NRL

Some would say it was the football gods, others would say it was the football god.

North Queensland 'deity' Johnathan Thurston came up with the biggest moment of the 2016 competition, splitting a Broncos line – which was out on its feet – in the 85th minute, flicking a ball inside for Michael Morgan's game-winning try.

At 20-18 down, the Cowboys' back-to-back dream looked decimated before experienced Bronco Matt Gillett committed the ultimate brain explosion, tripping Thurston who tried to step inside the second-rower in a last-gasp effort to get back ahead.

A big second half from the home side saw them move to within one win of a grand final berth, as North Queensland will now host Brisbane next weekend in a rematch of last year's decider.

An early second half try to prop Jesse Bromwich would give the Storm a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, as the Storm would quash the demons of last year's preliminary final loss to the Cowboys.

The opening 40 turned out to be a game of two halves, as Melbourne took it to the Cowboys from the outset and dominated the opening 20 minutes.

The Broncos centre has been forced to hang up the boots due to complications from a serious shoulder injury he suffered this year.

Despite surgery and intensive rehabilitation attempts since then, it has become apparent that his shoulder will never recover sufficiently to enable him play rugby league again.

As a result, Jack has accepted the advice from his medical team that he has suffered a career-ending injury, and has made the difficult decision to retire from the game, effective immediately.

Retiring Dragons co-captain Ben Creagh was named on Tuesday but will not play, with Joel Thompson to start in the back row. Tyson Frizell is also out, replaced by Will Matthews in the starting side. Tim Lafai and Luciano Leilua join the final bench.

In a lacklustre performance that will surely worry players and fans alike, the Bulldogs were outclassed 28-10 by a South Sydney side playing for nothing more than pride.  

Jamil served nine months of an 18 months jail sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company in 2014.

Hopoate was released earlier this year and has been playing reserve grade for Manly.

Hopoate Snr posted to Facebook on Wednesday, saying the NRL’s integrity unit was stopping Jamil from playing first grade this weekend.

“So my son Jamil misses out on debuting for the Eagles this week cause the NRL integrity unit said he’s not allowed,” he wrote.

Hayne had been in doubt for the Gold Coast’s crunch clash with Penrith on Saturday due to a corked calf, and coach Neil Henry says he wouldn’t hesitate to rest his star signing if Hayne wasn’t 100 per cent fit.

But having trained on Friday Hayne is set to take his place barring any flare up of the injury on match day, leaving off-contract custodian David Mead relegated to 18th man duties.

Meanwhile Manly will be without NSW Origin utility Dylan Walker for their clash with Canberra on Saturday due to a shoulder injury.

Bring the family together or even the community to watch the Digicel Cup, the Intrust Super Cup, the NRL or the different genre of movies highlighted for you this week.

Check out our movie line up for the week we have horror movies like The Apparition and kids’ movies like Hotel Transylvania. We also have our weekly Hunters feature recapping their previous match.

Enjoy a long weekend of family entertainment only on Digicel Play.

26^th August at 8:10pm

A Mighty Heart on HBO Signature

Needing to win their final three games of the regular season – and results to go their way – the Red V were simply never in the contest as the Tricolours secured their third win from their past four starts to rise up to 13th spot on the Telstra Premiership ladder. 

There was no stopping the three-time defending minor premiers who belied their lowly ranking in what was a faultless performance from start to finish. 

Blake Ferguson ran for a whopping 235 metres, Mitchell Pearce added three try assists to his ever-growing tally, while Daniel Tupou had his best game of 2016. 

The result has massive finals implications with the Dragons moving into fourth spot on the Holden Cup ladder while the Tricolours missed a golden opportunity to return to the top two. 

The early exchanges had all the hallmarks of a finals match with both sides throwing plenty at each other in an absorbing back-and-forth feeling-out period. 

Having survived a close call at the other end of the field, the Dragons opened the scoring in the 14th minute with skipper Patrick Herbert charging onto an out-ball from Matt Dufty.