Round 21

[Bomber Bears]

Canterbury vs South Sydney - Should be a good game, Canterbury's season is done but they arent a club to back down, Souths will be desperate to get a win up and need it. Loss of Taylor will hurt but offset by Luke being back in the side

Penrith vs Qld - Panthers get Walsh back and should shit it in against a dismal FNQ cowboys

Parra vs Easts - this should be a cracker of a game. Easts look like regaining Pearce and Myles, Hayne hitting top form, game of the round at 5:30 on a saturday evening. could go either way, I tipped easts but thats more just the side i prefer.

Wests Tigers vs Cronulla - Tigers will want to bounce back after a rubbish effort vs the Sea Eagles. Should win but cant be complacent if they want to nail that top 4 finish

NZ vs Gold Coast - big game, loser in a little bit of strife whilst winner gets a bit of breathing space for a week. Should be a good one as well, NZ defence is brilliant mostly, apart from last week. NZ to win.

Melbourne vs Canberra - Melbourne could just about end the season of the Raiders here, who from memory have a terrible record against the Storm. Melbourne, just.

Brisbane vs St George Illawarra - booooooring. St George to win and put the Broncs in a whole heap of trouble

Newcastle vs Manly - A loss for the Knights and the season would officialy be over you would think, although it may as well be over anyway. Heart says Manly lose, head says Manly win.

 

[ObaMartins]

Dogs v Souths - Have gone with the Dogs in this one. Should be a great close game I reckon.

Panthers v Cowboys - Have taken Penrith at the line(12.5) will absolutely destroy Nth QLD.

Parra v Sydney - Both sides probally the two form teams of the comp. Will be a great game, can't call a winner. Obviously the heart says Parra (I always tip them no matter what, has killed me this season. Feel dirty picking the enemy) but the Roosters have been in great form aswell.

NZ v Gold Coast - Kiwi's to bounce back, by 8.

Wests v Cronulla - Tigers, easily.

$torm v Raiders - Storm at home should be good eough, will be close. Raiders are playing for a shot at finals footy.

Broncos v Dragons - Should be an interesting game. I think the Dragons will win, don't like either team so heres hoping they just bash the shit out of each other. Dragons to run away with it in the 2nd half.

Manly v Newcastle - Monday night is impossible to call. Hopefully Newcastle but Manly should win this.

 

[tugga]

Dogs v Souths - Have to go with Souths. Too much to play for.

Panthers v Cowboys - Penrith should romp it in.

Parra v Sydney - Bring it on. Great game. Roosters were awesome on Monday. I reckon they can keep going.

NZ v Gold Coast - I reclon the Titans can win this one.

Wests v Cronulla - Sharks seem to pop up just when you think they can't get any lower, but if Wests want to be taken seriously, they will win.

Storm v Raiders - Storm will either put 50 on Canberra, or the Raiders will get up in a close one. Storm.

Broncos v Dragons - Dragons easily. Broncos are ordinary and we will see why.

Manly v Newcastle - Manly easily. Knights stink.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Well im wrong so far in both games

 

[CooperCronk]

Better late than never I guess, but my picks are (and would have been for Fridays games) :

Bulldogs - more a hunch than anything else. They played with so much more desperation than Souths and still in with a chance for the top 8.
(A little off topic, but who needs Ch.9 and Fox for FNF, I recently discovered I can pick up the ABC on Melbourne radio and have to say how refreshing the commentators are compared to what's dished out on Ch.9)

Penrith - Everyone expected them to romp it in, but that wasn't the case, and according to the ABC around the grounds team, the Cowboys should have won.

Parra - to continue their good form. But would not be surprised to see a Roosters win.

Warriors - Home ground advantage. Should be the game of the round IMO

Tigers - Easy win.

Storm - Very tempted to pick the Raiders here as they have so much to play for. Hopefully the Storm fans help get them home.

Dragons - Again, I think this could be a close contest. Could go either way.

Manly - Will be much TOO good for the poor ol Sharkie.

Overall a pretty good round of footy to watch.

 

[ObaMartins]

Bloody Panthers cost me 40 bucks Needed another 4 points.

Was a pretty good game, Panthers defence was laughable at times, while the Cowboys were just the Cowboys. Probally should have won that one.

Three really good games tonight, Parra v Roosters, NZ v GC and AUS v NZ

 

[Bomber Bears]

Ah shit, is the Bloodyslow Cup going to take over the radio?

 

[ObaMartins]

Firstly I want to say that the Roosters were incredible last night. Absolutely dominated us in every single aspect of the football match.

We weren't that bad, the Roosters just showed there absolute class. Will be interesting to see how we turn up against the Titans and Broncos the next two weeks after that.

