It’s incredible to think that we are more than two months into the 2022 NRL season and already, we can count several clubs out of the premiership race.
The Panthers are not one of those clubs, in fact, they are the only one that remains undefeated and the Eels face a big task in returning to form at their expense this week.
You can find my complete NRL Round 9 Tips below.
It was an ambush when the Broncos beat the Rabbitohs in Round 1, but betting suggests the same thing won’t happen in Round 9.
The Rabbitohs were helped a little by an early send-off of Manly player Karl Lawton in Round 8 but they ultimately piled on 40 points to record one of their bigger wins of the season, a result that was enough to lift them into sixth on the ladder.
The Broncos have slowly begun to regather form, and they are incredibly chasing a hat-trick in Round 9 following wins over the Bulldogs and the Sharks.
Last week’s performance was easily their best of the season, and they managed to beat an opponent arguably stronger than this one.
I think that the value this week lies in backing the Broncos at $2 lines.
This won’t be a memorable one, but it should at least be a tight contest when the out-of-form Raiders and Bulldogs do battle in Canberra on Friday evening.
It has been a crook start to the season for the Green Machine, and they have dropped to fourteenth following five-consecutive losses.
They were beaten by an equally bad Warriors outfit in Round 8, and wins will be few and far between in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are still awful, but they did rally to record a very tough 16-12 win over the Roosters in Round 8.
You could see how much it meant to everyone involved in the club, but it will really only count if they can consolidate it with another win in Round 9.
We’re (potentially) set for a classic when the undefeated Panthers host the Eels in Friday night’s primetime game.
Who beats the Panthers this season?
We ask the question almost every week and are subsequently treated to a steamrolling, more often than not.
In Round 8, the Titans became the latest team to taste defeat, though it was a reasonably flat performance from the reigning premiers.
The Eels, meanwhile, have become extremely difficult to trust from a betting perspective and they suffered an absolute hiding at the hands of the Cowboys.
Ihat was the second loss in three weeks that they really shouldn’t have suffered and it was the extent of this one that has seem them drift enormously in betting this week.
On recent form, the Panthers win this one and win it well.
One of the more intriguing battles of the round will see the Sea Eagles host Wests Tigers at Brookvale Oval on Saturday afternoon.
I am a Manly fan and while I usually cannot stand a loss (particularly to Souths), I think that there were enormous positives to take from Round 8’s defeat.
Their ability to stay in the game following Lawton’s early exit (which was a fair send off) was excellent, particularly without Turbo and Olakau’atu in the side.
They simply ran out of steam, and we were left wondering ‘what could have been?’
Wests, meanwhile, returned another tough performance for a third-consecutive week, but they weren’t able to get past the Dragons.
They are continuing to improve, and a win over Manly would be enormous.
I’m going to back the Sea Eagles to strike back though.
There is a case to be built for both the Roosters and the Titans in Round 9 of the NRL Premiership season.
It was one of their worst performances of the season, and it came after another shock and disappointing loss.
While the Roosters were outplayed and outclassed by a pretty poor Bulldogs outfit in Round 8 and I’m really beginning to lose faith in them being a top six side, let alone a premiership threat, suffering three defeats in a row would be pretty damning.
The Titans lost again in Round 8, but they were far from disgraced against the undefeated Panthers and I thought that 18-6 was actually a really good result for them.
A repeat of that effort against this opponent, and they win.
The Cowboys have stormed into the top four, and they are well placed to record another big win over the down-and-out Knights in Townsville on Saturday night.
I will be the first to put my hand up and say that I thought the Cows would be appallingly bad this season, so much so, I rated Todd Payten as the likeliest to be the first coach sacked.
In stark contrast, they’ve been really good, and Payten looks to be a very credible coach on the ride.
The Knights, meanwhile, led the competition after two weeks and haven’t fired a shot since, losing six in a row to crash all the way down to sixteenth.
They step out this week following a 50-point hiding at the hands of the Storm, and coach Adam O’Brien’s days are surely numbered.
6 losses in a row, including a 50-point drubbing in Round 8. @Jharalyowyeh5 and @JaredTimms think that Adam O'Brien's days in Newcastle are numbered #NRL pic.twitter.com/J8HanLFvAL
— Neds (@NedsAus) May 3, 2022
I’m more than happy to be with the Cowboys, particularly in front of their parochial home crowd.
It is fair to say that the Dragons have improved recently, but they’ll need to go to another level to even compete with the Storm for a full eighty minutes in Round 9.
The Storm are a really, really good footy side, but tou didn’t need me to tell you that.
Frankly, they are ending opponents’ seasons by 50 points week in, week out, and they absolutely destroyed the Knights in Round 8.
The Dragons are now on the edge of the top eight following three-consecutive wins, but this will be a serious test for them and realistically (barring something serious happening to the Storm), they won’t be winning.
The round wraps up in the Shire and the Sharks will be eager to atone for a shock loss in Round 9 when they host the Warriors.
I’m not even sure that Kevvie thought the Broncos would win last week, but they did and that meant the Sharks suffered their third loss of the season.
They didn’t play terribly, they were moreso outplayed and they probably beat themselves a little too.
The Warriors are impossible to trust from a betting perspective, but they did manage to sneak home against a bad Raiders side in Golden Point.
This one to looks to be a bit of an open and shut case, as well.