The NRL enters Round 5 on Thursday night and to say I am excited… is probably a fair statement.
We’ve found a few nice roughies recently and while plenty of firm favourites have seemingly reared their heads this week, I’m still quietly confident we can will a bit of value over the line.
Surely, it’s starting to become something you can set your watch you – NRL Round 5 tips available below.
Proudly sponsored by Neds, Wests Tigers were desperately unlucky to be undone by a single point last week, but they are offered an ideal opportunity to bounce back into the winner’s stall when they travel to Brisbane on Thursday night.
The Broncos have been nothing short of awful. 1-3 is how the ledger now reads and the lack of performance that was mustered against the Roosters last week all but assured they are no chance of winning the premiership in 2019. No idea what’s going on with Darius Boyd, particularly in defence but if that’s who is leading the team, what hope do they have?
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the fair-weather crowd jump off and head over to the Gabba to watch the 3-0 Lions from this weekend onwards. With no one in the stands cheering on the home side, I’m more than happy to take the overs on offer for the Tigers.
The Titans are spotting all of their rivals a pretty big start here, but it’s only going to make a successful run to the finals that little bit sweeter.
There is clearly a bit of momentum being built in the Titans camp week-on-week and it’s only a matter of time until they break through. I really think that this week could be it – they return home for only the second time this season to face a pretty ordinary Penrith outfit.
I’ve pulled apart this game in vivid detail right here and there’s a lot to like about the Titans chances.
Remember when these two sides played out a Grand Final? Even though it was only the season before last, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Cowboys have never actually made the finals at all.
Their disappointing farewell JT season has been compounded in 2019 and they’re probably lucky to have the one win on the board. With one injury seemingly ruining their season already, do they stand any chance of derailing the Storm in Round 5? Absolutely not – Cam Smith and co. justifiable as the shortest-priced favourites of the week.
The Storm returned their worst performance of the season last weekend and still won, and Melbourne 13+ is available at $2.30 for this one. Thanks very much.
This is the primetime game on Friday night and therein lies the problem with rostering months-worth of fixtures at a time. Rogerings of this calibre should be kept for the 11pm timeslot on SBS.
As expected, South Sydney didn’t have the answers for the Tom Trbojevic show in Round 4 but luckily, they can immediately find their feet again at the expense of the Warriors.
There’s no doubt that Wayne Bennett will be enjoying the demise of the Broncos even more than success of the Rabbitohs, but there’s a potential premiership to be taken all the same this season and another couple of vital points are on offer here. Adam Reynolds couldn’t have hit water if he fell out of a boat last week, but I sincerely doubt that this game will be close enough for his boot to be the deciding factor.
There were a few good glimpses in the Warriors’ performance last week, but the thrashings that they have received at the hands of the Eels and Sea Eagles so far probably suggest that they’d really need to pull something out of the bag to make a contest out of this one.
Massive from the Sea Eagles last week. Obviously to deliver Souths their first loss of the season, but also to hold on for the W after losing Tommy Turbo. It looks like another few weeks on the sidelines as a minimum for the league’s most influential player and Manly will need to kick up another gear if they aren’t to go to s**t in his absence.
Newcastle don’t know how to win. I know it went to golden point last week, but they’ve lost to some pretty ordinary sides this season and I’m happy to say that Round 1 win was lucky, more than anything. I cannot come to terms with them being firm favourites to win this, even against a Turbo-less Manly.
This is Daly Cherry-Evans’ opportunity to step up and take his position as The Man and I think he’ll do it. For the third week in a row, I’m happy to be with the Sea Eagles as outsiders. What a lucrative little hattrick this could turn out to bet.
Something of an intriguing contest looks like materialising when the Roosters travel to the Shire to take on the Sharks.
If the Sharks bring their best, this does look like being the match of the round but to hit a cliché, they are very much rocks or diamonds. It took them a while to get going, but they absolutely walloped the Cowboys in Townsville two weeks ago and if they can repeat their second half performance, but to two halves this time, they are a live chance of winning again.
The Roosters just seem to be going through their gears and understandably, they are the club keeping the early pressure on the league-leading Storm. The delivered the Broncos a deserved thrashing last week and will be confident of making it 4-1 by the end of Round 5.
I think that Cronulla can make a game of this, at least in part, but the line is just too small for me to ignore the Roosters.
I’ve been very impressed by the Dogs in the last couple of weeks and they are without doubt a live chance of beating the Dragons in Round 5’s penultimate.
I’ll be the first to put my hand up and say that I didn’t see them winning a game this season, but they were big against the Tigers and enormous in Melbourne. It goes without saying that the better performance didn’t win last Sunday, class carried the Storm across the line. The formula has seemingly been simple – Dean Pay has flicked the old hands and brought in the exciting young talent, and it is converting.
The Dragons are seeking three in a row here, but they cannot continue relying on drop goals to win. Their performance in Brisbane was great, but the one against the Knights left plenty of be desired and they face a strong looking team this week.
They can certainly cover a 6.5-point line, but I’m more inclined to take the overs on offer for the Bulldogs in head-to-head betting.
Attention will be on the nation’s capital as a final point of call in Round 5 and a great opportunity looms for both the Raiders and Eels. I personally wouldn’t have guessed that we’d see these two clubs in the top five after four rounds and surely no one else who has watched the rugby league recently did either, but credit where it’s due.
The Raiders became the next team to comfortably beat the Cowboys in Round 4, while the Eels produced of their better performances to see off the Sharks, also reasonably comfortably.
At home, I do think that the Raiders should be favourites by happy to be with the Eels to cover.