So where will we finish going into the finals?

[ROC181]

Souths forwards are running out of steam. Mind you our forwards are good when JWH is on. I won’t miss Napa because his trick with the ball is take it up and die with it. It’s not like he has an offload in his bag of tricks. We need hard hitting forwards to soften the burgessessss. It’s how we beat them last time around. We should finish second... unless the panfers have one last dig and score some good points agains them and we beat the eels comfortably... but that’s a long shot.

[Kelby]

MY PREDICTED FINALS
WEEK 1 DRAW

Storm v Sharks (1^st qualifying final) = Storm
Chooks v Rabbitohs (2^nd qualifying final) = Chooks
Dragon’s v Panthers (1^st elimination final) = Panthers
Broncos v Warriors (2^nd elimination final) = Broncos

Week 2:
Sharks v Broncos = Sharks
Panthers v Souths = Souths

Week 3:
Storm v Souths = Storm
Chooks v Sharks = Chooks

GF = Storm v Chooks = Chooks Win!

[Easts75]

MY PREDICTED FINALS
WEEK 1 DRAW

Storm v Sharks (1^st qualifying final) = Storm
Chooks v Rabbitohs (2^nd qualifying final) = Chooks
Dragon’s v Panthers (1^st elimination final) = Panthers
Broncos v Warriors (2^nd elimination final) = Broncos

Week 2:
Sharks v Broncos = Sharks
Panthers v Souths = Souths

Week 3:
Storm v Souths = Storm
Chooks v Sharks = Chooks

GF = Storm v Chooks = Chooks Win!

If we beat Souffs, Sharks & Storm to win the GF that would be as good as life gets

[QWERTY]

whatever place we finish, it will be tough no matter what. Hopefully a top 2 finish, hopefully somehow we get the dragons as our opposition to gain a week break

[bondi.boy]

Looks like the minor premiership is out of our reach unless Melbourne lose and we win and make up the 32 point differential. Unlikely. Bad luck for the guy who had 8 grand or whatever it was on us coming first. Ouch.

2nd is looking most likely if us and Souths both win (they play Tigers). Our points diff is 43 points better than theirs.

Good news is we can't miss the 4. If we lose to Parra we could tie for 4th with any combination of Penrith, St George, Broncos and Warriors however our points diff is too far ahead of any of them to be in any danger.

So first week vs Souths looks most likely, presumably it would be at Allianz. Worst case would be Storm in Melbourne if we lose to Parra.

Also if Souths lose and us and Cronulla win, then Cronulla would finish 3rd and we would play them in week 1.

I think that's all right....or maybe I've completely confused myself....

Nothing else is acceptable but a win by The Roosters over the Eels.
Lose to the Eels and we're finished in the finals.

I said after the Raiders loss that our team would not win another game this season...attack has disappeared, combos/moves/plays are basically non-existent, bad passes and dropped balls have returned...and our defence is simply getting walked all over, mainly Toops and Latrell in particular.
Throw in the seemingly-very biased refereeing...and we're going to have to score many points to win...where are these points going to come from?

[Johnny Brass]

I can see the Broncos donkey licking manly this week and getting a home semi. Winning that first semi is a must as the next game against either them or possibly the warriors would be a very tough game.

[ROC181]

I can see the Broncos donkey licking manly this week and getting a home semi. Winning that first semi is a must as the next game against either them or possibly the warriors would be a very tough game.

Because of the home ground advantage they would be favourites but knowing manly with all their history thing I’m sure they’ll want to finish with one last dig and they may cause an upset if Cummins refs both sides, but that’s a BIG IF.

[QWERTY]

Nothing else is acceptable but a win by The Roosters over the Eels.
Lose to the Eels and we're finished in the finals.

I said after the Raiders loss that our team would not win another game this season...attack has disappeared, combos/moves/plays are basically non-existent, bad passes and dropped balls have returned...and our defence is simply getting walked all over, mainly Toops and Latrell in particular.
Throw in the seemingly-very biased refereeing...and we're going to have to score many points to win...where are these points going to come from?

