for an extra few hours a week. Apparently they don’t like me because I’m always moaning about things like the Bunker, Ashley Klown, and the Dolphins’ reluctance to re-sign Ray Stone.

I did see the Dolphins won without Ray last weekend. Perhaps there’s news behind the scenes we don’t know about but the team know, and they know Ray Stone is going to sign a three year extension, which isn’t enough but will do for now. And it would be better for everyone instead of going to Penrith and playing two origin period games a year. Although Ray being Ray, he’d probably suit the Penrith structure and kill it. Not literally, not yet anyway.

I think US President said it best about the World Cup when he said that the recent soccer tournament was the best “FIFA” by four or five times, and it’s hard to argue. Mainly because there’s very few “FIFAs” to compare against. Well, none as far as my Wikipedia page goes, although that does go down some rabbit holes. Most of the rabbits are happy for the company, there’s not much else to do underground, but still.

One lesson from the World Cup final is that there is way too much camaraderie in modern sport. The World Cup showed that it is way more entertaining to see the losers really drop the bottom lips and go out punching and choking. Not sure what their problem was with the loss, aside from being outplayed by a team actually trying to score a goal, maybe they were promised the “FIFA” after all. Which could work, as the FIFA President, and a man more looking like a buffoonish cartoon villain by the day, could promise a “FIFA” knowing it doesn’t exist and therefore the actual “Football World Cup” could still be won by someone else.

At this point I’d like to acknowledge Cape Verde aka Cabo Verde, who were the only team to play both “Football World Cup” finalists and not get beaten in the first 90 minutes. Argentina needing a late goal to beat them in extra time. If anyone is against the “Football World Cup” to expand to 64 teams or 86, or 128 teams then I point you in the direction of Cabo Verde. Not Qatar though, they sucked.

Or, you could do what someone else at this website suggested years ago, and simply play the “Football World Cup” as a knockout competition. Imagine the McDonalds, Rexona and other hyadration breaks they could do then.

Then there’s the penalty shootout. Rugby League would be a much better place if you replaced golden point with a penalty goal shootout. Actually soccer would be a better place if it eliminated extra time and just went to penalties too. Why do you need another half an hour to score if you have failed to do so in an hour and a half. Well, in Argentina’s case it allowed them to actually try and score a goal and have a shot. They really were waiting on FIFA if they were prepared to play almost 117 minutes without shooting a goal.

Finally, and to hurry up and finish this soccer related chat in a rugby league based article, how about a third placed playoff game for the rugby league? If the England 6 France 4 game is anything to go by, rugby league could play the two losing teams from the second last week of the finals on the Saturday night before the Grand Final.

Sure you might have to find a field big enough in Bali or Thailand to ensure all the players would participate, but why not try something new and exciting. It’s either that or let Peter V’landys think of another way to ruin rugby league.

READ MORE: CORNERSTONE – Ray Stone Rugby League Stats

READ MORE: Ray Stone vs Comics

The NRL Donkey’s NRL Round 21 Expert Tips & Match Analysis

THU 8PM – PARRAMATTA v PENRITH

Interesting…..Penrith should beat Parramatta and probably will, but similar to the Boomtown Rats but a different day and for a very different reason the Panthers don’t seem to like Thursdays. They’ve lost eight of their last nine on a Thursday. That’s Dragons form, and with three of their remaining seven games on a Thursday it gives a real sniff for the catching pack of minor premiership “glory”. For just five of the last 15 Minor Premiers have won the Premiership. I guess that’s why they call it a minor one. Not sure where minor is a good thing either. Using “minor” before indiscretion is a good one. Same with catastrophe, car crash and hangover. A Mini Minor car is good too. B Minor musical notes sound like fun. So minor is not too bad after all. But not mynas. They are arse birds, they offer even less than a plover which offer very little. They, as in Parramatta are coming off the bye and have won one game from nine straight after the bye since 2023. So the Eels shouldn’t be too slippery for Penrith, but if they are, consider Thursday a curse for the Panthers.

