- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The gripping clash between Melbourne and North Queensland was as intense as it gets in the NRL, and I believe it won’t be the last time they meet in the finals series.
It is a recurring theme in recent years for two teams to meet in the both the first week of the finals and the grand final. Sydney Roosters and Manly did it in 2013 and Brisbane and North Queensland last year. And it’s set to happen again.
The Storm-Cowboys clash was the best of the four games on the weekend. It wasn’t spectacular, end-to-end football, but it was relentless as two top-class teams went at each other at high speed and full power.
Now that the big end-of-season games have arrived they looked like the best two teams in the competition and now it is up to the Cowboys to regroup and survive Week 2 of the finals by getting straight back into winning mode.
They should be able to do that at home against Brisbane on Friday night, which would give them a crack at Cronulla in the preliminary finals for a place in the grand final.
The Sharks showed tremendous resilience to beat Canberra in the other qualifying final. It was another very entertaining game and while it didn’t quite reach the quality of the Storm-Cowboys clash, both of the qualifying finals were better than the elimination finals.
Some bad officiating marred the game between the Broncos and Gold Coast and even though the Broncos won they weren’t as good as I thought they would be.
They are obviously not without a genuine chance on the road against the Cowboys, but if the Cowboys are on their game then the home-ground advantage should do the rest.
The one concern I’ve got about the Cowboys is that they have a six-day turnaround after a game that would have taken a lot out of them. They had to travel back to Townsville from Melbourne on Sunday and now they have to get themselves right again quickly.
The Broncos had the relative luxury of being able to play on Friday night and that extra day of recovery and preparation, even though it is off-set slightly by the fact they have to travel this week, means something.
But it’s not as if NRL teams don’t get plenty of practice in dealing with these type of scenarios, so you’ve got to trust the Cowboys’ brains trust, led by coach Paul Green, to get this week’s process right and have the players as fresh as they can be under the circumstances.
Penrith were too good for Canterbury in the other elimination final, as they were always likely to be. They fell behind early, but there was no sign of concern and even though they were still slightly behind at halftime it was already the Bulldogs who had more to be worried about by then.
The Panthers got better and better as the game went on, in line with the fact they are a mostly young group of players with little finals experience.
They face a difficult challenge on the road against the Raiders on Saturday night, but while the Raiders at their best are an explosive attacking unit the Panthers have performed well in defence recently.
Going backwards from their win over the Bulldogs, the Panthers have conceded 12 points, 6, 14, 10 and 6 in their last five games.
The Raiders-Panthers game is a tough one to pick, taking into account Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson is tipped to be out because of injury and that they are hoping to get five-eighth Blake Austin back from injury in time.
But for a couple of desperate Sharks tackles that stopped Raiders players just short of the line, the Raiders could have had that game won in the first half.
Now it is a case of how well they can regroup after having a winning streak that had stretched to 10 games brought to an end.
The home-ground advantage is obviously important, but if Hodgson is out then it becomes critically important that Austin is fit to play so they are not without both of their attacking king-pins.
The in-form Panthers are not the sort of team you want to go in against missing your two most creative players.
If the Raiders can at least get Austin on the field, I’d be tipping them in a close one, but this really is anybody’s game.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.