Well hasn't the swine flu been big news this week. Anyone who possibly had anything to do with anyone who may have been anywhere near Melbourne during Origin could or possibly may have it!!!
Yet the guy who actually roomed for 10 days with the only guy who actually had it up until yesterday, never got it!! Nate Myles must've had some sort of kryptonite powers because he never got it.
Lets face it, it is a health issue but not for elite athletes like we have in the NRL... Karmichael Hunt may even play tonight.
He needs to, for the Broncos to have much of a chance. I don't want to skite but we have found a few winners over the last few weeks and tonight will be no different. The Dogs are going to bounce back from that loss to Newcastle and beat Brisbane who were awful against Melbourne. Not sure how the Joel Clinton dramas will affect things other than you can guarantee no Bronco will be looking twice at a girl in the next 6 months. 50 grand for that. You are kidding
Tip Dogs by a little but the odds are skinny.
The Warriors have everyone jumping on their back now that Kurt Gidley is out but tell me, didn't Newcastle beat the Dogs without GIDLEY 2 WEEKS AGO??
The Warriors stink plain and simple and $1.60 is bad odds about a bad team and for that reason I am prepared to take the Knights with the start. I can’t believe they are resting Gidley so you can be assured it’s an injury otherwise he would play tonight. They are not going that good to rest players but they are going better than the Warriors
Tip Knight by a few and with the start they are good things.
The Roosters don't have Willie Mason but when he was last missing they won. The Titans don't have Luke Bailey and Mat Rogers but they are a good side and they have more to play for. The Chooks have been on the Central Coast for a few days and Artie Beetson hasn’t been with the team this week. While they showed some improvement last weekend they still got beat by 20 and so for that reason I am prepared to say the Titans can win again. I don't like the Monday night backup thing but the Roosters have to win before I can pick them again.
The Morals of the weekend are once again Melbourne because Souths are awful. Leaking too many points and Jason Taylor hasn't wielded the axe which means these guys are not being penalised for poor play. I'm happy to take whatever start Melbourne are giving and jump on them because they are getting back to their destructive best.
Look at the form line. Melbourne beat Brisbane by 40, South’s lose to Cowboys by 30. Enough said.
Good luck to the Pink Panthers who take on the in form Manly at Panthers Stadium. Pink is the colour of the night and I hope it doesn't mean the Panthers play a little softer than they have been. They really are a great team to watch and Matt Elliott has got the place buzzing. They will want nothing more than to whip the Eagles at home and I'm predicting they will.
Penrith's forwards are just awesome lately and even without Lewis I am predicting an upset win to the Pink Panthers.
Cronulla have snared 2 wins on the trot but they are about to have that run stopped. They managed to break the paltry Warriors defence an hold out there equally inept attack but if the Raiders have something, it’s the ability to score tries so unless Cronulla can score 6 then they are in trouble because Canberra is certain to score 5 at least.
Raiders had the week off and it might also be minus 5 down there so even though it has been cold in Sydney…it isn’t that cold.
Raiders good things
And how about the Dragons and the Cowboys. For mine the match of the round and funny thing is. The Cowboys are 6 places behind them on the table but if they win, they will leapfrog Saints!! Very tight at the top. I think you have to keep backing Thurston until something goes wrong. 6 out of 7 wins plus an Origin and he has been man of the match in nearly all of them. He's already won the Dally M by as far as you can kick your hat. The Dragons were tough on Monday but the back up is always hard and it’s not like this is an easy game.
Cows to win
What a game Monday night promises to be.. the hopelessly out of form Tigers against the resurgent Parra.. who have a great record of beating the Tigers ... and they will again. The Tigers have forgotten how to win although they have won 2 from 2 this year on Monday night including beating the Melbourne Storm but I don't know what's gone wrong.. the loss of Ellis is huge and puts some pressure on the bench and if Chris Lawrence plays then that's a boost but Parra are going ok so why not them?
Tip Parra but leave me out of the punt
Best of the weekend Sunday all up Raiders giving up the start into Cowboys to beat Dragons.
And one more, the NSW selectors are continuing with this half ass idea of naming the team at halftime in the Monday night game. Don't know why and even if there is a reason, it can’t be a good one! It didn't work first time around so why persist..
They need to make a few changes. Monaghan onto the wing in place of McManus, Cooper into the centre’s for Jennings, Gallen onto the bench with Lewis out and I am starting to warm to Trent Barrett as the halfback instead of Peter Wallace. But there are injury worries over Lyon, Bailey and even Gidley.
Lets see what happens but if those changes are made then NSW will be a lot harder to knock off in game 2 than they were in game 1. Remember it was only the video dud call that changed the whole nature of that first game.
