NRL Round 3 Tips & Preview

One team has been pretty good, one team has been puss. But I feel like the Dragons are only a few good plays and tries away from clicking into gear and the difference in price between these two clubs in head-to-head betting is therefore skewed. The Broncos really haven’t shown us an 80 minutes performance yet – they were too slow from the blocks first-up and they took the foot off the pedal last week (I know they were way in front). They meet a Dragons side that nothing is expected of, and who they were thoroughly, thoroughly touched up by the last time they met at Suncorp Stadium. The line is currently set at 8.5 points and I couldn’t be more about it.

It’s pretty obvious which of the two Friday games is the headliner, without even looking the scheduled start times. These two sides strike me as the ones that you simply will not be able to trust from a betting perspective all season and who bloody knows what’s going to happen when they go head to head. It was a fair first-up display from the Raiders on the coast, but they simply could not go with the Storm. The Knights meanwhile stole one but were then beaten by a Panthers side who themselves were anything but good in Week 1. Improvement? Who knows, but playing at home in the dewy evening has been the key to success a few times in the last couple of seasons and that’ll be enough for me this early in the campaign.

The Eels are seeking to keep alive an unbeaten start to the season when they host the Roosters in Friday night’s primetime game. Good god, who would have thought that would be something that we’d be faced with. I’m still coming to terms with writing it. But that is indeed what has happened, and they’ll be quietly confident of sneaking one past the Roosters too. I am not. At the end of the day, they’ve done in an underdone Panthers and probably the league’s worst side, the Bulldogs. The Roosters are the reigning premiers and while they have plenty of improvement still to be made as well, they’re a class above. Lots of points for lots of stars.

Good luck predicting what is going to happen here. We’ve got a slow from the blocks Sea Eagles side who are their own worst enemy, while it’s nice to see that only two weeks into the season, the Warriors are already showing that they cannot frank a quality performance. The second half against the Roosters tended to support the theories that Manly could be good side but pretty much since Dessie walked out the door, their issue has been an inability to play for the full eighty. If they can take further improvement off the latter half of last week’s run, they could prove to be overs in head-to-head betting.

And just like that, could it already be over for North Queensland? Prior to Round 1, my preview of the Cowboys largely focused on the potency of Jason Taumalolo and their prospects directly linked to his abilities. Having suffered a medial ligament injury in his side’s Round 2 loss to the Broncos, the wrecking ball is now on the sidelines for the next six to ten weeks and literally every other forward is going to need to stand up in his place. The Sharks are yet to realise their potential, but they do carry winning form into this game and harbour plenty of players that take confidence from wins. This does look like being one of the better contests in Round 3, but happy to be with the Sharks as slight favourites.

Just when the Panthers looked like gaining a little momentum, they’re forced to scale the world’s tallest at deadliest peak, Mount Melbourne. They still weren’t incredible, but the Panthers did enough to hold off a spirited Knights side last week. You’d think they’d probably need to muster a campaign-best performance to continue that past the Storm, who have typically made light work ofb the Broncos and Raiders so far. I’m happy to continue following Cam Smith and co. until they give me a consistent reason not to.

Haven’t Wests Tigers been a revelation since Neds jumped on board as a sponsor! Two games, two impressive wins and a justified position at the top of the NRL ladder leading into Round 3. Robbie Farah was enormous last week, Benji was as dangerous as ever and I can’t help but think they’d be absolute sure things for the Provan-Summons trophy if they could pull Scott Prince and Brett Hodgson out of retirement. The Bulldogs have not fired a shot in their first two games and do seem to be on the fast track to mad Monday. They’ll find it extremely difficult to compete with the Tigers for a full eighty.

The weekend draws to a close in Sydney and the Neds Gold Coast Titans do have their work cut out for them with the red-hot Rabbitohs. I couldn’t have potted last year’s semi-finalist more quickly when they took on Wayne Bennett, but they’ve made me and plenty of others looks silly and loom as another tough prospect for the Titans. I’m still confident that the Titans can win the league and what better way to put everyone on notice than by ending the Bunnies’ undefeated start?