Official NRL thread

[Beer Money Army]

Cowboys Traded Farrar last year for Manly Bani. Best Trade Ever for Manly as Farrar has been awesome for the sea eagles.

cowboys have Harris, he isn't too bad.

Storm did lose probably the best Lock forward in the NRL League. But Storm has got Todd Lowrie that played in eels last year. He isn't a too bad replacement, surely you can't replacement Johnson just like that. But with Bellamy coaching skills and the training that down at melbourne have been doing the past 5+ years. He should improve greatly.

I reckon Storm will do good. Because they Have slater, Inglis, Cronk, Smith, Hoffman all very key potential players. Finch is somewhat doing really good. 2009 with storm is pby his best performance in some years. But i still don't rate him, it cause its in a good side.

Storm has a decent forward pack in white, hoffman, blair, lowrie, Tolman(not too bad youngster).

I guess storm only problem might be is there wing side. Quinn and Nielsen, i use to rate Quinn a few season ago, but the past 2 seasons has been a dissappointing.

But who can knock off Storm in 2010??? my guess Bulldogs, Eels and Dragons.

But storm will lose in some parts of 2010 for such when they face Warriors, play canberra on raiders soil, Sea Eagles at Brookvale, Broncos in Brisbane.

But Bulldogs/Eels/Dragons will give storm a run for there money as the season progess towards the final series. But i expect storm to finish 3rd at the end of the season and will be in g/final

 

[Qwake]

Don't they have Ben Farrar/Harris or whatever in the centres? He's pretty good imo.

As Catsa said, Farrar was traded to the Eagles and has played well there, Harris is decent, he's a Second Row/Centre.

Yeah, I agree about the Storm, I cannot see them missing out on a top 4 spot. I wouldn't be suprised if they were minor premiers.

 

[Moonlight Drive]

What the fuck. Jamie Soward's going to be on the bench in the All-Stars game. Scott Prince can get fucked, Soward was the form five-eigth of 2009 and he gets relegated to the bench? Bullshit.

Slater's out, which is actually a good thing. Hayne on the wing is shit.

Who do you guys think will win? I'm picking the NRL side, they're forward pack just has to much class for the abos. It might be a different story if Inglis was playing, but without him, I don't think they've got the attcking potency they need. Plus, having Soward on the bench shows how fucking stupid the coach is.

Race against race ftl.

 

[seX-Power]

This sucks. This was like, my most anticipated event of 2010. Just gay now.

 

[Beer Money Army]

The Biggest Flop since Broncos Last Preimership victory.

 

[Qwake]

Under an hour before this years NRL season gets underway! Anyone gonna make predictions or anything?

I see the Dragons beating the Eels for some reason (Sorry seX), the eels just didn't do too well and I think theyll crack under the pressure in their opener, people are expected alot out of them this year, the Dragons are still an awesome team, hopefully Soward has another good season.

Broncos Vs Cowboys is what I'll be watching and I bet I'll be the only one lol, should be an alright game, Cowboys need to start strong this year although I see them losing due to Bowen and Webb both being out. Broncos have quite a few young rookies in so I'm hoping they all suck and I win off their mistakes I'm relying on Thurston as usual.

Thoughts?

 

[seX-Power]

Willie Mason > The Cowboys

And it's not looking too well for Parra, but they've at least shown flashes of the offense that made them so good last year. I can already tell the Dragons will be the same methodical, consistent (yet quite boring) team they were last year.

 

[Qwake]

I knew the Dragons would win, but once the eels get underway theyre gonna rape everyone imo. lol Hayne btw.

I was crying after the first half of the Cowboys game, we could have scored like 3 times but the Broncos ended up having a huge lead. Then in the last 30mins or so Thurston came to life and brought it back to 24 - 24 and I was so happy, only for fuckin' Denan Kemp to outrun my whole team and score for fucksake. Dunno how that grey-haired smurf Corey Parker was getting his kicks either, he's usually crap.

Also, if anyone would like to shoot Grant Rovelli and Michael Bani in the face for me it could be much appreciated.

 

[seX-Power]

I'll shoot Michael Bani cos he's black. And I think Rovelli's a sheepshagger so him too.

