Canterbury Bulldogs vs St George Illawarra Dragons – Friday night – ANZ Stadium
Right here right now I don't know if Josh Reynolds will be available for the Bulldogs. If he gets the nod to replace the injured Kurt Gidley for New South Wales I'd be a lot less confident, but I wouldn't be changing my selection. Neither side (somewhat surprisingly) is greatly affected by State of Origin duties, but the timing of this clash does disappoint me somewhat as I don't get to see the Morris twins going head-to-head. The Bulldogs forward pack is essentially intact - they outmuscled the Broncos last week and they can outmuscle the Dragons. With that in mind there'll be plenty of pressure on the Dragons halves, and Jamie Soward needs time and space to give us anything like his best. Ben Barba is gradually returning to the form we saw from him last year and I think he'll edge out Josh Dugan to win the battle of the troubled fullbacks. Dogs by 10.
Verdict – Bulldogs
Result - Bulldogs 16 defeated Dragons 14
South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Newcastle Knights – Saturday night – ANZ Stadium
As per my previous preview John Sutton (Origin) and/or Sam Burgess (judiciary) may or may not play for the Bunnies. We'll know in both cases later tonight (Thursday). The Knights are not without their own problems. Kurt Gidley, Darius Boyd and Akuila Uate are unavailable, and Neville Costigan has been dropped altogether for being as inconsistent as erm...the Newcastle Knights. We'll know if the Newcastle Knights have turned up to play after about 10 minutes - but unfortunately we need to submit out tips before then. The bad Knights will get dusted-up and the good Knights might get beaten anyway. We can't rely on the Knights but we can rely on the Bunnies this season - a team who collectively had the word 'consistency' tattooed onto their heavily-inked arms in the off-season. Nathan Merritt must be thinking he'll never get a crack at an Origin jersey, but he'll slot in at fullback for Greg Inglis and show us all how good he can be.
Verdict – Rabbitohs
Result - Rabbitohs 25 defeated Knights 18
Gold Coast Titans vs North Queensland Cowboys – Sunday afternoon – Skilled Park
The Gold Coast Titans have kindly donated their entire back-row to State of Origin duty but they still boast the most enormous pack of forwards since the Cretaceous period. Ryan James is still coming off the bench, and they've got 223 kgs of centres in Jamal Idris and Brad Takairangi chiming in when needed. The Cowboys have been struggling and things are about to get a whole lot worse. They'll take to the field without Scott, Tamou, Thurston, Tate and Bowen. Wow! I tipped the Cowboys to win the 2013 premiership at the start of the season. I was wrong. I knew I'd get something wrong eventually. They get a sweet run home at the tail of the season but they'll struggle to sneak into the top eight at all.
Verdict – Titans
Result - Titans 31 defeated Cowboys 12
Brisbane Broncos vs New Zealand Warriors – Monday night – Suncorp Stadium
The Warriors do enjoy a game against the Broncos, and they usually get a reasonable amount of crowd support at Suncorp Stadium. They get an opportunity to pick up a rare away win this round against a heavily-depleted Broncos outfit. Thaiday, Hodges, Parker and Gillett are on the Sunshine Coast and Hannant, Stagg and Reed won't be back from the clinic for quite a while. What keeps the Broncos in the contest is their spine of McCullough, Wallace, Prince and Norman. That quartet could get the Broncos home without surprising. I also think the 'baby Broncos' are a better chance of picking up a win toward the start of an Origin campaign rather than the end of it. I teetered and waivered and backed and forthed for a while with this one, but with Konrad Hurrell back for this game the Warriors are bringing a near to full-strength side. The Warriors it is.
Verdict – Warriors
Result - Warriors 56 defeated Broncos 18
Wally Lewis - round twelve selections (in bold)
Note: tips from Wally will be published on Thursday night or early Friday morning.
- BULLDOGS vs Dragons
- RABBITOHS vs Knights
- TITANS vs Cowboys
- Broncos vs WARRIORS
Comments
Submitted by The Joker on
The Joker has the same.
