With plenty of mouthwatering match-ups coming up in Round 13 of the NRL, I thought I’d weigh in with my thoughts on the action.
On Friday night, the Penrith Panthers should win without getting out of second gear. They have their big three back, Soward, Wallace, and Segeyaro; as well as Matt Moylan fired up after watching the Blues capitulate on Wednesday night.
The Eels have lost a couple of pretty close ones recently, but don’t have a chance against a superior Panthers outfit.
I think Titans will defeat the Bunnies fairly easily too. Bunnies were truly awful against the Eels last week with only one player out for Origin (admittedly Inglis, but they have a number of good replacements for the man mountain).
They fell over the line to win by two points in the last few minutes after trailing the hapless Eels all night. They’ll need to be much improved to get over the Titans who have Myles (who actually did very little for the Maroons) backing up, and Sezer back from injury.
The Bunnies are struggling with a premiership hangover. They may not make the eight.
One of the matches of the round is the Raiders up against the Broncos. It’s nearly too close to call. Raiders are at home and were completely unaffected by Origin, will be champing at the bit after losing a defence-free game against the Doggies last week; however they also lost the week before, and losing can definitely be habit forming. The Broncos, on the other hand, were superb against the Knights with a few of their top line stars out.
They’re all back this week, and will hopefully maintain the rage against Ricky’s Raiders.
The Cowboys should beat the Sea Eagles. An upset is always a possibility, but you’d have to be brave to pick them up in Townsville.
At home, the Warriors should be too strong for the Knights. The Knights were ordinary last week against the baby Broncos, and the Warriors had a week off with the bye. You never know what you’re going to get with the Warriors though, so an upset would not surprise here.
St George Illawarra have played pretty well all year, and should continue to do so this weekend. The Sharks haven’t been terrible by any means, but they don’t appear to have the consistency or firepower to get over the Dragons.
Another tough one to pick, neither Roosters or Storm have really played up to their own expectations this year.
The Storm, however, continue to do enough to get the win, and as such are leading the competition. Makes you wonder how easily they’ll win the comp once they get their groove back.
I expect most of their Origin stars will back up as they don’t play until Monday night, and even old Cam Smith should be able to get his breath back by then.
The Roosters have played well in patches, but I need to see some more consistent stronger showings before I could take them over the Storm.
And that’s my two cents.
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