Our Round 16 Intrust Super Cup Predictions and Preview awaits, in a week where the Intrust Super Cup competes alongside the Origin depleted NRL round.
The missing Origin stars gives some of the better players in the Intrust Super Cup this season a rare chance to shine, with Melbourne and Brisbane alone supplying plenty of ISC faces.
The best place to do that is follow some Intrust Super Cup this weekend. And who else to supply tips for you than Intrust Super’s Brendan O’Farrell.
Round 16 Intrust Super Cup sees some Friday night football in Mackay, and the second installment of the Flockbuster between Tweed Heads and Wynnum. Plenty to like in between as well of course, and a great weekend to get out and support the Intrust Super Cup given the paltry offering in the NRL this weekend. It was this round a few seasons ago when the PNG Hunters outdrew all NRL games. Although given their current form, we can’t see a repeat.
Intrust Super’s Brendan O’Farrell has provided his expert opinion on who will win.
And with less expertise are our Round 16 Intrust Super Cup Predictions and Preview. We appreciate the feedback from last weekend, thanks for reading.
Round 16 INTRUST SUPER CUP TIPPING – ARE YOU SMARTER THAN SUPER BOF?
Fancy yourself an Intrust Super Cup tipping guru. Reckon you’re better than the CEO of Intrust Super yourself? Find out his Round 16 Intrust Super Cup tips below, and submit your via our Twitter or Facebook page.
BRENDAN O’FARRELL (CEO of Intrust Super)
TOWNSVILLE BLACKHAWKS to beat Mackay Cutters
EASTS TIGERS to beat Central Capras
SUNSHINE COAST FALCONS to beat Northern Pride
IPSWICH JETS to beat Redcliffe Dolphins
BURLEIGH BEARS to beat Souths Logan Magpies
WYNNUM SEAGULLS to beat Tweed Heads Seagulls
NORTHS DEVILS to beat PNG Hunters.
Want to better BOF?
Follow our weekly Twitter post to add your selections. Be better than BOF. If you can with his recent form.
Round 16 INTRUST SUPER CUP – MINI PREVIEW
Here’s a quick rundown on all things Round 16 Intrust Super Cup and our thoughts for all of the games this weekend.
MACKAY CUTTERS v TOWNSVILLE BLACKHAWKS
Friday 7:30pm @ BB Print Stadium
Mackay have already upset Townsville this season, winning 20-6 in Townsville, and interestingly the game was also on a Friday night.
The Cutters seem to enjoy playing the northern teams more, with all of their wins but one this season coming against teams from Rockhampton north. And the other win was against Redcliffe which is on the northern side of the capital.
Mackay are realistically in a group of four teams fighting over eighth place, and are currently 10th and one win shy of Redcliffe in the hot seat.
After a lean run against the top sides a month back, Townsville are back in the top four and on a run of three straight wins.
While Townsville look the slightly stronger side on paper, especially given the quality of their inclusions this weekend, although Mackay are going for quality over quantity with the excellent Cooper Bambling returning.
We Say: Mackay are so hard to predict, often winning when you don’t expect and vice versa. For that reason alone we say the Cutters will cause an upset.
CENTRAL CAPRAS v EASTS TIGERS
Saturday 6:00pm @ Browne Park
The Capras are still looking for that elusive second win of the season, and a tough gig trying to find it this weekend against the Easts Tigers. Although the Capras did manage to hold Souths Logan to a draw two weeks ago, and did OK against the high flying Wynnum last weekend.
This could be the weekend to play the Tigers, as they have lost a couple of key players to the Storm for this round – Billy Walters and Albert Vete being the losses. The Tigers also lost the services of Scott Drinkwater the week before on a permanent basis to the Cowboys.
Central Capras have a touch of NRL themselves with former Titans and Rabbitoh Edward Pettyboune returning to the side.
We Say: Tigers to race to comfortable half time lead, and Capras to storm home and get within a converted try, or two.
NORTHERN PRIDE v SUNSHINE COAST FALCONS
Saturday 6:00pm @ Barlow Park
Unbeatable we said, and certainly not by Redcliffe we said. Well, what would we know. As last weekend saw the unbeaten run of the Sunshine Coast Falcons end at the hands of Redcliffe on the Sunshine Coast. A mere blip, or could there be a little wobble in the Falcons? Losing quality players like Justin Olam, Sandor Earl, and Tino Faasuamaleaui to the Storm for Thursday night’s clash won’t help either. But that’s the set up they sign up for with the Storm.
Still plenty of quality left mind you, including a few players who are all probably vying for player of the season, possibly costing themselves points in Nicho Hynes and Harry Grant.
Northern Pride showed some good signs last weekend, as they were far too good for the PNG Hunters in the TV game. Which makes it two wins from their last three, and in between was a competitive performance against Redcliffe.
