Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3666758, member: 1899"] Actually shaping up to be a decent final round. All begins on Friday at 6:00pm with the Spoon Bowl between the Tigers and the Eels. It's all a bit of fun and games because the truth is both teams have had horrible years, but only one team will be remembered as Sponners. Then Sydney are playing for a home final against their traditional rivals the Rabbitohs. It'll be our first look at the Roosters minus Walker, Radley and B. Smith. They should be too strong and I expect a big response, whether that will carry them through to the finals remains to be seen. There is still a chance of a Bradbury for either St George/Canberra if Knights/Dolphins ends up a draw, so it's kind of like a back-up finals qualifier match. These teams have played in some of the most perculiar games in history and this has a lot of the same ingredients. Curious to see if Flanagan bloods some more young forwards ahead of the game and gets a head-start on '25. Despite making up the numbers, I think both coaches have done a pretty good job with the rosters they have - it's just a question of whether they can actually build a good roster in the years to come. Canterbury-North Queensland are playing off for fifth and an opportunity to take on the winner of the Newcastle/Dolphins qualifier which shapes as a much easier passage into week two of the finals than Manly home/away. If the Cowboys win, they've done pretty well considering how soft they've been this year. Canterbury feel like the sentimental favourites this year, but falling short of the Top 4 has just made it a bridge too far, unless we see some crazy scorelines this weekend. Ordinarily I wouldn't spare too much thought on a Panthers/Gold Coast match, but if the Gold Coast do cause an upset, it could potentially put Melbourne/Panthers back on a Week 1 collision course. Penrith should win, and should have that home semi against the Roosters - but that's still another 80 minutes they have to get through. That loss to the Warriors is going to haunt the Sharks. They had a golden opportunity to earn a home semi and put themselves in the box seat only to find themselves staring down the barrel of the Melbourne Storm in Melbourne. The Sharks did win there earlier in the year, but no Papenhuyzen, Coates, Hughes etc. for the Storm made it difficult. Meanwhile Manly tend to struggle without Tommy but they are playing for a home semi and if there was ever a chance for a 5th-8th placed team to make waves, this would be the year. So another massive game for Manly and a chance to really define this season. Then you have the play-off for 8th, Newcastle vs. Dolphins. How did we get here? I just think in '24 there's this glut of teams and it really comes down to the luck of the draw. Newcastle's most impressive win was an early season win against a Storm team missing both their halves. That's really all it comes to. Dolphins are in a similar position, but at least they have wins over Cronulla, Manly and North Queensland to vouch for them and they completely obliterated the Broncos in the first round of qualifiers. I think Dolphins are more deserving, but they have to prove it on Sunday. Otherwise Newcastle get in again and reportedly, O'Brien gets to stick around and Newcastle get to enjoy their sixth year under him. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Active Now

No members online now.

Total: 11 (members: 0, guests: 11)

Reply to thread

Log in

Active Now