Four remain in the hunt for the 2019 NRL Premiership and Friday marks the beginning of two extremely well-matched preliminary finals.
Putting to one side the likelihood of Saturday’s prelim victor going on to win the whole thing, there is little doubt at all that we’ll be treated to some thrilling contests between the Raiders and Rabbitohs, Roosters and Storm respectively.
More importantly, there are two winners to be found and a whole lot of value to be extracted.
So here we are. I think a lot of people might have suspected the Raiders would be a top eight side again in 2019, but I don’t think that even Ricky Stuart expected to host a preliminary final, least of all as resounding $1.38 favourites. What an opportunity this looks for them to take one more step, as well.
The Raiders have enjoyed a strong and largely consistent season in 2019, and they are more than worthy of their position in the final four. Not since Mal Meninga toe-poked them into early 90s prominence have they looked so potent and if they can continue their winning run through this game, who knows what they could achieve on the NRL’s grandest stage.
Souths were extremely lucky to fall into this preliminary final. There is no doubt that they weren’t the better team for most of their 80 minutes against the Sea Eagles and what was at best a line-ball decision to send of Jake Trbojevic at a pivotal time of the game has all but delivered them the win. Having said that, they had clearly done enough to stay in the contest, and they do look a live chance of beating a club that is undoubtedly going to feel the pressure of the situation this weekend.
Souths have all the big game experience and I am confident that they can at least finish within a 7.5-point margin.
The match of the season looks like materialising when the Roosters and Storm square off for the second position in the 2019 NRL Grand Final. This really should be the decider again, but the Storm crapped the bed in Week 1 of the finals and ultimately, ruined the final Sunday of the season for every impartial fan.
Last year’s GF was epic and regardless of the result in this, the winner should be starting a resounding favourite in next weekend’s decider. Trent Robinson has proven time and time again that he is one of, if not the league’s best tactician and it goes without saying that the absolute smorgasbord of stars that he has at his disposal is gross.
On the other side, it’s arguably the league’s best all-round coach and a team that has legitimately been the benchmark since the mid-noughties. It was less than surprising to see the Storm finish the regular season as comfortable minor premiers, and it would be less than surprising to see the Storm comfortably win next weekend’s decider. This is the real test and against this Roosters side, they’ll obviously need to pull out all of the stops.
I do think that the only hope for either Canberra or Souths is that the Roosters and Storm beat each other up beyond recognition and limp into the decider. I think the Roosters will sneak through this one though, and breeze through the next.