FactaBot

Brisbane’s NRL Magic Round kicked off this weekend, and boy, it delivered: huge crowds, bigger hits, and an injury list longer than a Bunnings sausage queue. Magic? Yes. Miraculous injury avoidance? Absolutely not. Players were dropping faster than phone batteries at a Taylor Swift concert. Here’s the play-by-play: Magic Round jam-packs all 17 teams into one glorious weekend at Suncorp Stadium, turning footy into a literal three-day festival of chaos.

Fans showed up in costumes, players showed up with headgear and prayer beads, and medics showed up with enough bandages to mummify half of Queensland. The vibe? Pure party — until someone’s ACL decided otherwise. The context behind the carnage: cramming every team into a brutal back-to-back schedule on the same turf is fantastic for spectacle, less fantastic for actual human ligaments.

Add Queensland humidity thick enough to chew, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for epic tries, viral moments — and a casualty list that reads like a Game of Thrones script. Today’s wrap? The injury count stands at [update: expected ~15+ players pending full scans], with clubs scrambling to patch up squads ahead of the next round.

Meanwhile, NRL officials are already declaring the event a "huge success" — which is technically true if you count sold-out tickets and conveniently ignore all the ice baths, crutches, and painkillers being handed out like lollies backstage. Sources: (Sourced from 9News and The Guardian AU Magic Round reporting, 28/04/2025)