Parramatta by 2

FRI 6PM – NEWCASTLE v ROOSTERS

I though long and hard on this game and came up with nothing. So I asked AI to give a result based on a ridicuolous criteria…..

provide a result and points prediction for the round 21 newcastle v roosters nrl game based on the strength of each team’s mascot, jersey sales, which team’s location has the better beaches, which team’s name scores the most in scabble, and which set of fans would beat the other in an all in wrestling match

AI’S response:

Mascot Strength: Knight: Armoured warrior, sword, shield, horse, centuries of battlefield experience. Rooster: Angry farm bird with excellent confidence.

Jersey Sales: The Roosters have traditionally been one of the bigger Sydney clubs with strong commercial support and a larger population base.

Better beaches:

This is a tough one.

FRI 8PM – SOUTH SYDNEY v MELBOURNE

A battle of which team has the most crucial injuries, which team can ruin the other’s chances of making the top eight, and which coach will be the grumpiest. Both are famously grumpy, one of them hilariously grumpy in our book, and both offer different kinds of grump. So if the result doesn’t matter, and to most it probably doesn’t, let’s hope for a game of high errors, many needless penalties and a few Bunker stuff ups. The latter is almost guaranteed. And guaranteed to displease.

Souths by 8

SAT 3PM – CANBERRA v WESTS TIGERS

Canberra’s minor hopes of making the finals are given a welcome boost of a visit from the Tigers. If the Tigers can’t be arsed in Sydney, how are they going to go in Canberra which is twice as miserable as the Olympic Stadium for Thursday night games. Look out for Ricky Stuart giving Alex Twal some advice of handling dog salmon. Twal could be the John West of the NRL. He rejects dog salmon.

Canberra by 30

SAT 5:30PM – BULLDOGS v WAHS

This could be a very interesting game and pity it is wasted in the Saturday 5:30pm timeslot and at the Olympic Stadium. This is a Sunday afternoon at Belmore special, or why not take the game to the South Island of New Zealand. The Wahs are going well and can sniff a Minor Premiership, which although we pointed out doesn’t help win premierships, but pretty sure the Warriors fans would love one, and most sane rugby league fans would cheer them on. The Bulldogs are quietly going about a finals charge, although a charge would insinuate a lot of noise, maybe a determined stroll? Not Lance Stroll, he’s the least determined sports person in the world. But bad Canadian F1 drivers aside, the Bulldogs have won five of their last seven games and are just two points from the top eight and ahead of the more discussed Melbourne and Brisbane.

Warriors by 6

SAT 7:30PM – NORTH QUEENSLAND v BRISBANE

A crucial all Queensland derby in Townsville. Notice I don’t say local derby as the teams are 1000 km apart. And now they have the Dolphins in between them anyway, which should officially negate the term local. The Dolphins dented the Cowboys top eight credentials last weekend and now the other Brisbane side can double down on that while continuing News Ltd’s dreams of the Broncos making the top eight. Or the Broncos getting enough wins to re-hire Michael Maguire and annoy Gordon Tallis. As I said in my scarcely read Round 20 Review, the hype about the Broncos after one win is amazing, although if they play like they did against Penrith, they could win all their games and still miss the top eight. North Queensland are almost impossible to predict, swinging from hard-working grinders to attacking rugby league superstars to coach-sacking lay-abouts from week to week.

Broncos by 8

SUN 2PM – ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA v GOLD COAST @ Kogarah

This is the perfect Friday 6pm game, as in the game where most people are doing something better. As said above, this was the perfect time slot for Bulldogs v Wahs. Both sides are similar, they haven’t won many games this season but aren’t going as bad as their ladder position implies, and both are usually on the losing side of 50-50 and 30-70 calls. So The Bunker may well be confused at who to rip off in this game.

St George Illawarra by 2

SUN 4PM – MANLY v CRONULLA

A Channel Nein special, just the way Rabs used to like it and probably still does. After enduring Mat “Lungs” Thompson during Origin, I really miss Rabs. Even Gus. Not Cameron Smith. Wheels are falling off Fozball and one does wonder if Manly have signers’ remorse. Cronulla continue to fly under the radar, and will probably make the top four again, which is a great job as they seem to do it without anyone noticing. Which the same can usually be said about their finals exits. Given recent trends Cronulla will probably win.

Cronulla by 4

BYE – DOLPHINS

Re-sign Ray Stone. Now.

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