Round 22: Who You Should Be Cheering
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Once again we are hot favourites to finish 9th. With that in mind, here is a guide to help you decide who to cheer for in round 22.
tl;dr: Tigers beat Manly, Brisbane smash Penrith, Dragons upset Sharks.Game 1: Thursday 9.50pm, Manly Sea Eagles (5th) vs Wests Tigers (10th) @ Brookvale Oval
Form guide:
- Our last meeting was in round 1, where we defeated them 20-6 on a rainy night in Leichhardt. Tom Trbojevic did not play that night.
- Last year we beat them in both games, particularly 38-12 at Brookvale in round 6. Brooks and Benji dominated that game, the latter terrorised Uate with his spiral bombs.
- We have four straight victories against Manly. Our last loss was in round 19 of 2017, where we went down 16-28.
It’s a tough ask to travel to Brookvale at any time of the year, let alone in a year where Manly are playing very well. One positive is we shouldn’t expect a big crowd.
Manly have plenty of points in them. Their average over the last 8 rounds (since DCE returned from injury) is just under 25 points per game. We will need at least 20 points to even get close.
Our forward pack is a worry, being completely outmatched in size. The result of this game will be decided in the first 20-25 minutes. If Taupau and Fonua-Blake run through us, it’s game over. All we can do is hope (like every other year).
Game 3: Friday 9.55pm, Brisbane Broncos (8th) vs Penrith Panthers (7th) @ Suncorp Stadium
Form guide:
- Brisbane absolutely destroyed the scum from the mountains in round 19 last year. The final scoreline of that game was 50-18.
- Both teams have halves pairings that don’t work for differing reasons. Maloney and Cleary clash, while Turpin and Boyd are just plain bad.
We want Brisbane to run up a cricket score like they did last year. Brisbane’s for and against is now meaningless as they are on an odd number of competition points, so any negative to Penrith is a bonus to us.
Brisbane’s defence has been inconsistent, allowing big scores to all of the top 6 (excluding Manly). Based on what we saw vs the Bulldogs, it’s hard to see how Penrith crack them.
Game 8: Sunday 6.05pm, Cronulla Sharks (9th) vs St. George Illawara Dragons (14th) @ PointsBet Stadium
Form guide:
- The Dragons have been terrible this season. Despite winning in their last start (against the even more terrible Titans), they’ve still lost 11 of their last 14 games.
- Cronulla have been very inconsistent. After 12 games they had a 7-5 record. Since then they’ve won 2 of their last 8 games.
- Since 2015, these two teams have played each other 9 times, with Dragons winning one more game for a 5-4 record.
An upset would be nice, though, the more logical prediction would be seeing Cronulla return to form and put the cellar dwelling Dragons away.
A loss to Manly wouldn’t end our season, but it would force us to win our last three games in a row, which statistically just doesn’t happen for us (we’ve only had four streaks of 3+ wins since 2012, inclusive). Anyway, enjoy your week, and don’t cry too much over 9th.
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I only cheer for Wests Tigers the rest can get stuffed always…
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All 3 of these results could (and more than likely will) go against us.
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@Geo said in Round 22: Who You Should Be Cheering:
I only cheer for Wests Tigers the rest can get stuffed always…
Well cheer for the salary cap auditors …
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Yeah their forward pack is just simply going to run over the top of ours, can’t see us winning this one unfortunately.
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Manly will be without Siro and Parker due to injury
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End it now - cheer for the Aussies at Lords. Start thinking about footy again in February next year
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Thank God it’s nearly over… Every September has become a relief now
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Every Wests Tigers player should have the number 9 on their backs from now on
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I think the fact that we let that Dogs game slip means we will be lucky to finish 9th.
We should never ever let this happen.
Reminds me of similar posts I made in 2018
@ loses to Eels, the same to the dogs, the Golden point loss to Panthers… There’s 5 games that we shouldn’t have lost or been more competitive.
Again We as club should be better… Only Madge and a new culture can change us from being perennial “Also Rans” of the NRL
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@Spartan117 everybody seems to be forgetting the Melbourne game and, IMHO, the chooks were we got some seriously dodgy calls yet they only put us away at the very end.
Fonua sticks on the tackle vs Chambers and we win that game too!
