THE LONG HARD LOOK WITH MIKE WILSON
NRL ROUND 9 PREVIEW
The following teams have a bye:
Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs
Penrith Panthers
Sydney Roosters
Parramatta Eels
South Sydney Rabbitohs
Cronulla Sharks
Wests Tigers
Newcastle Knights
SATURDAY
Brisbane Broncos v Melbourne Storm
Suncorp Stadium, 7:30pm
There are 11 players from these two teams lining up in the City V Country game and the Test Match.
The Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin made the early announcement this week that he will rest Justin Hodges, Darren Lockyer and three other Test players, whereas Melbourne has named a full strength squad for the match. It’s going to be an astronomical task for the Broncos to win without such names in their line-up.
Mike’s Best Bet: $52 on Melbourne -2.0 @$1.63 (Sportingbet)
SUNDAY
Gold Coast Titans v New Zealand Warriors
Skilled Park, 2:00pm
The first of the two Sunday games, both of which I think will be good close games. The Titans fought tooth and nail to snatch victory last week. (Some would say from the referees) Despite their poor start to the season, the Titans are fairly ‘break even’ at home with 2 wins and 2 losses. The 2 losses were against top of the table Dragons and Brisbane. This game could be the turning point of the Titans season against what I think is an underrated Warriors outfit. The Warriors have only won one game away from New Zealand this year but it was against the Storm in Melbourne which is no easy feat. I’m expecting a close battle here with most points coming in the corners of the field.
Mike’s Best Bet: None
St. George Illawarra Dragons v North QLD Cowboys
WIN Jubilee Oval, 3:00pm
The Cowboys are now respected as the real deal for 2011 and have a chance to complete a valuable treble with victory over the reigning premiers. They knocked off the Storm and the Broncos and this time it’s the 1st placed Dragons they will try to take down. Jamie Soward is in hot form and if he backs up from the City V Country clash he’ll be keen as mustard to continue trying to impress State of Origin selectors. In front of the Dragons faithful, the Cowboys are going to take this one down to the wire and I can’t wait to see Soward and Thurston going head to head.
Mike’s Best Bet: None
MONDAY
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles v Canberra Raiders
Brookvale Oval, 7:00pm
There are not many good things to say about the Raiders at the moment. They were put away by the Tigers at the score of 49-12 last week and when the Green Machine loses a home game by that much, it doesn’t bode well for them on the road. They travel to Brookvale to take on the Sea Eagles where both sides meet having players either rested or backing up from Friday night’s representative games. Canberra need to improve their tackling and start defending like an NRL team, which shouldn’t be hard to do after last week’s dismal showing. I can’t take the Raiders here
Mike’s Best Bet: None
