the run home

[noisetheory]

Sharks (home)
Bye (should win)
Warriors (home)
Titans (down the highway)
Eels (home)
Raiders (away)
Bulldogs (away)
Storm (suncorp)
Manly (brooky)
Penrith (suncorp)

realistically, we should be aiming to win 4 of the next 5 games (allowing for one stuff up). aiming high, we could win all of them. either way, this run of games should allow us to set up well for the finals.

then we got the three tough ones, which should get us into "finals football" mode. then hopefully a confident win in the final round verse penrith, which might be a chance to rest/limit the time of some guns so they are 100% ready for finals week 1.

lookin good i reckon

EDIT: this week is looking alot tougher now that parker and teo will also be out.

 

[Son Edo]

Warriors - Have an awful away record this year we should beat them no excuses

Titans - I'll be honest ive got the feeling they'll beat us

Eels - Easy win

Raiders - Easy win

Bulldogs, Manly and Storm in a row, atleast one win would be nice

Penrith - Easy win.

 

[Charmamba]

Sharks (home) Win - We can cover our origin stars better imo

Bye

Warriors (home) Win - Fresh after the bye and hopefully all hands on deck.

Titans (down the highway) Win - Normally it's teams standing up when they take us on, Instead i think we tend to stand up against the Titans more.

Eels (home) Win - At this point the Eels should be full deflated, 50+

Raiders (away) Win - injuries will finish the Raiders this season and like Eels will be full deflated, Confidence after the Eels smashing should carry over.

Bulldogs (away) Loss - it will only be a narrow loss but the Dogs should be on fire.

Storm (suncorp) Loss - A second loss in a row but the loss that wakes the team up ready.

Manly (brooky) Win - We should have got them last time, but now with the top 4 locked away and the chance to secure a top 2 spot we should fire.

Penrith (suncorp) I can see Griffin resting stars here ready for the finals, Our young guys will use this game to show why they deserve a shot in the finals. 40+

 

[Coxy]

Agree. I see no point in resting anyone unless we have 1st or 2nd sewn up and want to give Thaiday, Hodges and Civo a rest. Even then, only if they have some niggles to get over.

The Round 23-25 gauntlet, also agree. There should be 2 goals:
1. Be absolutely competitive for the full 80 minutes of all 3 games
2. Win 2 of the 3 minimum

Last time we had tough back to back games we lost all 3 (Warriors away, Manly home, Melbourne away), albeit Origin impacted for the last one, and we should've won the Manly game.

Bulldogs, well, it remains to be seen if they can maintain their current form until then, but I think we need to beat them.
Melbourne - they're beatable. No question about it. And at home, I think we need to make a statement. If we can't beat them at home then we'll never beat them.
Manly at Brooky - not our favourite place to play, and a win there would be a huge boost to the confidence.

IMO Broncos, Storm, Manly and Bulldogs are the top 4 teams this year, so running that top 4 gauntlet we have to make a statement.
Not saying we can't win the premiership if we don't win 2+ of those games, but the psychological advantage of doing so would be ideal.

I also see Warriors at home as a danger game. Warriors have no fear for us, and they always lift a level. Titans will also be desperate to end their losing streak against us, especially at home, and a win there will be key to keeping their finals hopes alive, so definitely not to be taken lightly - but I think we should win that one.

Eels SHOULD be a gimme.
Raiders SHOULD be a gimme, but again, Canberra isn't a happy hunting ground for us.

Penrith...pfft. Like I said, I hope we don't rest players, but whether we do or not we need to make a statement in that game. Not just go through the motions for a win.

Really we've got to aim for top 2. Get a home final week 1 and best chance to host a grand final qualifier. Last thing we want is to face an away trip to Melbourne to play the Storm in week 1.

 

[noisetheory]

And I hope Griffin doesn't rest anyone in the last game unless there are some SERIOUS niggling injuries. Momentum is vital. I expect everyone to play unless someone has a hammy twinge or something.

agree. if we are top four then we can earn a weeks rest by winning rnd 1 of the finals anyway.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Bulldogs are a well coached side but they don't have much in the halves worth worrying about. We should beat them. I think beating the Storm or manly could be a real catalyst for our boys to get the belief they need to win the Premiership.

 

[user_nat]

I think the Bulldogs will actually be the biggest challenge. The way their forwards move the ball around with Barba popping up in support could give us some trouble based on previous games this year. Although I don't really think we will have trouble scoring ourselves, even though their defense was great against Melbourne on Sunday.

Really want to beat the Storm, winning that would be a big confidence gain going into the finals.

 

[Son Edo]

In all honesty out of Bulldogs, Manly and Storm, i believe we could beat Storm mainly because its at home and last year the Baby Broncos minus Lockyer, Thaiday and others managed to keep up with them. So full strength at Suncorp there just might be a slight chance of victory.

 

[rnabokov]

I think the Bulldogs will actually be the biggest challenge. The way their forwards move the ball around with Barba popping up in support could give us some trouble based on previous games this year. Although I don't really think we will have trouble scoring ourselves, even though their defense was great against Melbourne on Sunday.

Really want to beat the Storm, winning that would be a big confidence gain going into the finals.

If you watch the Dogs v Storm highlights, all their tries involved Barba and kicks. Since we can't seem to control Bowen, I think we will have the same problem with Barba.

On the other hand, take Barba out of the equation, and the Dogs are far less impressive.

For mine, we can win every match if the defense gets back to where it was earlier this year, and we start using a lot more options in attack than flat flat and kick kick.

 

[Dexter]

I think we will beat the Dogs no problem, everyone is rating them because they beat Melb on the weekend but they had some very good calls go there way from the Video ref plus the conditions were pretty bad with the high wind making every kick a lottery.

I've never been more confident about beating the Storm, our forward pack and bench should be too much for them up here.

To finish top 4 we have to win 2 of the 5 games against Dogs, Storm, Manly, Sharks and Warriors as well as all the so called easy games, that gets us 36 points.

It's a pretty good run home really, 8 points plus a bye we can count on plus we get to test ourselves against the top 3 sides coming into the semis.

 

[noisetheory]

manly worry me the most, of any team. i honestly feel like they can thrash us, or anyone, on any given day. i feel confident against the storm. worried about the dogs, probably because we havent played them yet this year - bit of an unknown. but if you take souths for example who are a similar "attacking" team.. well souths had nothing verse us both tiems this year.

no other teams really concern me, at this stage of the year. obviously not saying every other team is an easy win, but we should beat every other team, when it matters.