One, if you're from Melbourne, sadly life has never been more lonely and secondly you can only trust Melbourne Storm and the Sydney Roosters.

With nine rounds left, 10 teams remain in contention for the top eight.

Forget St George Illawarra and everyone else below them.

There's five certainties, leaving Newcastle, Cronulla, Manly, Wests Tigers and South Sydney battling for three spots.

Seriously, Newcastle, what were you thinking last week?

Canterbury has clearest the weakest list and the Knights had a top four spot for the taking, but you can't trust them.

Parramatta is flying, sitting third on percentage with the Blue and Gold Army genuinely thinking it will break a 34-year premiership drought.

Not long ago, Manly had no Tom Trbojevic, no Dylan Walker, no Addin Fonua-Blake and no hope.

The Eels thought it was going to to be a walk in the park and trailed 16-0 after as many minutes. You can't trust them.

The Storm and Roosters don'f suffer complacency. They don't get ahead of themselves. They're machines. If it's a good or bad day, they forget about it and move on.

Given Penrith's record this year with only the one loss, it hasn't given us a reason not to trust them.

But until the Panthers do what the Roosters and Storm do in every big game, I still don't believe them.

The 'big two' mightn't make the grand final, but until somebody proves otherwise, they're the only teams I trust.