Roosters v St George GF at this stage.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Titans and Melbourne win

 

[mattys123]

I went to the Storm game today, and shit it was cold, especially in the last 15 minutes when the rain came.

First time at AAMI Park too, not a bad seat in the house, sat behind the Storm cheer squad at the MCG end of the ground and although there was only 9K there, the atmosphere was bloody good.

Awesome performance by the Storm, Billy was on fire, and Cronk and Smith just controlled the whole game as usual.

Even if the storm lose every player bar those 3, and have to top up with the likes of O'Neill (who hopefully isn't too injured after a sickening collision today that hurt his knee) they will still make the finals next year.

The Melbourne public will get behind the storm next year, it's an "us against them" mentality now, and that will actually help the Storm in terms of support long term.

Great day of League anyway, my second favourite football code.

 

[nobbyiscool]

man, this dragons/broncos game is balls ugly.


edit: usually gus annoys me... but that second try was hilarious. "if they give a penalty for this i will jump out of the box! T R Y!"


"thank you"

 

[Bomber Bears]

As boring as I thought it would, Dragons were woeful.

Is it too much to ask for the Broncs to miss the finals for once?

 

[gostk86]

well Dragons have hit their wall right on time, how many for fails do they have to have before they realize they need a proper halfback?

straight sets again for the Dragons, its the Panthers premiership now

 

[CooperCronk]

As boring as I thought it would, Dragons were woeful.

Is it too much to ask for the Broncs to miss the finals for once?

Dragons/Broncos game was always going to be a boring game, if you don't like games based purely on defence. A very similar game here in Melbourne earlier this year against the Dragons, but at least that one had a bit more oomph to it.

IMO the Broncos deserve nothing more than credit for their ongoing success year after year. I think a lot of people are just jealous of this...not saying you in particular.

I missed my 4th ever Storm game in 13 years because of a very bad cold.
Its bad enough watching them play on tv when interstate, but its worse when you know you can be at the ground, but are stuck at home because you are sick grrrr.

 

[Bomber Bears]

I dont mind low scoring, defence orientated games. One of my favourite games of footy was Anzac Day in '04 when Easts beat Saint 11-8, great tough game of footy. Yesterday's game, however, was just shite. It was low scoring cos both sides had crappy attack, particularly Saints, not because of great defence.

 

[Aucklander]

Newcastle smashing Manly

 

[tugga]

George Rose gets fatter each time I see him play.

 

[moto748]

I just watched Dragons/Broncos, and can only agree with the consensus of both the commentary and opinion on here. The Broncos weren't great by any means, and I've never been much of a fan of Wallace, but they comfortably held off anything the Dragons could throw at them. Which wasn't much. The Dragons never looked anything like scoring a try until very late in the game when Soward (and who can blame him?) decided to try to run the ball for himself a few times with a couple of chip-kicks. Finally the Dragons scored right at the end with a smart play from a scrum, but they really didn't deserve anything from the game. Young Hoffman, well supported by his wingers, was again excellent for the Broncos.

It seems that no side is truly 'the real deal' in the NRL at the moment, except perhaps the Roosters, who seem to be coming into a rich vein of form at just the right time. The Panthers have shown one decent performance in recent weeks (the 'Pink Panthers') amongst a sea of uninspired ones, and the Dragons were similarly unimpressive here. Such a shame in front of a massive crowd.

Actually, perhaps I should keep quiet about that 'real deal' stuff until I've checked out the Titans this round, who seem to be going well.

 

[moto748]

The Raiders: oh dear, oh dear! To concede a try when everyone has stopped, apart from a half-hearted jog over the line by O'Neill, and then to be robbed one-on-one in your own in-goal, well, you can't expect to beat the Storm when you gift them tries like that. Without Dugan, the Raiders look sadly short of threat in attack.

 

[moto748]

George Rose gets fatter each time I see him play.

He's certainly a Friend of the Pie, as they say in Wigan.

Much improved performance by the Knights there. I keep saying it, but Uate, whadda guy, eh? 19 tries in a struggling side: very impressive.

Although Manly had plenty of the ball in the second half, they never really looked like overhauling the Knights' lead.

 

[splex]

I can smell a lil Broncos 2009 with the Knights. Got smashed by the Raiders 56-0 and then went within one of the GF last year. However the Knights need to win most if not all their remaining matches to make the 8.

Couldn't help but laugh when McDougall was about to equal Tahu's record for most tries only for the Uate to pinch it.

 

[moto748]

Yeah, well, you've got to be pretty quick to beat Uate to the ball!

Mullin was better in that game, but the Knights still look too much of a two-man team to me. I suppose that's better than being a one-man team like the Cowboys, though.