The Pride look to have settled on the halves combination of Jordan Biondi-Odo and Brayden Torpy, and the centres feature occasional Cowboys Javid Bowen and Enari Tuala. Cephas Chinfat, who debuted last weekend has been retained in the side.
We Say: Another upset of the Falcons looks quite possible this weekend, but we’re sticking with the quality of the Falcons this weekend. They’ll probably score two late tries to win.
IPSWICH JETS v REDCLIFFE DOLPHINS
Sunday 1:10pm @ North Ipswich Reserve
TV GAME
A battle of the teams that look most likely to finish eighth as it stands this season in the Intrust Super Cup. Anything further north will require some run of form that neither side has shown thus far in 2019.
Although, you could say that Redcliffe are a team at least on the improve. Since their 48-0 home thrashing by Burleigh in Round 9, the Dolphins record is quite good. It is now four wins from their last six games, and two smaller losses to the Cutters and rivals Norths in the Deagon Deviation Derby. There were two big wins over the Hunters and Capras in this six week run, which will always help at the end of the season.
Tyson Gamble has returned to Redcliffe after his stint with the Wests Tigers didn’t work out, and his is joined by promising Broncos fringe player Corey Paix in the halves.
Ipswich haven’t won since the 31st May, a run of three losses, but were quite competitive against Burleigh at home last weekend, a team who have belted teams on the road this season. A Kurtis Rowe second half hat trick proving the difference.
The Jets do feature a few of our favourite players in rugby league in Marmin Barba and Michael Purcell, and should be at least entertaining to watch on the TV this weekend.
We Say: Redcliffe to make it three in a row, and maintain their hold onto the last final spot.
WYNNUM SEAGULLS v TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS
Sunday 2:00pm @ BMD Kougari
One of our favourite sporting derby names this weekend, as the Seagulls of Wynnum take on the Seagulls of Tweed Heads in the Flockbuster. The Old Farm derby between Ipswich Town and Norwich City being one of our other favourites.
Wynnum are going strong, bouncing back from the blip that was losing to the Falcons by beating Central Capras comfortably at home. They sit equal on points with Burleigh in second, and with the Falcons losing last weekend, the gap is down to four points.
Tweed heads were challenging for the top four not long ago, but three losses in a row hurts that momentum. In fairness the three losses were to nil against the Sunshine Coast, a loss in Port Moresby and in Townsville. The problem is Tweed Heads poor recent form against Wynnum in the Flockbuster.
No big changes of note for Wynnum this weekend, while Tweed Heads get a handy inclusion Will Matthews back this weekend.
We Say: Wynnum to be crowned Flockbuster champions yet again.
BURLEIGH BEARS v SOUTHS LOGAN MAGPIES
Sunday 2:00pm @ Barlow Park
TV GAME
A rare occurrence this weekend with the Burleigh Bears playing on a Sunday afternoon, and the Magpies entering a game on the back of a home win.
It was over a year, but Souths Logan finally beat someone at home last weekend, a hard fought win over the Mackay Cutters. Finally though, some success for a side who could be so good. They are undefeated in two games, with a draw against Central two weeks in addition to last week’s win, but can’t really afford too many more losses if they want to play finals football.
Burleigh, like their neighbours on the Intrust Super Cup Wynnum, have also bounced back well after losing out in the top of the table clash with the Falcons, the Bears are currently on a three game winning streak.
Talking of threes, Troy Leo grabbed a hat trick last weekend, and it was just enough to get over Ipswich. Their defense, more than tries, is what is helping them win games.
Luke Page and Brenko Lee return for the Bears, to add strength to the side. The Magpies squad still remains one the better sides on paper, perhaps an end of season run starts this weekend with an upset of the Bears.
We Say: Burleigh will have this one covered on the back of their defense. They have conceded nearly 300 fewer points this season.
PNG HUNTERS v NORTHS DEVILS
Sunday 3:00pm @ Port Moresby
A great match to close out Round 16 of the Intrust Super Cup, with Norths looking to push onwards and upwards to the top 4, and the Hunters simply looking for win number 4.
The PNG Hunters were bumped down to second last after Round 15, after the Magpies won, and the Hunters were convincingly beaten by the Northern Pride in Cairns.
They struggled to get on top of the Pride in the TV game last Sunday, but there were some promising signs at times.
At least it appears that coach Michael Marum is starting to make fewer changes. That consistency is needed as the Hunters are going through a big rebuilding phase.
Adex Wera is missing for the Hunters line up, and there are a few lesser known name.
Norths Devils are not only going better this year than last, but they have form of beating the Hunters in Port Moresby.
They have lost their try scoring winger Herbie Farnworth, and won’t have services of NRL standard James Segeyaro, but there’s more than enough to combat them.
It may not be Hunters related, but good news for PNG rugby league in general and ISC with Justin Olam getting an extended chance with the Storm, and Xavier Coates about to make his NRL debut for the Broncos.
We Say: We haven’t got Norths right many times this season, so for their sake we’ll tip the PNG Hunters.
