NRL Round 13 Tips & Preview

An interesting Friday night game is slated to kick off the Round 13 action and if everyone from Origin backs up (which surely, they won’t), it could very well be the match of the round.

Understandably, the heavily depleted Bunnies weren’t able to account for a full-strength Eels outfit in Round 12 and that has allowed the Storm to momentarily recapture top spot. Obviously, nothing can be taken from that though, it’s a forgive run if ever I’ve seen one.

The Knights return after the week off and if Kalyn Ponga plays, boy they are a shout of winning. They have continued to improve a lot recently, but they thoroughly outdid the Roosters a fortnight ago in what was easily their best performance of the season and the $2.45 that is on offer in head-to-head betting is my kind of overs.

Friday night’s primetime game will see Wests Tigers host the fifth-placed Canberra Raiders.

Its been a pretty tough run of games for the Tigers, but they’ll surely step out for this one refreshed after the bye. They run into a Raiders outfit who were probably lucky to get there against a less than convincing Bulldogs outfit in Round 12, and who themselves would probably benefit from a freshen-up.

The Raiders have well and truly exceeded expectations already, but last week’s performance wasn’t one of a Premiership worthy side. Sure, Cotric and Papalii were out on Origin duty, but I hardly think those two players are the difference in lifting the Provan Summons at season’s end.

$1.90 a side at publish and I’m happy to give the Tigers a shout at that price, so long as Mbye returns to the fold.

The league-leading Storm drift across the Tasman on Saturday afternoon and I am anticipating the Warriors to be about as resistant as a piece of sheet metal when the lightning starts striking.

In all seriousness, the Warriors were fair against a Broncos side that has regathered a bit of form two weeks ago and are yet another club that should have taken a bit of benefit from the week off. Perhaps combinations are starting to lock together? Perhaps not but anyway you look at it, they’ll have their hands full here.

The Storm have clearly become a club that can do no wrong and that was out in full force last week when they regathered top spot from Souths, despite not playing a single minute of football. Things just go right for Cam Smith and co. and they are clearly the team to beat again here.

Alongside the Bulldogs, the Warriors seem to be a club that keep one of their better performances of the season for the Melbourne fixtures, so I’m happy to take them at the line here.

A game fitting of the forgettable 5pm Saturday timeslot will be contested between the Cronulla Sharks and the Parramatta Eels in the Shire. Neither side has been particularly inspiring, and it could very well be a case of yawn and you’ll miss it. It being the only good thing that happens.

Take nothing from the Eels win over the Rabbitohs last week. I’ve said all of that above, no point going over it again, but they obviously face a step up in class against a club that will likely have all platers on deck.

The Sharks were far too good for the Dragons a fortnight ago and that is enough for me to think they’ll be too good again, after the week off.

Focus turns to Townsville on Saturday night when the inconsistent Cowboys host the inconsistent Sea Eagles.

North Queensland were lucky to get there last week, but their win over the Raiders two weeks ago was probably their best of the season and if they can re-find a bit of that, they’re every chance of recording another well-needed win over Manly.

The Sea Eagles have dropped their last two and what is most concerning about it is that they really weren’t against credible sides. The Titans pulled out their best performance of the season, but the Panthers were next to pathetic and a repeat of that effort against nearly any other side would see them losing by 40.

Obviously, the form of the last couple of weeks has the Cowboys winning this, but I think that they are far too short in the market.

A Queensland side will be offered a shot at what I can only imagine will be a consolation for Wednesday when the Broncos host the Titans on Sunday afternoon.

The Broncos had the week off in Round 12 and it was well-earned after three consecutive and largely impressive wins. The one over the Roosters in particular was all class and if they can start to put together a few like that, perhaps a top six finish isn’t out of the equation after all.

The Neds Titans were desperately unlucky not to make it two in a row in their low-scoring loss to the Cows last week, but the confidence is slowly starting to build again and it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see them come out and do something here.

The Titans won this corresponding fixture in 2018 and I remember that vividly because I was at a Bucks and talked a whole bunch of people into having a huge bet on the Broncos 13+. Not sure how I’ve made it to this point of my life after that, but you can rest assured I won’t ever be tipping that again.

A few weeks ago, I would have written something like “Yawn, next please,” so was the calibre of the Sydney Roosters.

And I’m still going to do that. Even if several Roosters players don’t back up from Origin and they put in a performance to the ones that saw them lose to the Broncos and Knights, I still think they’ll beat an ordinary, full-strength Panthers outfit.

The final game of the round has proven to be a good one in seasons gone by and given how poor both clubs have been recently, it’ll probably turn out to be a fair arm wrestle between the Dogs and Dragons on Monday.

Three wins and nine losses is how the ledger reads for the home side, while it hasn’t been a lot better for the Red V; add one more win to that, essentially. A couple of potentially key Origin players should be stepping back into the Dragons’ squad and that could mean all the difference.