I hope we win. Though, the fact is, we recently just got Luke Keary back after a 3-4 week spell without him. Our attack was still trying to adapt to his return against the broncos. I’d say with 2 weeks of training, Cronk and keary’s combinations should be gelling again. A win against parra would be good for momentum going into the finals, but this form slump happens quite often at the back end of the season for the premiership winners. Statistically that is. In 2013, we dropped two games in a row-then winning one-before entering the finals. It happened similarly for spiffs and Rabbitohs as well. No need to panic yet. If we lose the quarter final maybe though is warranted

[Louis N]

I hope we win. Though, the fact is, we recently just got Luke Keary back after a 3-4 week spell without him. Our attack was still trying to adapt to his return against the broncos. I’d say with 2 weeks of training, Cronk and keary’s combinations should be gelling again. A win against parra would be good for momentum going into the finals, but this form slump happens quite often at the back end of the season for the premiership winners. Statistically that is. In 2013, we dropped two games in a row-then winning one-before entering the finals. It happened similarly for spiffs and Rabbitohs as well. No need to panic yet. If we lose the quarter final maybe though is warranted

Our last loss against the Broncos was a useful lesson pre finals. The scoreboard was no indication of the game. They got all the breaks and we played twenty minutes of the game with 12 men. It was even stevens until Napa got binned and that incident really ruffled our feathers and broke the rhythm of play. Plus Tupou had about as bad a game as you can imagine, dropping the ball on our first set of six and putting us immediately on the backfoor, getting burned by Isaako and then gifting them a try when Teddy had a ball covered. So they should not have been ahead. Also Tedesco's missed try and Manu's almost miracle one showed just how easily the scoreboard could have changed. Balancing that a bit is they had to play without McCullough but out twenty minutes with twelve men was probably a bigger imposition.

Our lesson of course is to eliminate the poor ball security and hand overs. Seems to me that we always give Brisbane a leg up and that Darius Boyd 55 metre cross field run should have been shut down by the whole line moving up on the outside and forcing him back in. All of their tries were easily preventable and on a normal day should not have been scored. So let's make up for it against Parra.

[ism22]

I have no doubt we will finish 2nd after beating the Eels this weekend.

My concern is playing the monstrous Souffs forward pack minus Napa in the first week of the finals!

Yes and TBH Sharks are a pretty similar scare... big forwards v more mobile forwards. The smarter team (which is us on our day) will always win. However, we are known to have slow days.

IMO the good news is that we have planned for this!!! There is ALWAYS gonna be a key player out during the finals... ALWAYS. Not saying losses are good but IMO we essentially rested JWH and Keary. Aside from Napa, we are full strength... which is good.

Sharks are frigging annoying because we know they cheated and Aaron Woods will be on their bench. Knowing that and having Napa our is annoying. However, the NRL have confirmed they won't be penalised and suggested the breaches were not so serious... so such is life.

[ism22]

Our last loss against the Broncos was a useful lesson pre finals. The scoreboard was no indication of the game. They got all the breaks and we played twenty minutes of the game with 12 men. It was even stevens until Napa got binned and that incident really ruffled our feathers and broke the rhythm of play. Plus Tupou had about as bad a game as you can imagine, dropping the ball on our first set of six and putting us immediately on the backfoor, getting burned by Isaako and then gifting them a try when Teddy had a ball covered. So they should not have been ahead. Also Tedesco's missed try and Manu's almost miracle one showed just how easily the scoreboard could have changed. Balancing that a bit is they had to play without McCullough but out twenty minutes with twelve men was probably a bigger imposition.

Our lesson of course is to eliminate the poor ball security and hand overs. Seems to me that we always give Brisbane a leg up and that Darius Boyd 55 metre cross field run should have been shut down by the whole line moving up on the outside and forcing him back in. All of their tries were easily preventable and on a normal day should not have been scored. So let's make up for it against Parra.

Brisbane and Canberra did not win either game... we lost both under identical circumstances IMO.

Essentially, we allowed them to get ahead by a little bit (one penalty goal from right in front) and then all they did was waste time. We were on top but simply lacked the time/space to do anything. Oh there were some good runs!!! Teddy was amazing against Brisbane. However, they were all 80m runs because Brisbane grubbeded the ball into touch on the last.

Fair tactic... fair tactic. However, it was greatly aided but Brisbane and Canberra's 95% completion rates. Quite frankly the refs lacked the cojones to call penalties, so our opposition never gave up ball within their 50. Result? We needed 80m tries to win and all they needed to do was waste as much time as possible (they were never trying to score - Boyd's crab try was a great example of this and TBH it was a defensive lapse that allowed that).

IMO things will open up if we can either score some early tries or hold teams out for longer. This way, they will be forced to play footy rather than wasting time. I back us to win a footy game against anybody!!!!

[roosterchook]

It’s anyones guess. No one was thinking we’d get rolled by the raiders but here we are. We ‘should’ easily beat and thrash the eels but they will again play for their jumper and limit errors and wait for us to hand them the match. This has been proven as an effective formula to beat us so we will have to complete more sets and get decent possession in their half if we are to win.

[The Skeez]

In the big one

[top_joe]

In the big one

With Napalm getting the Clive Churchill.

[eddie]

Not expecting any favours from the game managers on the weekend, even though they've been caning parrascatter with penalties lately.
Having said that, if we cant overcome any hurdles to beat this mob, I'll plan for a 2019 premiership.