Round 21 of the NRL will see several potentially crucial matches played and the action is underway from in Sydney on Thursday night, when the Bulldogs attempt to contain the Broncos.
We are set for an absolute blockbuster when the Rabbitohs and Storm square off in a top-of-the-table clash on Friday, while the Roosters will host the Cowboys in Saturday night’s fixture.
The weekend will draw to a close at the foot of the mountains when the Panthers attempt to make it two in a row against the Raiders.
Round 20 winners the Bulldogs and Broncos will square off in Sydney on Thursday night, but betting suggests that there is going to be a comfortable winner.
Following a slow start to the season and a pretty inconsistent campaign all-round, the Broncos are really starting to hit their straps and have strung together two good wins; one demolition of the Panthers and one tough triumph over the similarly-positioned Sharks. This should be a soft kill for the Brisbane club, but they need to make sure of it.
The Dogs actually haven’t been awful recently and ground out a well-deserved win over the in-form Tigers last weekend. They are well and truly out of finals contention but can make it difficult for teams like the Broncos leading into September.
The Broncos should win this game, but Canterbury are over the odds at their current price and can cover a line currently set at 9.5 points.
Friday evening’s meeting between the Knights and Tigers looks like being one of the better contests of Round 21 and life will be breathed into the finals aspirations of the victor.
The Knights squandered a great opportunity to remain within two points of the eighth-placed Warriors, when they let slip a 16-point lead over the Cowboys last weekend. That would have been their third-consecutive win but regardless of the result, the return of Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga has clearly had a massive impact on the direction and confidence of this team.
Similarly, the Tigers have been buoyed by the return of club legends Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah, but their smart run of form did lose a little shine last weekend when they failed to overcome the Bulldogs. Having knocked off two live premiership threats in the Dragons and Bunnies in their two prior fixtures, Wests remain a chance of playing finals football but simply need to win every game from here on in.
Returning home will be good for the Knights and if they have taken anything from last week’s performance, they can return to winning form.
We don’t have to wait long until the game of the round and South Sydney will host fellow competition leaders the Melbourne Storm in a Friday night blockbuster.
Souths responded to a shock loss to the Tigers by beating the Eels last week, but there are still question marks over their current condition given that they only beat the league’s cellar dwellers by a solitary try. They do have time to return to their best before the finals and this game should provide a good indicator as to what needs to be done.
The Storm are once again peaking at the perfect moment and they enter Round 21 tied with the Bunnies, but ahead on for-and-against. Another thrashing of the Raiders last weekend means that they have now reached thirty competition points and they are clearly the club to beat.
If the Rabbitohs find their best form than they are certainly a big chance, but the Storm have been playing like a team possessed and they represent terrific value in the Neds Double Your Winnings market.
The Dragons and Warriors are both desperate to get their campaigns back on track and the two clubs will meet on Saturday afternoon.
The Dragons were the league’s benchmark leading into the Origin period but they are amidst a worrying dip in form, which has ultimately seen them lose three of their four most-recent games. They were given a real touch-up by the Roosters in Round 20 and they have slipped into fourth on the ladder, and in real danger of falling further.
The Warriors exceeded all expectations early in the season, but it’s almost as though something has turned over in the dressing room of the New Zealand club recently and they have fallen to pieces. They put up little resistance against the out-of-form Titans last weekend now sit perilously close to the chasing pack in eighth.
The Dragons are faced with a terrific opportunity to win and surely, they can put it all together against the Warriors.
This game doesn’t offer a lot to the neutrals, but Eels and Titans fans will both be confident of a win when their teams square off on Saturday evening.
The Eels have continued to struggle all season but did muster a decent performance to go within a try of the Rabbitohs in Round 20. They simply have not looked like a side capable of competing effectively in the NRL and they will seriously need to reconsider their set up ahead of the 2019 NRL season.
The Titans have been extremely difficult to trust from a betting perspective in 2018 and have gone from being thrashed one week, to thrashing another side the following. They did produce arguably their best performance of the season to comfortably see off the Warriors last weekend, but they do tend to play better at home than they do on the road, and they’ll need to find something extra here.
Surely, the Eels can continue their slight increase in form and notch another rare win over the Titans.
Betting suggests that this will be one of the more one-sided contests in Round 21 of the NRL and it is not difficult to see why. The Roosters have been one of the competition’s best teams recently, while the Cowboys remains a live shot of finishing with the spoon.
The Roosters stamped their title intentions by easily beating and subsequently leapfrogging the Dragons into third on the ladder last weekend and they are faced with an excellent opportunity to win, before a Round 22 meeting with the Rabbitohs. The Roosters boast one of the most complete sides across the paddock and the combination that has slowly built between Cooper Cronk and James Tedesco is really starting to fire, ahead of the finals.
The Cowboys are a shambles, but they did manage to fight back into and win their game with the Knights last weekend, and should take some confidence from their second-half performance. The Roosters are a completely difficult kettle of fish, however and they will need to find a season’s best performance to compete.
The Roosters will be winning this game and they can cover a line currently set at 12.5 points in the process.
Another battle of the beaches will see the Sharks host the Sea Eagles on Sunday afternoon and plenty is one the line for both clubs.
The Sharks were unlucky not to take the win away from the Broncos in Brisbane last week and they have been one of the league’s more consistent clubs of late. Their 2018 recruits are all beginning to fire and they look like a club that is capable of a deep run in the finals.
The Sea Eagles have been awful in 2018 and they are only one win above sixteenth. This is a club that has never finished last in their sixty-year existence and they will do everything they can not to break that impressive trend this season.
This is always a great contest regardless of form and even if they don’t win, I’m confident the Sea Eagles can cover a line currently set at 10 points.
The final game of the round will kick off in Penrith on Sunday afternoon and it will be a real test for the out of sorts Panthers.
The addition of James Maloney has really gelled the Penrith squad in 2018, but they’ve been pretty quiet since the Origin period and they were lucky to defeat the lowly Sea Eagles last weekend, following an absolute thrashing at the hands of the Broncos. They are now tied with the Sharks and Broncos, ahead on for-and-against alone and they will need to continue winning if they are to make the finals.
The Raiders’ chances of a finals appearance have taken a massive hit in recent weeks and they surely cannot make the top eight now. A disappointing loss to the Sharks two weeks ago was compounded by a heavy defeat to the Storm last weekend, and they are now eight points adrift of eighth.
The Panthers can make it two on the trot in front of their home fans and they can cover a line currently set at 7.5 points.