Prop by the Sea
You gotta love footy – Round 18
The Courier Mail Bronco headline left the Broncos alone this week. Sunday was Hammer Time and rightfully so, Monday was Daddy of a Time in relation to Papa’s recall – all Origin. The Courier didn’t miss their pin-up boy Reece Walsh who managed a bit of space.
Round 16 started with a game we were all expecting to be a cracker and it absolutely was. Penrith and Canterbury showed that they are the yardstick for the competition. Although Penrith have been down the ladder their performance on Thursday night against a high flying Bulldogs (almost Penrith white) shows that they’re not going to be giving up their title without a fight. It was an outstanding game and even though the score was quite low it was exciting from start to finish. Both teams look like they are headed towards the late games in September and early October. I still feel Canterbury just lack that one extra forward but they certainly make up for it with their line speed and chase in defence. For Penrith they were without Sorenson, who I think is their best forward. Cleary, To’o, and young centre Maclean were all strong. Penrith have certainly shown us that they’re back on track. This game was miles above any other games of the round and using this quality as a measure put the rest of the round into a dim light.
On Friday night, having the excitement of Thursday behind us, laboured into a fairly ordinary display by the Manly in the early game against the Tigers running out winners 28 to 10. Concerns are being raised now about just where the Tigers are at but one couldn’t think much more about Manly’s performance. The second Friday night game had the Knights up against the Raiders, As has been the Raiders style this year they just did enough to win the game 22-18 and were the better side.
There were three games on Saturday with the first seeing the Broncos up against the Warriors. The Broncos were too good and the loss of Warriors half back Metcalf was significant. The Broncos were good enough to get the job done and are starting to look better than a month ago. The second Saturday game had the Dragons up against the Eels with the Dragons running out winners 34-20. The game never reached any great heights either but maybe we were just too caught up in the quality of the game on Thursday night. In the final Saturday night game Redcliffe demonstrated that they will be of cause for concern, maybe not this year but certainly going into the future. The hammer was on fire as they completely routed the Rabbits 50 points to 28. If we follow the 50 point loss stats the Rabbitohs then there is no chance of them making the grand final. They now join seven other clubs in that category.
Sunday had two games the first of which saw the Storm comfortably beat the Sharks who now fall out of the Eight for the first time since Fitzgibbon has coached them which is a concern. I was able to attend the final game of the round to watch the Cowboys defeat the Titans at home 30 points to 24 in a game that was of nowhere near the quality of the first game of the round. I am very sorry to harp on that, but both sides lacked any real excellence in either attack or defence and you can’t see either of these sides being a problem later in the season.
Round 18 is clearly affected by Origin players being out nevertheless there are five games all of which have an impact on positioning towards the end of the season. Importantly the first game has the Bulldogs up against the Broncos and it seems like strange scheduling to have these two sides playing with all their origin players out. The Broncos have to demonstrate that they can win away from home and win well against a quality opposition. I just can’t see it however against the Bulldogs this weekend. This Saturday has two games the first has the Raiders up against the Dragons and again you would have to think that the Raiders will be too strong for the Dragons and likewise in the second game the Cowboys play the Storm but with both missing their origin players you would look like to think the Cowboys have a chance of beating the Storm although I can’t see it. Storm always play well when they dig deeper into their squad.
Finally, on Sunday there are two games with the first placing the Roosters up against the West Tigers and I think this will be more bad news for the Tigers. The Roosters should put away the Tigers comfortably to further climb the ladder. The final game has Manly up against Souths and I feel sorry for RITV, Souffs and Smithy _65 as Taking the Bunnies will see you fall one further down the ladder. Loyalty is a fine trait except in tipping comps and at the suburban Manly fortress (sometimes) this is a game where I just can’t see Souths kick starting their season push off the bottom of the ladder. A position their coach Mr Bennett is not really used too.
I will fire in my Origin report prior to the game next Wednesday but you know I am tipping Queensland!
Top Eight (in order)
3 Melbourne 5 Broncos 6 Roosters 7 Panthers 9 Manly 10 Cronullaargh 12 Cowboys
16 Rabbitohs
Fact / Stat for the day- Queensland
Series wins 24-17, Game wins 70-61, largest winning game margin – 46points (game 3 2015), Most Games C. Smith – 42, Most Points J. Thurston – 220, Most Tries G Inglis – 18, Most MOM Awards – Wally Lewis 8, Most winning Coach – Mal Meninga – 9/10 series, 20/30 games, Youngest Player – Ben Ikin, Oldest Player – Daley Cherry-Evans.
No bias intended.
Tipping Stats- I managed to tip 6 out of 8. However that dropped me down to about 80 thousand in the overall competition. I did have 5 out of five at one stage and was back up into the top 40,000 but dropping those two games had a significant effect. I am, however, still ahead, all be it just, of my cronies. I’ve got Mattress-ide on 73, two points behind me and Smith-65 who put in a very poor round to drop back to be now 4 points behind me. Spirit award for the Grubby halfback who has moved off the bottom of the overall ladder and he’s even passed the Rabbit in the Vineyard which I think is a fair achievement although as I said before RITV has been loyal to his beloved Rabbitohs.
You gotta love footy!
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