NRL Tipping

[bonsai]

Basically agree with Big Pete in regards to being a Blues supporter. Minichiello played really well, Cooper had some good runs and Anasta/Mullen did good in the 1st half. Other than that we seemed to cop the usual "QLD COMEBACK ATTACK!" in the 2nd half and lost the match due to it. No hassles.. if we win the next match the 3rd game will be VERY close and I'll definitely have to buy tickets to watch it.

[canetoad]

QUEENSF**KINGLANDER!!!

Awesome game, had some lengthy discussions at school about it lol, but pretty much everything that BigPete pointed out was the general consensus, except for Tate, heart in mouth stuff whenever he got the ball and when the defence went towards him. Made one good tackle and on half decent run and that was about it. He seems to fly under the radar with the media though and they never say anything about his performances, but hopefully is dropped, Slater FTW. Does your TV screen suddenly get tinted rose-coloured whenever he is on screen Big Pete? jokes. But seriously, everyone I talk to says Tate is a has-been and someone else deserves the chance.

TATE RANT OVER .

Oohh, I picked the margin to, QLD by 7. I win something from one of my teachers now lol, wish I was 18 so I could bet on it.

Can't wait till Game 2, I want a clean sweep even though I picked it 2-1. Any Palgners going to Game 3 in Brissy, or Game 2 either?
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[celerystalksme]

Tate is a cripple...nuff said!

[canetoad]

OMFG!!! Brisbane just f**ked Newcastle up really bad

71-6 !!!

Wow, and Tate actually did something! Scored a 90m try and ran around about 5 people to get it!

Not good for the tips either, only 2 so far, but that game was just a flogging.
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[bender]

[Qbert]

Was at the Brisbane game! WOOO! I've been to 4 home games this season (and a Kangaroos) and this is the first time the Broncs have won, but boy was it worth it. I know Big Pete must have been excited when tate got that awesome try. For a team who was last coming into that match, they really showed thy've been underachieving. Here's to hoping that they do their normal thing and get a roll on! As for tipping...only on 3/7 atm(plus 1 for SoO), Been 3 1 point margins though, so a bit unpredictable.
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[Big Pete]

Bahaha I leave this topic for a few days and I'm already being carted for sticking up for Tate. I must be the only guy in Australia who actually rates him! But yeah I know Tate is average normally but he's a big game player, he always scores in the big games (eg. Broncos Grand Final, State of Origin 3 and Tri Nations Final). Admittadly his form since returning in 2006 has been really average an their have been times where I've been quite vocal in him being dropped this season for the likes of Denan Kemp (fullback who ran through Manly last week), however, I've never doubted his ability in the Origin arena ever since he debuted their in 2002.

canetoad, any winger would've tried the kick in hindsight it was a stupid move but if it had of paid off, who knows what might of happened? NSWs might of thumbled and we may of picked up the flukey try. It's footy things happen. He made a few good tackles but to be honest, he received barely any quality ball on his wing to do anything important. Inglis besides his first try was gifted room to work with, in saying though he probably deserves it as he's one of the best backs I have ever seen.

Oh and Slater can't replace Tate as you may or may not know he suffered a broken cheek. The only player who possibly could is Matt Bowen but he's a fullback, QLD have a tendancy not to play Fullbacks on the wing (Inglis being an exception as he's a freak and can play anywhere).

Also just before I get misquoted or anything, Tate is not my favourite player nor do I think he's the best player. The best centre IMO is Justin Hodges, Lockyer is my favourite and Thurston is the best in the competition currently.

Also I have to make an apology toady, I thought Lillymen would be average playing for QLD but he has turned it around this season,highlighted by a superb game in Origin 1 where he made a lot of important tackles and when he made them, he made them count. If he keeps improving I can see him becoming a stalwart in our backrow for years to come.

Broncos Game was great but to be fair, it was against a Knights Premier League side being lead by a injured Jarrod Mullen. Anyways ignoring that fact it was probably the most enjoyable game I've ever attended and it's about bloody time too. After the heartbreaks in the Cowboys, Panthers and Storm (Ref!) games and the absolute piece of s**t that was the Rabbitohs game it was good to finally be rewarded with a good attacking display of Rugby League by one of the greatest teams in the competition.

Tate's try was a beauty, a real throwback to one of his tries when he played for Australia in 2005 (one try in particular where he beats about 8 guys and runs about 70 metres to score). However some of my favourites were Justin Hodges 2nd and Boyds on the full-time siren. It was just great to be apart of!

