A competition in which any team can win on any given week and the NRL appears to have found it this year.

Footy tippers everywhere are tearing their hair out as favourites are beaten and teams that were expected to battle for the wooden spoon are playing like premiers.

You expect there to be the odd upset in the opening couple of rounds of the competition as teams sort themselves out. But after five rounds, things look more uncertain than ever.

Six teams who missed out on the semi-finals last year are currently sitting in the top eight, including the Parramatta Eels and West Tigers, who a lot of people were expecting to be in the dreaded battle for 16th.

Last year's premiers, the Sydney Roosters have lost three out of five games and sit in 10th. Perennial powerhouses Melbourne are only one spot ahead of them. And the early favourites for the 2014 trophy, the Rabbitohs, look out of sorts and sit in 12th.

Admittedly, it would take a brave person to predict they will still be there after round 26 but that doesn't help the poor footy tipper who is coming away with only one or two out of eight at the moment.

It's shaping up to be one of those years where the uneducated tipper can come out on top. You know that annoying one who tips based on colours or which mascot would win in a fight.

There's one in every competition and this year, they are probably going to be running away with the money.

Don't get me wrong, I like an even competition that creates plenty of close and thrilling games. I just want the team that I've tipped to come out on top. Is that too much to ask?

o o o

As a long suffering Mark Webber fan, it has been nice to see the man who took his place in Formula 1 team Red Bull, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, doing well.

Ricciardo finished a fantastic fourth in the Bahrain Grand Prix in the early hours of Monday morning and only just missing out on a podium.

It must have been a big relief because after the opening two rounds of the series, it looked like the West Australian had inherited the luck of the man who he replaced.

Webber will go down in F1 history as one of the unluckiest. Often described as a man who, if he didn't have bad luck would have no luck at all, Webber spent the prime of his career at teams who were at the wrong end of the grid.

And when he did finally get a car capable of winning a world title, he also got a new team-mate, arguably the best driver on the grid and a man who has re-written the history books by winning four world championships in a row before he turned 27.

Ricciardo was disqualified from second place in the opening round at Australia because of an issue completely out of his hands and then his team failed to attach one of his wheels during a pitstop at Malaysia which ruined his race, earned him a drive through penalty and a 10 second grid drop for Bahrain.

However he stormed home to finish ahead of Vettel and draw plenty of praise and there could be more good news to come with a hearing to decide if his result in Australia will be reinstated.