 

[Moonlight Drive]

Great first night, wish I bothered to watch the second half of the Broncos/Cowboys game.

Eels really dissapointed me personally. Only people who were really on top of their game were Hindmarsh and Burt, the rest played rather mediocre. Kudos to the Dragons for managing to overcome the loss of Matt Cooper, but they really need to get Beau Scott out of the centres and into the backrow. What the Dragons lack is a strike centre, somebody who can make linebreaks and score tries. Cooper and Scott are both defensive specialists, so having somebody with some attacking flair would be nice. Looks like the Eels are going to take a while to find their groove. Bringing Kris Keating on was stupid imo, he's crap.

Cowboys played great in the first 15, but without 50% of their team (Matt Bowen) they couldn't finish them off early on. I really think if he'd have been playing they would've crossed in the first half. Strong performances by Gillett, Norman and Dodds give me a little bit more faith in the Broncos, but I still don't think they'll make the finals.

Preidictions for tonight?

I may be bias, but I really think that Newcastle have the best depth in the forward pack. We lost a lot of them through injury last season, and it's good to see Dan Tolar, Cameron Ciraldo and Ben Cross are all healthy. Chris Houston can gtfo. That being said, I don't think we're going to win tonight. We won't lose much in defence, but our attack is going to suffer greatly. Kurt Gidley and Isaac De Gois are 2 out of 3 of our best playmakers gone, leaving only Jarrod Mullen. Not to mention our best ballrunning backrower, Zeb Taia, is recovering from a shoulder reconstruction. We've go a lot of pace out wide (UATE~!) but we'll still struggle to score points. Bulldogs by 12.

One of the Raiders most important games of the season. They have to start winning away from home early in the season to be any chance of the finals. That being said, Michael Jennings took it to a whole new level in the All Stars game and I can't see Canberra overcoming the Panthers at home. Panthers by 10.

Sharks are going to get the shit stomped out of them. Melbourne are bursting with class all across the park and they're still going to be the team to beat. Storm by 20.

 

[seX-Power]

Bringing Kris Keating on was stupid imo, he's crap.

Thank you. Why he's on the bench over Inu I don't know.

And I won't be surprised if Newcastle get the wooden spoon this year. Well, I would be surprised because the Sharks will be hard to top but yeah.

 

[Moonlight Drive]

Feleti Mateo playing halfback would be a much better option than Kris Keating.

We won't get the spoon, I'm extremely confident of that. Making the top four would be a big stretch, but I still think we're a chance of making it into 7th or 8th like we did last year. Most likely we're going to finish somewhere between 6th and 12th.

 

[Qwake]

I'll shoot Michael Bani cos he's black. And I think Rovelli's a sheepshagger so him too.

Epic.

Did I just read that the Knights beat the Bulldogs?!?

Panthers team looks really good this year, they only have a couple bad players but there are guys coming back from injury to take care of that. They're missing Sammut and someone else but there team looks really good all up. They should easily beat the Raiders imo, esp if the Panthers are at home, Raiders really need to do better with there away games this season.

Storm Vs Sharks is fucking crazy, Sharks led 2 - 0 till 35min mark where Barrett was sin binned and INGLIS scored. Storm really haven't looked that good thus far, they really need to pick it up. I think Cam Smith is at 7 so Cronk must be out but they still should be doing MUCH better.

I had Thurston as my captain in fantasy, got like 180 points

 

[Moonlight Drive]

Did I just read that the Knights beat the Bulldogs?!?

Knights royally fucked up the Bulldogs, at least in the first half. We were missing Gidley, De Gois, MacDougall and in the second half we lost Sau and Vuna, and we still won. Maybe a top four finish isn't out of the question.

It may be early days, but Ben Cross should definitely be picked for Origin if he remains injury free and keeps performing like he did against the Doggies. Paterson played very well also.

Raiders dissapoint once again, they aren't going to come back from 22 down. Until they start performing away from home they're never going to make the 8.

Titans to beat Warriors by 40 tomorrow and Rabbitohs to beat Roosters by 10.

 

[seX-Power]

Maybe a top four finish isn't out of the question.

Don't kid yourself.