It was a really good week of footy though apart from the Broncos game (if you are anything but a Broncos supporter), with most of the matches being decided by less than 10 points and a few candidates for MOTY (Cowboys and Bulldogs and apparantly Storm vs. Sea Eagles).

BTW my tipping isn't much better with only 3/7. On the brightside I'm doing really well in the FoxSports Comp.

Happy tipping fella's!
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[Timmaaah]

Don't worry Pete, I'm with you on the Tate issue. He might not create something every week but he is a player that you can rely on to turn in decent performance almost every week, and in the games that matter he has always stepped up and done something. I remember seeing a game from the trinations a in 2005 and he created like 2 or 3 trys from nothing on kick returns, and if i recalled correctly one of them won the game to get us to the finals.

The change that i would have made would have been bell, put Inglis in the centers and put Slater on the wing, however Slater has been ruled out for the rest of the series so I'm now thinking that they should stick with the team that got the job done.

The one thing that I'm not happy about with SoO is that Price didn't get MOM. He was the catalyst that got QLD on the front foot in the second half, made so many meters, scored what should have been 2 trys and manged to get a charge down and recover on the 70th min.

Go QLD in Sydney!
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Thanks to Charly for the sig!

[bender]

I agree with you too Pete. Every time Tate plays Parramatta he has a good game as well. He's definately a big game player. When it matters most, he comes up the goods. Anyway, I'm happy about last night. It was agood win for Parra. Not as good as against the delpeted Cowboys but good none the less. Although Manua Vatuvai(spelling?) dropped plenty of ball, Parra wouldn't have been in position to attack him with kicks if the Warriors forwards didn't keep dropping the ball. I thought our defence was very good too. Probably one of Parra's better games defensively. I forgot to tip before I went out on Friday so 0 for me. If I remembered to tip I would've gone pretty good, but alas, it's not to be.

[canetoad]

Damn it, forgot to tip this week. Got 5 so far in the Bulldogs tipping comp, but because they pick the away teams when you forget. How come I'm on 3 when it says it gives you the lowest score, even though the lowest score so far is 2?

Anyway, Cowboys played absolutely crap, Ashley Graham had his worst performance by far, letting in at least 4 tries, while Scott Minto actually had a pretty good game before he got injured. He's surprised me with how good he is playing this year. Lol, people in the crowd starting cheering for Melbourne after they scored to make it 40-4 or something about 35 mins in.

And damn Broncos actually having a decent game, and it just had to come around against the Bulldogs, that's both my teams getting beaten this week .

How's everyone elses tipping going?
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[Qbert]

I'm doing well this week and I know Timmah is 1 off a perfect round (bar tonight) but Penrith screwed him up. Yeah the few games I've seen of Minto he's played really well, which is a stark contrast to his form over most of his Broncos matches.

As for your extra tip, I assume you must have tipped QLD in the Origin, as this round is out of 9, not 8.
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[canetoad]

Ahh, yes, that's right, forgot about Origin.

At the start of the year everyone was saying why would the Cowboys even sign Minto, he is useless, too old, we have enough wingers/centres already etc. We've had to eat our words but, he's cemented a spot in first grade and the Cowboys have had a bad run with wingers/centres getting injured so we've needed him too. Origin material ?

Looks like Cronk is out for 3 or so weeks too, but judging from Melbourne's performance on Saturday they won't miss him. My dad reckons that Melbourne are on the juice.

Gold Coast are up to 5th now, the game against the Tigers was pretty good. They're looking to be finals contenders if they can keep pulling off consistent performances, which they haven't been doing so much so far.

And Parra? 3rd? Didn't even realise they were in the top 8 until I looked at the ladder about half an hour ago.
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[Timmaaah]

looks like i didn't get tonight either... oh well... i cought up a bit of ground this week which was good
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Thanks to Charly for the sig!

[bender]

[Big Pete]

Odd week of footy thus far.

While Origin 3 was a great match, it was a shame Queensland didn't win because IMO they were the more deserving team for the seventy minutes until the injuries took their toll on our defence.

On the flip side, the Broncos finally got away with a good victory over the Titans. I was at the game too and copped a fair bit from Titans fans before Lockyer put the field goal over, it was superb! Only problem was Hodges injured himself and is out for atleast a month, which gives us a backline made of mostly QRL players.

And finally my tipping is going well this week! 4/5 however it wouldn't surprise me everyone is 4/5 or 5/5 for that matter, it's been a fairly easy week.
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[canetoad]

5/5 for me so far, would have been nice if I had of remembered to put my tips in the last two weeks. Actually, I did, but forgot to press submit lol.

SoO wasn't anything brilliant, but still a good, tough game. If it wasn't for our injuries we would have taken it out easy imo.

