NRL Round 14 – Prop by the Sea: You gotta love footy!

 

 

You gotta love footy – Round 14

 

Congratulations to the Queensland women’s State of Origin team on their tremendous comeback victory over NSW.

The Courier Mail Bronco headline didn’t let me down on Monday – ‘The Horse Has Bolted’ – six weeks ago the Broncos had broken the Bookies. Now the Horse has bolted and unfortunately there was no sign of Alfie. What next?

Round 12 started with the Dragons up against the Knights and the Dragons proved too strong in this match. It was a poor performance by the Knights with Ponga rested after Origin, and that certainly impacts on the Knights performance. Saints scored 3 tries before half time and that really was game over.

There were three games on Saturday with the first having the Storm up against the Titans in very poor conditions. The Storm led 16-6 at half time and ran out winners 28 points to 16 over the Titans. Again, that wasn’t an unexpected result. The second Saturday game had the Cowboys up against the Tigers who certainly played with plenty of spirit and they had their opportunity to win the game but the Cowboys just kept their lead. Dearden continues to remind Billy Slater that he is a class player and was the Cowboys best. One thing we can say about the Tigers is they are certainly a better performing team this year. They were down 18-6 at halftime before the Cowboys led 32-6 at the 60^th minute. The Tigers then piled on 22 points to have a sniff. Fulltime 32-28 and some concerns for the Cowboys.

The final game on Saturday night proved to be a real shock as many of us expected the Broncos to be running out winners in this match given Manly’s poor recent form and the desperate need for the Broncos to win. The match however basically from the first set was completely dominated by Manly. The Broncos, unfortunately for their many fans, look like a completely unorganised rabble and they are not performing. The first set was testament to how poor the Broncos were when Manly effectively went 90 metres at the start of the match and scored their first try in the 5th minute. When Mam scored in the 12th minute many of us thought the Broncos will now put it together. However, from that point on another five tries to Manly, basically every 10 minutes, saw the Broncos run out very very disappointing losers 34 points to 6. There is much debate at the moment as to what is wrong as that club and as the Courier Mail has told us, it does look like the horse has bolted and the pressure is really building on them to save their season.

There were three games on Sunday, the first was the very entertaining match between the Warriors and the Rabbitohs. The Warriors were behind early but scored 5 unanswered tries and looked like they’d run away with the game before Latrell stepped up to the plate and took control and almost pulled the game out of the fire. Again, the Rabbitohs are getting closer to full strength and will be a danger side. The second Sunday game had the Penrith Panthers up against the Eels. I must say the Eels have come a fair way since the start of the season and certainly gave the Panthers a good run for their money. The kicking games of both Clearly and Moses were impressive with Clearly winning that battle and Penrith winning the game. The final game had Ricky’s Raiders up against the Roosters and you have got to give it to the Raiders who do not like to surrender and they keep coming. They also have genuine speed and they finished too strong for the Roosters.

Round 13 starts with the Knights up against Sea Eagles at home on last week’s performance you would have to think that Manly will be too strong in Thursday night’s opener. Turbo is out but Jurbo is back in and that certainly will have influence. Manly are in a situation where they have to string a number of good results together and I am not sure where the Knights will fall too.

There are two games on Friday night which both hold a degree of interest. First up the Storm are playing the Cowboys at home. The Cowboys have been hot and cold in recent weeks and the Storm are back close to full strength. You would have to think the Storm would be too strong in this match. The Dolphins then play the Dragons at home and it will be interesting to see how the Dolphins come back after their week off. Both Plath and Marshall-King have been named on extended bench and if they are back in that could tip it in favour of the Dolphins. The Dragons have been trying and looking better this season but I think the trip to Lang park might be a bit too hard for them.

There are two games on Saturday the first one has the two most unpredictable sides in the competition facing off against each other in the Sharks and the Warriors. The Sharks are at home but I think the Warriors have shown enough this year for us to see them as a genuine top 8 contender. This match also sees the match-up between the two big front rowers – Fisher Harris and Fonua Blake- neither of whom will give an inch and that should be worth watching on its own. What can we say about the final game on Saturday where the Broncos are up against the Titans. If ever the Broncos had to win a game it has to be this one but the Titans are in a similar predicament. You would have to think that the Bronco will win this game and will win it well. If they don’t Madges coaching career maybe terminal.

Sunday has two games, the first of which is a very interesting clash between the Raiders and the Rabbitohs. The Raiders are at home but the Rabbits add back another two players this week in their 5/8 Walker and Centre three quarter Wighton making them nearly back to full strength this weekend and are only missing Cameron Murray (even though he is a big out their forward pack has gone reasonably well for the last couple of weeks). The Raiders however find a way to keep winning and they do have genuine speed. The final game on Sunday has the West Tigers up against the Panthers and I think the Panthers might be just starting to find their groove and will be too strong in this game. The key match-up of course will be between Cleary and Luai who were both so dominant for Penrith over such a period of time but now they come up against one another for the first time in the NRL since they were juniors.

On Monday night we have the final game in the round which sees the all-conquering Bulldogs playing the Eels. The Eels were certainly better last week and really put up a good show against Penrith but they will need to be that good again to beat the Bulldogs. It will, however, be interesting to see who the Bulldogs play given Galvin has joined them. Somebody has to go! All in all, a very interesting round of Rugby League before the next origin sides are named.

Top Eight (in order)

3 Melbourne 5 Cronullaargh 6 Cowboys 7 Manly 9 Souths 10 Broncos 11 Roosters 14 Penrith

Fact / Stat for the day- Well in this round Reynolds plays his 300^th game and Papalii plays his 319^th game and the most ever for a Raider. Well done to both. But what about try scorers. Rabbit Alex Johnston has hit the 200 mark to be second now only to the great Ken Irvine. However, it hasn’t been pointed out that he holds the record for the most tries for a single club. Only 85 players have scored over 100 tries and 2 over 200. Steve Menzies scored 180 as a forward and the next closest to him is the great Frank Burge who scored 146. Other than those two there is only Jason Coker 120 and Bobby McCarthy 119 as forwards with over 100 tries. Menzies record is pretty impressive! So now we watch Johnston as he goes after the great Irvines 1969 record which he took from the great Harold Horder 152 held from 1920 until Irvine broke it in 1969.

Tipping Stats- well having selected 4 out of 7 certainly made me feel better than my duck egg from the previous week.  However, I have slipped to fifth spot and three off the lead. I’m under siege from some of my readers including the Crabman who has snuck out of the pot and up the ladder, Matricide, Smithy 65 and souffs who are all now just one point behind me. It is great however to have the grubby halfback in the competition because he still languishes down the bottom and makes us all feel good about our own tipping. Keep it up GHB!

You gotta love footy!

 

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