The Tigers don't know how to defend and the Dragons don't know how to attack. If the Eels can score 26 points against the Tigers I expect the Dragons to be able to score at least half that.
Usually a good defence beats a good attack but I'm not sure that 13 points will be enough on Saturday night. Slightly worrying for me is that these sides met in round three and the Dragons racked up 36 points.
That win was one of the few occasions all season that the Dragons have clicked with the ball in hand. If they do that again I wouldn't be completely surprised, but their loss to the Roosters last week suggested they might have run their race this season.
Verdict — Tigers Result - Tigers 22 defeated Dragons Six weeks ago the Warriors beat the Cowboys convincingly, but six weeks ago the Warriors were winning football games. Since then they've been finding a way to lose games when losing seemed close to impossible. And all those narrow losses appear to have taken their toll, culminating in a 41 point loss to the Sharks The Warriors have a coffin with their name on it, and the Cowboys have a hammer in their left hand and a nail in their right.
For whom the bell tolls about time I quoted some Hemingway this season Verdict — Cowboys Result - Cowboys 52 defeated Warriors What do you with this pile of pooh that's been moulded into the shape of a football match on Sunday afternoon?
Results on Saturday night might affect the outcome of this one - if the Eels knock over the Roosters the Panthers will be absolutely desperate to win. They should be desperate to win regardless, as coach Ivan Cleary has put plenty of his troops on notice that they are playing for their future with the club. I honestly don't have a clue with this one, and Mal Meninga was wearing green socks the last time I went the right way in a Raiders game. Canberra fans rejoice, because I'm going with the home side.
Verdict — Panthers Result - Raiders 20 defeated Panthers It's taken twenty-three weeks but grab your plates folks - this horse looks well and truly cooked.
Injuries and a heavy representative workload have finally caught up with what is still a fairly young Broncos side. The retirement of Darren Lockyer hasn't helped either, and the Broncos halves appear to be struggling at the business end of the season. Their defence is struggling as well, and they've lost two of their better defenders Parker and Glenn to injury.
Justin Hodges returns, but he might have to fill in at fullback because Hoffman has been dropped because he was late to work sheesh! Given all that, they face quite a task taking on the Bulldogs in Sydney. The Broncos have a history of galvanising for these sort of games, but I can't see them galvanising for the full eighty minutes.
Whichever side shows dramatic improvement will prevail. Manly have won five of the past eight — but the Tigers have won three of the past four.
Their record at Bluetongue Stadium is a game apiece. It should be a close contest — three of the past four clashes have been decided by four points or less. The Sea Eagles looked a well-oiled machine with tries to Brett Stewart and Matt Ballin before the wheels fell off in the second half.
And boy did the game change complexion quickly: tries to Robert Lui, Blake Ayshford and Chris Lawrence in the space of seven minutes rocketed the gold-and-blacks to the fulltime score with still 17 minutes on the clock. Possession told the story — both sides made tackles in the first 40 minutes but the Wests Tigers forced their opponents into making a hefty 68 more tackles in the second stanza.
The pressure certainly told, with the Sea Eagles missing a whopping 40 tackles after the break compared to just 12 in the first half.
To make matters worse they have to adapt to yet another new fullback. Meanwhile confidence in the Sea Eagles camp will be sky-high after their dominant win last week when they were given little chance after their torrid pre-season travel schedule.
As with South Sydney and the Sea Eagles, the new venture will be looking to a private ownership model to ensure their financial future.
The Bears are putting the finishing touches on their pitch document and will be ready to start approaching prospective backers within a fortnight. A shortlist of more than a dozen individuals and businesses has been drawn up. Lopez did not want to disclose the identity of the parties he intended to approach but he confirmed that multi-millionaire businessman John Singleton would be one. We want the communities to know that this exercise is all about bringing rugby league back to the people.
There's a million people in that corridor and we're losing them to AFL, rugby union and soccer. It's just crazy. The plan is to play 10 of their home games at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford, while the other two will be played at North Sydney Oval. Parramatta assistant coach David Fairleigh will be the inaugural coach if they are successful in their bid to return to the NRL. When The Sun-Herald columnist Phil Gould called on league supporters for feedback on the game, many respondents called for the Bears to be brought back.
Click to expand Last edited: Mar 22, Messages Umm not too sure on the logo, I thought they could have had a little NS etc on the logo The Seedman Juniors. Messages 8. Thats a great news story,i for one hope they are allowed back into the comp and sounds like the year to do it. Another team could only help in getting the nrl the best possiable tv deal and that seems to me like thats going to be a huge issue in the next few years! CliffyIsGod First Grade. Messages 6, Good logo. Hope a consortium picks them up and they're back in by Messages 4, The Newcastle legend is one of a number of rugby league identities to back the reintroduction of an NRL team at Gosford as the Central Coast Bears ramp up their bid to be the league's 17th franchise.
Manly were in nine close games in , and they won seven of them. One of those close losses was to the Storm, and the other was to Cronulla at Cronulla. I'm willing to call those honourable losses.
The Bulldogs are sitting low on the ladder but they lost no admirers with their final 20 minutes against the Storm last weekend. I suspect their opponent put the cue in the rack so perhaps the performance was flattered by the circumstances. In any case the signs were promising, and when one considers the players that were unavailable one must assume they will improve further.
Their addition adds plenty of firepower and I expect the return of Pritchard will hopefully bring out the best in Tony Williams. Good luck to the Rabbitohs right edge defence when they have Pritchard, Williams, Morris and Barba running at them. The Rabbits have plenty of upside about them as well, and they keep winning.
They are a warm favourite in this game, but they have a short turnaround from a game played in stifling conditions. I'll tip the Bulldogs at a very backable price. Oh, and having Inglis and Barba on the same footy field. In my younger years I used to spend most weekends with a mate of mine in the tawdry part of some tawdry Australian town. He was one of the nicest, most well-meaning guys you would ever want to meet - but he was just hopeless when it came to the ladies.
He didn't know how to approach them, he didn't know what to say to them, and on the rare occasions when the universe would drop an interested lady in his lap he'd find a way to stuff it up anyway. I can only assume he's picked up the gig as the backline coach with the Brisbane Broncos. Justin Hodges is back as their 'wingman', and they most certainly need him.
He is the Broncos attacking force at the moment, but he can't outpoint the Storm without a lot of help. The Storm were getting run down in the latter stages of their round three clash, but I touched on their workload in recent times and I suspect that goes part of the way toward explaining the tired legs.
Craig Bellamy will freshen them up for this, and they are simply too good and too professional to get beaten on Good Friday. The last time I gave the Broncos a decent spray they came out that weekend and played like the Harlem Globetrotters. I'm glad I made a difference, but even the awesome power of The Thinker isn't enough to turn the Broncos fortunes around this Easter. Despite all the adversity the Sharks have conceded just 28 points in three games of football this season.
Clearly their attitude is still spot on because defence is usually the first thing to suffer when your head is in the wrong place. The Dragons have scored just 33 points this season, and more than half of those were against a struggling Raiders outfit. This is one derby where both teams usually give their all but it's quite clear which of these sides has more to give.
My good thing of the round. I'm starting to believe in the Gold Coast Titans. I don't want to get carried away, because the last time I believed in them they fell over five minutes later. That was a few years ago and they've been struggling to get back on their feet ever since. Penrith racked up some points against the Bunnies last week but that game was something of an anomaly because of the weather.
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