An Alternative NRL Round 7 Preview – The Kick To Come

Welcome to the Kick to Come – our alternative NRL Round 7 Preview of all the big Rugby League ahead this weekend.

We supply the shortest possible match by match preview, pick a few things were are excited about, and why we are reaching for the pillow, there’s the NRL’s most pointless tipping competition, and a Wrasse sized bit about NRL odds/betting, a dabble into Supercoach and we have the low down on the Rugby League on TV to let you do your best sloth-work.

Doing many things, with not a lot of quality, just the way we like it. 

Want to read more? Of course you do. Our NRL Round 7 Preview awaits.

Want to find out what we thought of last week? I bet you do. There’s our NRL Round 6 Review.

NRL ROUND 7 PREVIEW – MATCH BY MATCH IN 50 WORDS OR SO

THU 7:50pm – BULLDOGS v ROOSTERS

Was it very nice of the Bulldogs to pull themselves out of their rut, by pushing a team in a similar situation further down like they did last weekend against Cowboys? Probably not, but they were quite good, but will need a few more of those to get into the top 8. Only having the Cowboys and Eels below is not a good sign. Roosters have been hot and cold this year, and last week’s loss to Souths was one of the more mild performances. Hard one to tip.

Side Interest – Still thinking.

FRI 6pm – WARRIORS v DRAGONS

Anyone who would have said at the start of the season that this game was going to be a top O table clash come round 7 would have had their NRL credentials questioned. It is refreshing none the less, and we hope it leads to a genuine Warriors title tilt, rather than the usual Warriors style. Last week’s loss to the Broncos was the first chink in the armor for the NZ side’s 2018 season. No such problems for the Dragons who go from to strength to strength, and we reckon they’ll add a third strength on Friday.

Side Interest – Matt Dufty v RTS

FRI 7:50pm – BRONCOS v STORM

The Broncos have won just 3 of these clashes at Suncorp, compared to 12 for the Storm. Perhaps it is/was the big name Queensland Origin stars that made the difference, given their big game experience at The Cauldron. There’s so many similarities between these two sides heading into the game – both teams got back to winning ways last weekend, and both were impressive, both still only have a 50% after 6 rounds, and there’s even the rumour from today of Craig Bellamy going to Brisbane to replace Wayne Bennett in the near future. Broncos will need more than some goalposts to stop the Storm.

SIDE INTEREST – 

SAT 3pm – RABBITOHS v RAIDERS @ Central Coast Stadium

Central Coast get their first taste of NRL for the season, and one could argue it should see permanent Rugby League, and preferably with an association with the Bears name. The locals get their chance to show how much they want a team, so let’s see if they can go near the 20,000 from last year. Onto the game and Souths were very impressive last week, and the Raiders beat the Eels, or as someone very unkindly put it, the contested bye. Hopefully as a Souths fan more than a temporary return to greatness.

SIDE INTEREST – More Sutton Gold. Giant Sauce bottles.

SAT 5:30pm – TIGERS v KNIGHTS @ Scully Park, Tamworth

The home of Country Music in Australia gets Rugby League, although Rabbitohs may have made more sense with their owner the band leader for TOFOG. Taking games to the Country is the way forward for the NRL in our opinion, given some of the small crowds and crap timeslots for urban teams. But  for it to work make every team do it once each for starters to even it out. As for the game, the Tigers could hardly have impressed more this season, especially relative to the expected ladder position before the season started. A few things were expected of the Knights – improvement and how good Kalyn Ponga is – and fair to say both have exceeded expectations so far.

SIDE INTEREST – Ponga. Bet the Cowboys have seller’s remorse now. The better short term and long term bet.

SAT 7:35pm – COWBOYS v TITANS

Gold Coast’s two game winning streak was ended last weekend in emphatic style by Penrith in the second half, but they were competitive in the first half. The same can’t be said for the Cowboys who were dreadful in the first half last week against the Bulldogs. A lot of Cowboys players are now under pressure, and need a win this weekend, for their team and some momentum as Origin Series and Origin Bolters loom.

SIDE INTEREST – Thurston’s time to shut up all the critics?

SUN 2pm – EELS v SEA EAGLES

The Eels confirmed how bad things could get in the first clash between these two sides as they were destroyed 54-0. The Eels had won the previous 4 clashes, and it is always said that Manly don’t like to travel much. Bevan French is this week’s scapegoat for the Eels, dropped from the side, next week’s potential scapegoat return to the side on the wing – Jarryd Hayne. The Hayne Plane’s arrival has coincidentally brought turbulence to the Eels, with talk of Brad Arthur losing the Dressing Room. Not quite as bad as Jackson Hastings at Manly tough. Throw in Manly’s recent salary cap dramas, not long after the Eels own, and this is a match up of the NRL’s two most troubled clubs.

SIDE INTEREST – Any impact from Jarryd Hayne on the wing.

SUN 4pm – SHARKS v PANTHERS

Penrith look really good at the moment, on the back of James Maloney, the man who moved to Penrith so Matt Moylan could get out. Safe to say it has worked out better for one club/player than the other. Maloney looks certain for Origin, Moylan such an outside chance he is not even getting an Origin Bolter tag. Did we mention it is on a Sunday, between two Sydney sides.

