All hail King Bennett, for his South Sydney Rabbitohs have taken their place at the top of the 2019 NRL ladder.
A shock loss to the Broncos saw the Roosters slip down and ironically, that result has done a huge solid for Brisbane’s former prodigal son, who now seemingly hates their guts. How good is the footy?
NRL Round 11 tips in full force below.
Hardly the kind of game that will gee everyone up for the rest of the round, but Thursday night will see the Eels host the woeful Panthers.
The Eels are quickly realising they are in fact the Eels and were unable to bounce back from that thrashing at the hands of the Storm, when they were delivered a 17-10 defeat by the Cowboys in Townsville last weekend. It looked a decent shout for them when they went into the break up, but they ran out of steam and that does not bode well for their top eight prospects.
I reckon you’d go mad trying to figure out what’s wrong with the Panthers. I mean, obviously they’re not playing well but the calibre of names on their roster suggests that should almost be a sure thing to finish top four. Nope. Their fans are surely hoping a few imminent Origin selections switch everything on.
Rather than winning, I give both clubs a live chance of losing this game and I think that the value lies with backing the outsider at the line.
The Sea Eagles returned to winning form away from home in Week 10 and will confident of making it two in a row in front of the Brookie faithful on Friday evening.
The Magic Round loss to the Broncos would have hurt, but stars were injured, and that side has since franked the win by beating the competition-leading Roosters. A nice win over a credible Sharks outfit is just what the doctor ordered and a win over the Titans this week would consolidate fifth position, at least for another week.
It is becoming slightly more difficult to make excuses for the Neds Titans, even from a jovial perspective, but there actually has been things to like about their two most-recent performances, albeit both loses. They were competitive for the full 80, they led at the break and they clearly have try scoring potential. If everything clicks, they can do it.
Betting suggests it’ll be pretty one-sided, but one of the better games of the round looks like coming together in Newcastle on Friday night.
What an excellent return to form the Knights are amidst. Their 45-12 thrashing of the Dragons last week was easily their best performance of the season and they will be quietly confident of giving the Roosters a real run for their money here. Mitchell Pearce and Kayln Ponga are really hitting their straps and much to the dismay of all Blues fans, the former is a live chance of snatching an Origin shirt again. The latter is a sure thing, who else would Queensland pick?
The Roosters were muscled out by the Broncos last week and have slipped to third on the ladder. It’s certainly anything but panic stations in Bondi, but they’ll be eager to get back to their winning ways here, particularly leading into the Origin period whereby they’ll be without like 30 players.
The Raiders were desperately unlucky not to beat Souths at home last week, but this looks the ideal opportunity for them to get one back and lock down fourth. In seasons gone by, two-consecutive losses at this point of the campaign probably would have been enough for the Raiders to check out for the rest of the year, but given these losses have been to two of the three sides that are currently perched above them, and they have gone down fighting, surely they’ve only taken benefit.
I guess the Cows are finding a bit of form of their own given they’ve won two of their last three, but the Titans and Eels are hardly big scalps and they’ll find this a particularly big task, particularly in Canberra.
The Broncos are seeking three in a row when they travel to New Zealand and Kodi Nikorima’s new digs on Saturday afternoon. What a win for the Brisbane side last week. Whether or not their opposition were in the right gear doesn’t really matter; a scalp of that size has surely filled their sails with wind and this looms as a great opportunity for them to make it three.
The Warriors are impossible to trust from a betting perspective, but they looked overs against the Panthers and boy, was I thrilled to see that tip pay off. They also made it two in a row in Round 10, but they strike me as the sort of side that will be extremely complacent because of it and are every chance of being caught with their pants down in Round 11, despite Konrad Hurrell no longer being on the books.
I am by no means one of these idiots suggesting that the Broncos are back on because they’ve won two games, but surely last week’s win over the Roosters should have been enough to have at least seen them start this game at a tied quote with the Warriors. The even money available at publish is overs.
Souths are set to start the shortest-priced favourites of the round but if Wests Tigers, proudly sponsored by Neds, can find another performance like last week’s, perhaps the upset will be on.
Souths have taken over as competition leaders and boy, will Wayne Bennett be having a little chuckle to himself. I am personally of the opinion that he is 90% a good people manager and 10% a good football mind, but it actually looks like that’s the only thing that Souths were needing to take that extra step in 2019. Good for them.
The Tigers are clearly performing above pre-season expectations and they rallied to finish agonizingly close to the Storm last week (24-22). Obviously, you get nothing from a loss so that has meant nothing to their campaign physically, but mentally they know that they can do it.
Regardless of what I said in the first sentence, it’d take a braver man than me to tip against Souths here.
The penultimate game will be played between the Dogs and the Storm on Sunday and there doesn’t look to be much below the surface.
The Dogs have been extremely hit or miss and the Storm just keep doing enough to win, even if they don’t find top gear. That was the case when these clubs met in Melbourne earlier in the season and I doubt that the Bulldogs stand any greater a chance in Sydney. It seems pretty black and white to me.
He scored a massive win on Saturday but surely the vibe came crashing back down in the Morrison house on Sunday when Scott’s beloved Sharks fell to the Sea Eagles.
The Dragons are yet to put together anything of a consistent run of form and they became the latest club to fall to the resurgent Knights in Round 10. Losing was bad enough, but they were comfortably outplayed across nearly the entire paddock and face a similarly tough task this week.
‘Miracles do happen’, but I doubt the Sharks will need one to bounce back into the winner’s stall at the expense of the inconsistent Dragons this week.