With QLD winning game 1 by 6
NSW game 2 by 2
Submitted by The Thinker on
Thanks Joker. I'll be posting my State of Origin selection and thoughts tonight.
Submitted by Bali John on
Of course QLD.
Submitted by cycloneracing on
Agree, but Knights have more of a chance than most expect.
NSW by 11.
Submitted by Johnny Ray on
Alight Yeah. After last week and not getting anything right but Sea Eagles and Sharks game, let's try this thing again ! Bulldogs will win in what I expect will be one sided match, Knights will beat Rabbits because excellent, as much I don't want to make Bunnies out to be a one man team with Greg Inglis gone, there goes the game that's why I'm picking Knights in incredibly close one. Titans will beat Cowboys in what will probably be blow out but personally I don't want to call it cause I usually get it wrong when I do and and cool dude Bronco's will beat Warriors. I know, I know, I said a couple of weeks back that I'm picking Warriors to beat Bronco's during Origin but with what I'm hearing as member, that win last Sunday was fluke and though I want to keep the faith, I can't help but feel guys not all our prayers have been answered with Warriors just yet. Broncos but in another close one ! Go Warriors ! ;-D
Submitted by Johnny Ray on
Alright Yeah. After last week and not getting anything right but Sea Eagles and Sharks game, let's try this thing again ! Bulldogs will win in what I expect will be one sided match, Knights will beat Rabbits because excellent, as much I don't want to make Bunnies out to be a one man team with Greg Inglis gone, there goes the game that's why I'm picking Knights in incredibly close one. Titans will beat Cowboys in what will probably be blow out but personally I don't want to call it cause I usually get it wrong when I do and and cool dude Bronco's will beat Warriors. I know, I know, I said a couple of weeks back that I'm picking Warriors to beat Bronco's during Origin but with what I'm hearing as member, that win last Sunday was fluke and though I want to keep the faith, I can't help but feel guys not all our prayers have been answered with Warriors just yet. Broncos but in another close one ! Go Warriors ! ;-D
Submitted by Johnny Ray on
Sorry Double Post. :-( NSW To Win by 8 ;-D
Submitted by a on
Here is my tips
Bulldogs Dragons are missing a few players so lets go Bulldogs here
Kntighs Rabbitohs are missing a lot of players so lete go Knights in a upset
Titans unfortunlly Cowboys are missing way too many players so Titans
Warriors Broncos are missing way too many players so lets go Warriors in a upset
Submitted by The Joker on
Johnny Ray, yet again you go against the warriors, i am shocked. They will train hard as a full team and come out firing after breaking through with their last win. Warriors 13+, manu to score 2 maybe 3. Knights on the other hand is a game i am sweating on.. Wayne knows how to pick replacements and i hear these new boys are fairly good players.. I want NSW to win but yet again our team sucks. Dogs 1-12 just, dragons will put up a mighty fight.. titans 13+.
Thinker, i am looking forward to reading your thoughts on origin. Cheers.
Submitted by Guru Craig on
Bulldogs - Reynolds is on Origin duty but I like the Dogs here, they're improving and their big pack will be hard to stop. The Dragons are going along as well, so-so though. When you watch their games it's usually close but the Saints miss the X factor, Pineapple is the answer for now....Dogs 1-12
Souths - Word for word with the Boss. The Bunnies have addressed their notorious inconsistencies of past seasons and so far look a lock for the top 4. Amazingly they only have one bloke in the Origin..how does that work? one bonus is that Maguire will be selling that fact to the boys and asking for no-losses during origin period. South Sydney are the only big team to coast the Origin this year. Back em home.
Titans - I'd love to tip the Cowboys but I just can't, they let themselves down last week, the Ref was giving the home side a bit of help but still..that was supposed to be a win. The Coast are still confusing me, I think the forwards and backs are opposing each other somehow, something doesn't fit in the jigsaw, that's what they need to work out if they are to get up with the big boys. NQ I think will fall into the bottom 4 soon, unless they work out what is going on up there.