SIDE INTEREST – Matt Moylan

NRL ROUND 7 PREVIEW – 3 THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

1 – Warriors v Dragons

2 – Broncos v Storm

3 – Giant Sauce Bottles and Golden Guitars as the NRL goes on the road.

NRL ROUND 7 PREVIEW – THINGS TO AVOID THIS WEEKEND

Eels v Manly doesn’t look very appealing.

Channel Nein. Until Origin time.

NRL ROUND 7 PREVIEW – TIPPING COMPETITION

Time to see how well we can tip. And what kind of ridiculous things we can use for a tipping compeditor. As ever the dog is back as our resident Paul the World Cup Tipping Octopus. Who will triumph in Rugby League’s most pointless tipping competition? Find our below.

THE GURGLER’S NRL ROUND 7 TIPS

ROOSTERS to beat Bulldogs
DRAGONS to beat Warriors
STORM to beat Broncos
RABBITOHS to beat Raiders
TIGERS to beat Knights
COWBOYS to beat Titans
EELS to beat Sea Eagles
PANTHERS to beat Sharks

THE DOG’S NRL ROUND 7 TIPS

Like the infamous octopus at the 2010 Football World Cup, we have our own Muttstradamus to provide tips every week. Unlike Paul, the dog is hopeless at tipping winners.

BULLDOGS to beat Roosters
WARRIORS to beat Dragons
STORM to beat Broncos
RAIDERS to beat Rabbitohs
TIGERS to beat Knights
COWBOYS to beat Titans
SEA EAGLES to beat Eels
SHARKS to beat Panthers

GUEST TIPSTER ROUND 7 TIPS – IS THE NRL TEAM GOING BETTER THAN THE QLD/NSW CUP TEAM?

Read background below, points difference between NRL and Intrust competition side in brackets.

ROOSTERS (+2) to beat Bulldogs (-4)
DRAGONS (+4) to beat Warriors (+4)
STORM (0) to beat Broncos (-0.5)
RABBITOHS (0) to beat Raiders (-4)
KNIGHTS (3) to beat Tigers (2)
TITANS (0.67) to beat Cowboys (-3.33)
SEA EAGLES (-1) to beat Eels (-6)
PANTHERS (2) to beat Sharks (-2)

Background:

Given how much we love our second tier rugby league, mostly the Queensland Cup, it is about time we used the Intrust Super competitions to do NRL tips. 

Since every NRL team has a NSW Cup side, and in the case of the Queensland sides and Melbourne, multiple sides, why not base tips on the relative performance of the teams across the competitions.

The theory is that the NRL side should be going better than the second tier side, although you could argue that a good second tier side is great for depth. But that’s not really much good to the NRL side in the short term, and the NRL tends to shy away from giving too many Intrust competition players a go anyway. E.g. Rod Griffin, Rhyse Martin, Justin Olam, etc.

So the better the NRL team is going against the Intrust side, that team gets the tip. As in, has more competition points. If it is even, then the team with more NRL points.

For interests sake the table is below. Remember that the Qld Cup has been averaged across the feeder sides.

CURRENT SCOREBOARD

THE GURGLER – 22/48 – Last Week 3
MUTTSTRADAMUS 14/48- Last Week 2
GUEST TIPSTERS TOTAL – 19/40 – Last Week 4
Guest Tipsters Breakdown:
R1 – OUR 2018 SEASON PREDICTIONS 3/8
R2 – INTERNET RANDOM RESULT GENERATOR 5/8
R3 – WORST LOSSES EVER 4/8
R4 – EASTER LONG WEEKEND HOLIDAY VENUES 3/8
R5 – FEWEST PENALTIES CONCEDED 4/8
R6 – BEST DEFENSIVE TEAM

NRL ROUND 7 PREVIEW – ODDS AND SODS

SUPER MULTI MADNESS

Here’s our Mega Multi Madness for NRL Round 

ROOSTERS to win
DRAGONS -1.5 start
STORM -3.5 start & Game Total +38.5
Rabbitohs v Raiders – Total Game Score +45.5
KNIGHTS +8.5 start & Game Total +37.5
COEN HESS to score anytime – Cowboys v Titans
BRIAN KELLY to score more tries than Brad Takairangi – Eels v Sea Eagles
SHARKS +10.5 start

$1 could “pay” $498 – but will probably pay NIL

TICKET TO RIDE

Here’s where we lay down our best bet of the weekend and attempt to roll it over each week into a multi week Cash Cow. A year long moving All Up.

THIS WEEK’S BEST BET

$1.52 on Storm @ $1.60

LAST WEEK’S RESULT

$1 on Dragons @ $1.52 – WIN

CURRENT RUN / RETURN

1 Week

BEST RUN / RETURN SO FAR

2 Weeks – $3.52 (Weeks 2/3)

RUGBY LEAGUE VIEWING THIS WEEKEND

Wanting to know when its on so you can have that special sloth time? Here’s all the live league this weekend.