Notes:
Round 2: South Sydney (67.2%) @ St George Illawarra (32.8%) Bunnies handed the Chooks their tail feathers in a very strong opening to the Uncle Wayne era. The backline still looked slick and the forwards imposing. The Dragons had a shocker and were only two points behind a poor Cowboys team at half time. They improved in the second half but not by as much as the Cowboys. They'll only improve, but I don't see them improving enough to stop a red hot Souths. Souths by 8 Melbourne (62.4%) @ Canberra (37.6%) Doesn't matter who plays for the Storm, they always seem to perform. Brisbane were sloppy early and the Storm methodically knocked them out of the game. JAC was very quiet thanks to the Broncos' strategy of kicking bombs to him to take him out of sets and tire him. Raiders were controlled, calm and deliberate in their solid win over a disrupted Titan side. Bateman looks like a real find and Wighton should improve. Melbourne should continue their relentless march to finals football. Melbourne by 6 North Queensland (45.7%) @ Brisbane (54.3%) JT13. Brisbane were a bit flat and continued to struggle with end of set options. Matt Gillett tackled himself to a standstill in an excellent return from injury. With Matt Lodge and Payne Haas missing, can TPJ and Joe O match the Cows middles for 80 minutes? Nope. North Queensland by 1 Gold Coast (23.3%) @ Cronulla (76.7%) The Titans lost their two starting play-makers by the 15th minute and looked lost and confused. Defensively they seemed slow and their outside backs had trouble numbering up. The Sharks were well below their own par with Duges having an abysmal first half and Gal getting sledged into oblivion. Which team is most likely to bounce back? Sharks by 12 Penrith (55.7%) @ Newcastle (44.3%) The Penrith backline lacked respect for the ball combining for a seemingly endless supply of possession for the Eels. Their forwards didn't have the energy or will to assert authority over a pack missing its leader for 65 minutes. Newcastle Eddrick'd themselves out of the game then back into it. Probably should have put a very disappointing Sharks side away, but a win is always good. Penrith by 2 Sydney (84.3%) @ Manly (15.7%) Chooks looked a step slow as their pack reverted to norm with silly errors and sluggish play. I don't see this being something that Robbo will accept so expect that to be an aberration rather than the norm going forward. Manly had moments of promise sprinkled on their turd sandwich on the weekend. The team that can least afford to lose any depth really needs Tommy Turbo back to spark them. Sydney by 18 Parramatta (50.8%) @ Canterbury (49.2%) Spoon? What spoon? Parramatta surprised most with a solid first up win off the back of some toilers up front and a more balanced halves combination. Canterbury were pretty horrible across the park against the Warriors and were blown away in convincing fashion. It's hard to see them bouncing back enough to get over a confident Eels team, but stranger things have happened. This is a real toss of the coin. Parramatta by 2 Warriors (55.2%) @ Wests Tigers (44.8%) I've said a few times that I think the Warriors are the only side that could win the premiership OR win the spoon this season. After their first up performance I'll have to withdraw the latter. Tigers' old guys lifting at Liechhardt is pretty much a story set in stone. What's probably not as obvious is how good their young middle rotation could be. Twal, Aloiai and Mickaele all had 100m/20 tackle games and looked capable of even more. Warriors by 6
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorAll data is gathered from publicly available information - mostly from NRL.com, Rugby League Project and Wikipedia. No guarantees are made for the accuracy of data published. I do this purely for fun, as a sports and analytics fan. Archives
October 2020
Categories
All
|