Brisbane - Kemp is back, one of my favourite new players of a few years ago has been named on the wing although I wouldn't get too comfy, I don't think Griff is a fan. Brisbane are down a few important names and their forward pack is giving away a few hundy but at this time of year I'm backing the boys to lift enough and cover the Warriors.
Submitted by Steel Panther on
Ask any Warriors fan and Kemp's name in the Broncos line up is reason alone to pick the Warriors on Monday night. On saying that he'll probably have a blinder..haha!!
Submitted by Emily on
Exactly what I went for.
Submitted by Emily on
Last year during the origin series we won both our games when we didn't have GI.
Submitted by Johnny Ray on
Yeah and how did Knights lose a game that they were up twelve points early ? I don't understand it ! Dude ! I like to apologize to all The Rabbitoh Fans reading this ! I promise you I will never underestimate them again ! ;-D
Submitted by Guru Craig on
Ouch!......... rant will come later regarding the Brisbane game.
Submitted by Steel Panther on
And you underestimated the Warriors again Johnny Ray!!
Submitted by Johnny Ray on
Yeah Steel Panther, don't tell me ! Dude I am stunned by that performance ! How anybody is able to improve their game like that in two weeks and put on back to back wins, when you haven't been able to win at anything for the last twelve months, that is just all kinds of awesome ! Go the Warriors ! We're back ! Yeah bro ! ;-D
Submitted by Steel Panther on
Great to see the Warriors chalk up a good win but you gotta remember it was against a severely weakened Broncos side. Never-the-less they looked interested, enthusiastic even. Amazing what a turn around in attitude can do aye!!
Submitted by mark ashford on
Congratulations to the Warriors and their supporters. Just sorry they decided to put on their best game of the year against my Broncos. Broncos have always been heavily effected by Origin so can't use that as excuse. This must be Baby Broncos worst performance ever...what's the go coach?
Submitted by Guru Craig on
Broncos - The 56pt loss on the weekend is a new record for the Bronco's at home, I'm sure you've all read this in the headlines, some people blame the Origin period some blame the coach and some blame the alignment of the stars. I'm going to have a crack and add my 2c into what's wrong and in the words of Jamie Soward 'The Guru doesn't like this'.
The game on the weekend saw Wallace, McCullough, Hoffman and Norman playing out of position. 1st, why? moving guys around en-mass is U12s coaching, a knee jerk reaction to the previous 2 losses and the Origin/injury toll. The effect and flow on effect of this is to upset players and break any rhythm the team has developed. Hoffman is the NZ test FB, he has to be played at FB! Corey Parker was the Captain when Lockyer wasn't playing, why the need to change that? Thaiday is a great bloke and a top player, but is he captain material? Sam is doing his best but the right decision was to keep Corey at C. Peter Wallace has to be one of the hardest working blokes on the park, he gives his best every week.
Anyone remember the key positions for a strong team? 7,9,1,13....Wallace, McCullough, Hoffman and Parker! Why on earth would you continually mess around the most important playing group at the club? How would Belly go if he told his big 3 they're spots were under review, Slater mate your on the wing, Coops 9 and Cam, sorry buddy but your 2nd row/bench and you've lost the Captaincy and kicking duties.
Answer that question for yourselves then apply the same theory at Brisbane...
Submitted by The Thinker on
He's fired up the Guru, and good on him for giving a spray.
I gave the Broncos some hope based on the assumption that their spine was intact. When your team is affected by a bunch of enforced changes I wouldn't have thought making more changes was the way to play your hand.
The Storm keep winning (at least partly) because their 1,7 and 9 are so good. Bellamy can slot just about anyone onto the park in other roles and they get the job done.
It's easy when you're sitting on the couch...but still
Submitted by cycloneracing on
Pretty god tip mate :)
Submitted by cycloneracing on
Pretty good tip mate :)