NRL Round 12: Questions from afar

 

The NRL seems a long way away after 24 hours flying to Europe but some things seem not to change. For example, the Melbourne Storm still have the wood on the Broncos and the Panthers are rumbling into some ominous form.

But, equally, there are a few questions that continue no matter where you are. These include, how bad are the Roosters travelling, have the Cowboys finally found their mojo, and are the Bulldogs imposters?

 

Round 11 recap

Are the Broncos the real deal or not? They just can’t beat the Storm and now they face a Penrith side in full flight – another bad loss will have alarm bells ringing. When Shaun Johnson is ‘on’ the Warriors are formidable. The question is, if Johnson can be curtailed are the Warriors well on the way to being beaten?

 

I rated the Rabbitohs as premiership material back at the start of the season. I see no reason to change my mind. At this point, you’d have to say that it looks like a Rabbitohs v Penrith grand final. The Cowboys, Raiders and Knights are keeping the competition interesting by refusing to give up after poor starts to the season. Let’s hope for more of it.

 

Have the Sharks lost their bite of late? Are Manly a bit out of luck or just not good enough to win regularly? And, as mentioned above, are the Bulldogs pretenders?

 

How good is Campbell Graham?

 

Indigenous Round 12

The Broncos host the Panthers tonight and it’s hard to see this one going any other way than a good win for the defending premiers. I hope Brisbane prove me wrong, as they did in Round 1, but my money is on the Panthers.

 

Tomorrow evening the Dragons take on the Roosters, two teams battling to put it all together at the moment and the Roosters with injury problems. I can’t find it in me to rate the home side as any kind of threat and so I’ll go with the Roosters.

 

Then the high-flying Rabbitohs meet the battling Eels who should have Mitchell Moses back. But I can’t see that being enough to take down the best balanced side in the competition. The Bunnies for me.

 

Saturday afternoon opens with the slightly off Sharks at home to the nearly there Knights. Can Kalyan Ponga put in another performance like last weekend? If he does, and if the Sharks aren’t at their sharpest, then this could be a cracker. I think Cronulla will get it together to get back in the race.

 

Wests Tigers put up a good fight before going down last weekend and now have a winnable opportunity against the regrouping Cowboys. Will the northerners travel well and maintain their recent momentum?  I’ll go with them because I think they have too many scoring options compared to the hosts.

 

Then the Dolphins are back to take on the Storm. This should be a beauty given that the hosts feature several ex-Storm players. If the Dolphins can win this one, then you’d have to say that they have ’arrived’; if they don’t, it will be no disgrace. The Storm looked good against Brisbane with Hughes back in form and I think they’ll take the chocolates in this one.

 

On Sunday the Bulldogs take on the Titans with a win vital to both sides. If the Doggies can’t win this one then they are officially gone. The Titans have to win for credibility’s sake – lose again and they’re looking like pretenders too. I don’t know why but I’m going for the Bulldogs to tease us for a bit longer.

 

Finally, it’s the Raiders against the Sea Eagles in what should be a good game. Canberra are mounting a case for a finals push while Manly have been less than convincing. Momentum is with the home side and so I’m happy to go with the Raiders.

 

The Warriors have the bye.

 

So my winners this week are the Panthers, Roosters, Rabbitohs, Sharks, Cowboys, Storm, Bulldogs and Raiders. (I got 6/8 last week.)

 

Let’s see what the footy looks like from London.

 

 

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