Cowboys game tonight was nerve-racking. Did anyone watch? Man Sione Faumuina's try was good, but that NZ fella that smashed into the goal posts! You could feel the shudder in the stands when it was replayed. It was freezing at Dairy Farmers too which was crap (well for Townsville anyway), but the game was worth it. Matty Bowen had an awesome defensive game, saved heaps of tries from some sloppy defence at the front. Minto was good again as well, but Wade McKinnon was awesome, always liked that bloke as a player and he's really shining now, always dangerous whenever he got the ball, although he spent half the game in-line with the Cowboys' defence for some reason.

Didn't watch Friday's games, was doing something, forget what, but I remember seeing Wests VS Penrith 28-26 fairly late into the game, then wake up in the morning and it's 43-26, Tigers must of absolutely smashed them at the end of the game.

Should be close games for the rest of the weekend. Great that Bulldogs Vs Cronulla is the TV game, though I'll probably already know the score by then, too hard to wait. St George are hard to pick, but I did this week because I haven't the last two and they've won (in the Bulldogs Tipping Comp). Then Monday finally with Parra vs Newcastle, another tough game to pick but went with Parra because... I don't really know.

Wow, I just realised how long that was, always do that when I'm tired. Anyway, QLD DERBY @ Dairy Farmers on Saturday. Always the biggest game of the year and should be a great one (if the Cowboys can patch up their defence)
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[Timmaaah]

i was at the game on Friday night also, was copping it from titan supporters all night... then they left just after Prince scored thinking they had the game and tried to beat the traffic... suckers

what an end to a game though... atmosphere at the ground was incredible, the whole place went nuts when locky slotted that field goal... one of the best games I've been to!
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Thanks to Charly for the sig!

[Qbert]

I was working Friday night and Sunday afternoon (and have no foxtell), so I've seen next to no footy this week bar the SoO. I'm glad it turned into a slugfest really, I much prefer that than willy nilly throwing the ball around. SoO is ment to be tough and nerve-racking. Game 3 was probably the best of the series, as it was the only one where I was not confident of the maroons pulling through. It's a much better feeling surprisingly.

I've jumped ahead in the last couple of weeks on tipping, but it seems that half the comp has stoped putting tips in anyway!
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[Bitchacho]

This week was so easy with the tips. If you backed all the favourites you would have got the card. But me being smart I went for a few underdogs and lost those ones....GOSH.

[Big Pete]

Haha yeah Qbert but I still want that $poon Prize pool so lets keep slugging it out.

The third game was the best as I think it typified the two states. Queensland kept trying no matter what while New South Wales showed how proud and passionate they are through not wanting to lose the third game.

Origin next year will be extremely interesting IMO.

And yeah this week was surprisingly easy to tip, no real upsets. The only tip I got wrong was the Warriors/Cowboys and honestly I thought Warriors deserved the victory more, mind you they still played horrible although the Cowboys got away with some fortunate calls...much to my dismay.
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[canetoad]

What $poon prize pool? I never remember talking about that .

Most people who actually tip are on 5/6/7 points so far so it wasn't very hard at all. That obstruction call in the Cowboys Vs Warriors game was absolute crap, the whole crowd is just sitting there talking expecting it to be a try and the NO TRY comes up on the big screen . Like Payne was going to catch McKinnon anyway.
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[Big Pete]

It wasn't just that call either canetoad but the obvious forward pass to Carl Webb as he went over to score.

However I'm not really here to berate the Cowboys, they are my second favourite team after all, behind the Broncos. Should be a cracker on Friday, are you going canetoad?
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[canetoad]

Sure am, got season tickets. If you see anyone in a Bulldogs jersey on TV it will be me, or maybe some other person . I'll probably still tip the Cowboys even though I think Brisbane might get up.

Bloody Parra! Needed them to win for a perfect round and they're getting flogged by Newcastle, 24-0 just after half time. Can't see them coming back from there, but you never know I suppose.

Edit: 30-0 now
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[Big Pete]

Bulldogs jersey! Why canetoad why!

Oh sweet, I got seson tickets for the Broncos at Suncorp and it's bloody sweet although I'm spewing because I can't gee my mates up about being at Brent Tate's last ever game as a Bronco. Bloody mum!

Ah well, Broncos have just announced their worst centre pairing in Darius Boyd and David Stagg. This shall be interesting.
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[bender]

For the Broncos supporters or any other league fan for that matter, does Lockyear being out for the season mean the Broncos premiership chances are now gone? I say yes, but I still think they'll make the top eight.