The first game is the last game of the year for the Muswellbrook Cats as they travel to Narrabri to take on the Eagles. The Cats have taken giant strides this year in their rebuild, with kids like Beau Dixon and Liam King their future looks bright. This year they have won 3 games and lifted themselves off the bottom of the ladder for the first time in 4 seasons and after beating the Bulldogs in their last game before having the bye last week, they will be full of confidence for this game. The Eagles certainly weren't disgraced last week against the Saints and looked to have regained some of their early season form. This game has huge ramifications for the Eagles as if they can win and win well they will give themselves a good chance of moving up to fourth and getting their first ever home final. But they would need the Saints to beat the Bulldogs for that to be any chance. Even with the Cats improvements this year I think they will find it hard to win this game against a more advanced Eagles outfit.
Prediction: The Eagles just have too much on this game to lose and they will win by 44 points.
The Kangaroos will host the New England Nomads at No.1 Oval in Tamworth in the second game. The result in this game only matters as an increase in confidence for the winner because win, lose or draw their will be no change of ladder position. The Kangaroos have been the pace setters all year and deserves their Minor Premiership and interestingly their only loss for the year was against the Nomads. The Nomads on the other hand have lost 3 games and all of them have been on the road and against teams below them on the ladder, which does not bode well for them. A little whisper I have heard is that some of the Kangaroos better players will be missing this weekend due to another engagement and will stretch their talent pool greatly. This could be problematic for them because finishing first this year means they get the bye in the first round of finals, so some of their players won't play for 3 weeks and that is not what you want at this time of year. It will also not help the Nomads as they would much rather have a full workout against the best team in the competition going into finals.
Prediction: I think the Nomads will beat a depleted Kangaroos team by 29 points.
The last game of the round will be at the Kennel in Gunnedah between the Bulldogs and the Inverell Saints. The Bulldogs go into this game having not won since round 9 and that will be a big concern for their Coach Peter Chapman. On the up side though is that last week against the Nomads in Armidale they not only kicked straight but they pushed the Nomads and lost by less than 3 goals. Also in their favour is that most of the games between these two at the Kennel are very close games and their record of beating the Saints here is good. The Saints have been building all year and are well primed coming into finals. Their recent record is good with their only loss being an 8 point loss to the Kangaroos two rounds ago. This game is equally important for both teams for different reasons. If the Bulldogs win they are guaranteed fourth place, but if they lose they could drop to fifth and lose their chance of hosting their first ever home final. For the Saints they would love nothing more than to keep their winning form going and if they get a hard game it will only benefit them. I think this game will be the game of the round and will be closer than many think.
Prediction: The Saints should have just too many guns for the Bulldogs and win by 14 points.
The Swans have the bye this round.
Last Modified on 21/08/2011 14:14