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2016 NRL season: Round 12 preview

Roar Guru
24th May, 2016
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Nathan Ross: another victim of the NRL grinder. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Roar Guru
24th May, 2016
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With State of Origin just around the corner, just four matches will be played this weekend, and while the teams playing this weekend will be devoid of their Origin representatives, there will still be some interesting matches to watch.

Of the teams playing this weekend, the Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys will be the two most affected teams with up to eleven players (ten for Queensland and one for New South Wales) to miss for their clubs this weekend.

Whether their respective opponents, the Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra Dragons, can take advantage will remain to be seen.

The other two matches will see the Canberra Raiders host the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs while the Newcastle Knights will hope to bank their second win for the season when they host the Parramatta Eels at home.

More Origin
» Beau Scott and Michael Ennis should be in the NSW Origin squad
» Thanks for the memories Hoffman, Ennis and Scott
» The big losers from NSW’s Origin team announcement
» NSW Blues team for State of Origin Game 1: Expert reaction
» No excuse for NSW come Game 1

Let’s have a look at the four Round 12 matches in full.

Broncos versus Wests Tigers
Even with up to six players out to Origin duty, the Brisbane Broncos are not expected to be troubled when they face the lowly Wests Tigers at Suncorp Stadium to kick off Round 12.

Wayne Bennett must be thankful that he will still have his halves pairing of Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt available after they could not be considered for selection following their shenanigans during the Emerging Origin camp in January.

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However, the premiership favourites will be missing Darius Boyd, Corey Oates, Matt Gillett, Corey Parker, Josh McGuire and Sam Thaiday, with Adam Blair to assume the captaincy duties for the first time in his career.

They will face a Tigers side which has won two of their last three matches, the most recent of which was a 20-12 victory over the 15th-placed Newcastle Knights at Campbelltown Stadium last Saturday.

It will be a huge challenge for Jason Taylor’s men to not only have to contend with the six-day turnaround, but also a twelve-position ladder turnaround between their opposition as well.

They haven’t beaten the Broncos since mid-2010 and with Aaron Woods and Robbie Farah out due to NSW Origin duty, that drought does not appear like ending anytime soon, especially with Milford and Hunt in hot form for the hosts.

Prediction: Broncos by 30 points.

Dragons versus Cowboys
It’s been that kind of season for the Dragons in 2016.

Despite the best efforts of Josh Dugan, who has clearly been their best player so far this season, the club just hasn’t been consistent enough to prove that it can back up their shock finals appearance last year.

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In saying that, the club backed up their golden point victory over the Raiders with a disappointing 34-24 loss to the Rabbitohs, the very team they beat for their first win of this season back in March, last week.

This Saturday night they face the Cowboys for the second time this season and will be hoping for a much better effort after being fed a huge donut in Townsville back in Round 5.

Thankfully, they won’t have to face Johnathan Thurston, who along with Matt Scott, Justin O’Neill and Michael Morgan will be missing for the defending premiers.

And the hosts will be without only Dugan (and possibly Tyson Frizell), making their chances of victory all the more harder despite this match being played at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, where they defeated the Panthers 14-12 in Round 4.

Prediction: Cowboys by 20 points.

Raiders versus Bulldogs
Fresh off a 38-12 win over the New Zealand Warriors across the ditch last week, the Canberra Raiders will return home hoping to repeat the dose on the Bulldogs at GIO Stadium this Sunday.

Having already defeated them 22-8 at Belmore in Round 5, Ricky Stuart’s men will fancy their chances against a side that will be missing only Josh Jackson and David Klemmer to NSW Origin duty this weekend.

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The hosts themselves will be missing only Josh Papalii to the Maroons, which means that only three players will be missing to Origin between the two sides on Sunday.

Thus, both sides should be at close to full strength though the Bulldogs will also be missing winger Will Hopoate due to religion commitments. Thus, there’ll be no excuses for the Green Machine not to keep their place in the top eight following their impressive away victory over the Warriors last Saturday.

As for the Bulldogs, they’ll be looking to notch up their third consecutive victory for the first time this season, having thrashed the Wests Tigers 36-4 and then the Roosters 32-20 last Sunday to currently be sitting in fifth place on the ladder.

Prediction: Raiders by 12 points.

Knights versus Eels
On the ladder this might look like a bottom-of-the-ladder clash, but on paper it’s not.

The Eels had started this season impressively before salary cap breaches saw the club stripped of the twelve competition points they had accrued up to and including Round 9.

Since then the club has dropped their last two matches despite being eligible to play for competition points, having had to offload hooker Nathan Peats in the process.

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It now means the Eels must win 12 of their final 13 remainders if they are to have any chance of featuring in the finals for the first time since reaching the grand final from eighth position in 2009. On the basis of their form since the salary cap breaches were revealed, this appears unlikely.

On the other hand, the Knights just haven’t been able to take a trick all season, with their solitary win for the season coming against the Wests Tigers at home in Round 6 while suffering numerous heavy defeats along the way.

However, despite their poor form all season, they will have only Dane Gagai missing from their side to face the Eels after he was named on the wing for the Maroons, while the Eels will be without only centre Michael Jennings for the Blues.

It will now remain to be seen which side will get up for this Monday night clash. Can the Eels kick-start their near impossible task of winning twelve of their next thirteen matches or can the Knights use the home ground to their advantage?

Prediction: Knights by four points.

Bye: Panthers, Rabbitohs, Roosters, Sea Eagles, Sharks, Storm, Titans and Warriors

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