2011 - The Ladder

[Spartan117]

As of round Two (I know its early)

The ladder is very different to last year

The top three sides weren't in the Semis and the Bottom three were (well sort of, Thx souths).

1 Knights
2 Storm
3 Bulldogs

SNIP
**9 Wests Tigers**
SNIP

14 Warriors
15 Rabbitohs
16 Titans

Ahh familiar position 9….

I don't care what people say - I like the Salary cap and the way it brings things onto a relatively even playing ground. It's not perfect and it can be and probably is being massaged but never have we the Fans had som much problems tipping a round of Footy...

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Top 4 Spartan, the ponies missed out last year too.

 

[Spartan117]

I wonder how much the mental side of things being favourite in a game takes a toll on the players.

Do they read to much and relax.

Look at the perceived upsets from this week.

Dragons, Penrith, Roosters, Cowboys and Canberra @ Home.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

I don't know so much if it has anything to do with the mental side. Dragons are expected to walk away every week with a win, and usually do so quite comfortably, but look at last night for example…

Dragons allowed the Sharks to dominate the pace of the game and got enough points in early to walk away with it. Dragons have struggled to chase good leads down in the past couple of years, although I'm not taking away anything from Cronulla, they played extremely well. Bennett coached teams are always coached to respect their opposition, so I don't think the Dragons would have expected to be walk up starts.

Having said that, it was pretty strange watching the Dragons start spreading the ball in desperation in the last five minutes of the game. you could see they were cracking. 16-10 really didn't reflect the quality of the game, Cronulla truly outclassed them.