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2018 NRL finals series: Week 2 preview
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11th September, 2018
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Roar Guru
11th September, 2018
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1644 Reads

Six teams are left in the race for this year’s premiership, with four of them to fight it out for the right to move through to the preliminary finals next week.

After winning their qualifying finals, the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne Storm can sit back, relax and watch on as they await their opponents in the penultimate weekend of the NRL season.

Friday night will see the Sharks and Panthers, who both entered the competition in 1967, face off in a final for the first time with a trip to Melbourne the reward for the winner, while an old rivalry will be reignited when the Rabbitohs and Dragons square off in front of what is expected to be a massive crowd at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, with the winner to face the Chooks.

Here is your full guide to the two semi-finals this weekend.

Sharks vs Panthers

Friday, September 14
7:40pm
Allianz Stadium

Last meeting in a final: Never

This season: Sharks defeated Panthers 26-22 at Southern Cross Group Stadium in round seven; Sharks defeated Panthers 24-12 at Panthers Stadium in round eighteen.

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NRLW: Roosters vs Broncos, 5:15pm.

The first of the two all-Sydney sudden death affairs takes place this Friday night, and what a grudge match it promises to be when the Sharks and Panthers square off at Allianz Stadium.

Despite both clubs having met 100 times since joining the competition in 1967, the pair have never met in September, but that will come to an end with one looking to finish off the other’s season.

Several players will be facing their old clubs, with James Maloney facing up to the side with whom he won the 2016 premiership with, and Matt Moylan, James Segeyaro and Luke Lewis looking to make the Panthers pay for letting them go over the past few years.

For Lewis, it could be his final NRL game after he announced that he would be retiring at season’s end. His career has seen him develop from a premiership-winning winger with the Panthers in 2003 to being best-on-ground in the Sharks’ historic 2016 win, claiming the Clive Churchill Medal playing in the back row.

luke-lewis-paul-gallen-cronulla-sharks-nrl-finals-2016

Sharks captain Paul Gallen celebrates with Luke Lewis after a win. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

Not only did they lose to the Sydney Roosters last Saturday night, the Sharks’ premiership hopes copped a sledgehammer blow when forward Wade Graham suffered a serious knee injury in the first half, which has ruled him out for at least six months.

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The 21-12 defeat was their second consecutive defeat in a finals match, having not won since the aforementioned 2016 premiership in which they defeated the Melbourne Storm by 14-12 in the Grand Final.

Now they face a Panthers side which was ultra impressive in its 27-12 win over the New Zealand Warriors last Saturday night, with the mountain men overhauling the Kiwis after having conceded the first two tries of the match.

The club has won three of five matches since Cameron Ciraldo took over from Anthony Griffin, who was controversially sacked early last month after a falling out with the players, and club supremo Phil Gould, who ironically lives in Sharks territory.

It now remains to be seen which club has the hunger to stay alive in season 2018. I have the Sharks winning it by just.

Nathan Cleary

Nathan Cleary of the Panthers (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

The women’s match to take place beforehand will see the Roosters and Broncos do battle; a win for the Broncos will see them almost certainly qualify for the Grand Final on Sunday September 30.

For the winner: A trip to Melbourne to face the Storm in a preliminary final next Friday night.

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For the loser: Lights out for 2018.

Prediction: Sharks by 12 points.

Rabbitohs vs Dragons

Saturday, September 15
7:40pm
ANZ Stadium

Last meeting in a final: St George* defeated South Sydney 24-6, first semi-final, 1984.

* This will be the first finals meeting between St George Illawarra and South Sydney since the merged entity came into effect at the end of the 1998 season.

This season: Dragons defeated Rabbitohs 16-12 at Kogarah Oval in round five; Rabbitohs defeated Dragons 24-10 at ANZ Stadium in round ten.

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NRLW: Dragons vs Warriors, 5:15pm.

The second of the semi-finals this weekend promises to be huge, and for a variety of good reasons.

The Dragons’ 48-18 thrashing of the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium last Sunday has set up what can only be described as a promoter’s dream, with the Rabbitohs and Dragons going head to head in front of what is expected to be a crowd of over 50,000 at ANZ Stadium this Saturday night.

Tariq Sims

Tariq Sims of the Dragons (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Seemingly written off after a poor finish to the season, which included thrashings from lowly clubs the Eels and Bulldogs, the Dragons have rediscovered their spark in recent weeks to breathe life back into their premiership campaign.

Their win over the Broncos saw many records and hoodoos broken: their highest score and winning margin against the club, their highest score and winning margin in a finals match, their first win at Suncorp Stadium since 2009 (after ten straight losses), and their first win in a finals match since they won the 2010 premiership.

Making the win all the more impressive was that influential players James Graham and Gareth Widdop both failed to see it out, with the latter not to feature again in 2018 following a recurrence of the shoulder injury he suffered in the round 22 loss to the Eels.

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Graham is expected to play, and this would see him come up against the Burgess brothers in what shapes as a classic English stoush in the forwards battle.

It will also be the first time Graham has faced the Rabbitohs since the 2014 Grand Final, in which he was part of the Bulldogs side that was thumped 30-6.

The Bunnies are coming off a heartbreaking 29-28 loss to the Storm in Melbourne, which has sent them to the Roosters’ side of the draw. This means that the winner of this Saturday night’s match will face the Chooks (who will be without Latrell Mitchell after he was suspended for one match by the tribunal for his crusher tackle on Josh Dugan) in the preliminary final next weekend.

Sam Burgess

Sam Burgess had a shocker against the Storm and will want to rebound (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

Anthony Seibold’s men turned to their captain, Greg Inglis, as they attempted to break their duck in the AFL capital, but after leading by 28-22 with less than ten minutes to play, they were sunk by a late try and then a field goal from Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster.

Still, they were far from disgraced but they will now have to pick themselves back up for the clash against the Dragons, who won by 16-12 at Kogarah Oval in Round 5 before the Rabbitohs returned serve with a 24-10 win at Saturday night’s venue, ANZ Stadium, in round ten.

In what is shaping as a huge day for the Red V, their women’s team will play their first game in Sydney in the curtain raiser, and they’ll be hoping to improve on their first outing which saw them cop a 30-4 hiding from title favourites, the Broncos, in Brisbane last Sunday.

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They’ll be up against the New Zealand Warriors, who registered a 10-4 win over the Sydney Roosters in their first match last Saturday. A loss for the Dragons will see their Grand Final hopes all but extinguished, as well as face the possibility of taking out the wooden spoon (which, in a four team competition, wouldn’t be as embarrassing as it is in the men’s league).

For the winner: a date with the Sydney Roosters next Saturday night in what is very likely to be the final NRL match at Allianz Stadium before it gets knocked down and rebuilt as part of a massive redevelopment of the ground.

For the loser: Season over.

Prediction: Rabbitohs by 14 points.

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