NRL Round 6 – Mix and match

 

 

 

Take a moment to see if you can match each of these words with the correct game from Round 5: frenetic, bizarre, waterlogged, carnage, upset, aspiring, unconvinced and bedazzled. *

Once you look at the answers, you should be able to work out why I’ve chosen those descriptions.

 

Here are a few takeaways from Round 5. The end-to-end razzamatazz between Melbourne and Brisbane was enough to leave you exhausted just watching. One of the season’s classic encounters, without a doubt. And Bellamy maintains his domination over the Broncos. The Bulldogs/Roosters game was a mixture of high skills, physicality, the unexpected, and the crazy as the 11-man Roosters threatened a comeback for the ages.  What amazed me about the Newcastle/Dragons game was how well the surface held up in the conditions – and Lomax’s pass to Hunt! Can Demetriou survive April? What goes on in the mind of L Mitchell? DCE is not only the game record holder for the Sea Eagles; he must be close to one of their greatest ever. Wests Tigers have a way to go yet but maybe there is still life in one or two of the older Dolphins. The Cowboys need Chad Townsend – they looked rudderless when he was in the bin. Ricky’s Raiders were scintillating, the Eels were not even a shadow of themselves. Holy Moses!

 

Before it even starts Round 6 looks set to be shaped by a massive injury toll. It makes tipping even more precarious, but here goes. The Knights v Roosters clash gets us underway tonight with the Roosters (10th) decimated by injury and suspension while the lads from Newcastle (12th) may well have rediscovered their mojo in the deluge last weekend. I think the boys from Bondi lose a lot whenever ‘Teddy’ is missing and the additional loss of strike power through the suspension of Dom Young will curtail them even more. I’ll go with the Knights. Just remember, the loser will fall four points below the top eight, quite a margin this early in the season.

 

The Storm (3rd) host the Bulldogs (13th) in Melbourne in Friday’s early game. Munster looked good in his return and adds that extra ‘x’ factor to their attack. The Dogs ran out of puff and only just hung on against 11 men last weekend. How can they hold out against 13 from the Storm? Melbourne for me. The local derby between the Broncos (11th) and the Dolphins (1st) loses a fair bit of its attraction because of the large injury toll facing both sides. The loss of Kaufusi will hurt the Dolphins more than any other absence from either team on the night. The Broncos have too much strike power and will tighten their defence this week. Get on Brisbane.

 

Saturday footy starts with the Warriors (6th) taking on the Sea Eagles (7th) – probably the match of the round. The Warriors are coming along very nicely in 2024 while Manly showed a lot of grit to down the Panthers at Brookie. The biggest home ground advantage in the NRL is Mt Smart Stadium and so, although I’m a bit taken with the Sea Eagles, I’ll have to go with the Warriors because of Shaun Johnson, RTS and their underestimated forward pack. The early evening game between the Eels (14th) and the Cowboys (2nd) is the other big game of the year. The Cowboys have to win on the road to be considered  a contender (and they have to have Townsend on the paddock as well); the Eels have to bounce back immediately after their shocker against Canberra. I fear that it may be a case of no Moses, no Eels even though there is no greater competitor than ‘Gutho’. He can’t do it all by himself. I’ll stick with the Cowboys, especially if big JT maintains his better form from last weekend. The late game is the ‘last chance saloon’ for James Demetriou as coach of the Rabbitohs (17th). JD is a good bloke and no slouch as a coach but he just doesn’t seem to be able to get ‘it’ out of his cattle at the moment. Mitchell’s antics don’t help and they come up against the Sharks (4th) who haven’t set the world alight either in spite of their healthy ladder position. In all good conscience, I just can’t go with the Bunnies. I think they’ll be mauled by the Sharks.

 

Sunday’s opener between the Wests Tigers (9th) and the Dragons (15th) could be quite entertaining. Benji has the Tigers interested in playing attacking footy, plus there’ll be the emotional element after the passing this week of club legend Keith Barnes. What pity the game isn’t at Leichhardt Oval! It seems that the Lomax issue may be sorted at last, so that distraction should be removed for the Saints. It’s a ‘courageous’ decision to pick either team in this one but I’ll go with sentiment and back the Wests Tigers. Finally, the Raiders (5th) are at home to the terrible Titans(16th). Yes, the Titans looked good for 10 minutes when the opposition was down to 12 men. Unfortunately, the Raiders were simply scintillating for 80 minutes. Even ‘Sticky’ looked happy! Canberra by a mile.

 

Penrith have the bye.

 

* Not too tough a task – the descriptions match the order in which the Round 5 games were played.

 

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