The Tamworth Swans are back home at No.1 Oval this week and will host the New England Nomads. The Swans, last week, were the ones that broke the Cats losing streak and will be looking for redemption this week. Unfortunately for them they will come up against the third placed Nomads who are on a high of their own after beating the Saints last week for the first time in 5 years. The Swans have been disappointing this year as big things were expected of them and Coach Gary Harriett will be looking for stronger showing from his men this week. If they lose this week it could make it very hard for them to make the finals this year, as they are currently 5th and 25% behind the Bulldogs in 4th place. The Nomads are starting to live up to their preseason expectations and would love nothing more than to keep the Swans out of the top 5. The Swans were a bit slow to start last week and will be looking to get out of the blocks quickly this week to put the Nomads on the back foot and that will be their best bet to beat them. For the Nomads Weston Whitby is in the sort of form not seen for some time and I think he will be the X factor that the Nomads need to win.
Prediction: Nomads to win by 39 points.
Varley Oval in Inverell will be the venue for the Saints v Tamworth Kangaroos match. These two clubs always put on a good show and this game will be no different. The Kangaroos are deserved favourites for this game after knocking off the Eagles last week, the only other undefeated team at that time, but they will not want to take the Saints lightly. The Saints position of 1 win and 2 losses is worse than it looks. They had their chances early in the last quarter against the Swans before letting it get away. And bad kicking in the last quarter against the Nomads keep them from having a real crack at winning that game. The Kangaroos on the other hand have been sweeping all before them and are sitting pretty on top of the table. The big bonus for the Roos has been the emergence of Cam Douglas as a full forward of note. More accustomed to an on ball role Douglas has been a revolution up forward and they need him to be more so now that Dan Overeem has gone down with a bad ankle injury. The Roos haven't travel to well to Inverell in the recent past, but will not want to take the Saints for granted and think they will continue on their winning way.
Prediction: It is more a gut feel than anything else but the Saints to win by 29 points.
The last game sees the battle of the Bulldogs and the Cats at the Kennel in Gunnedah. After losing 49 straight games, before last week's win, this game has massive implications if the Cats win. Firstly they will have won 2 games in a row and secondly they could be in the top 5 at the end of the day. It is amazing to think that after all this time they could be in finals contention. But they will not want to think that far ahead because the Bullies have had a good start to the season with a huge win over the Swans in round 1 and a narrow loss to the Eagles in round 2. That round 2 game could easily have been a win if they hadn't dropped the ball, so to speak, in the third quarter of that game. But their most impressive game was in round 3 against the Roos. In a game that they were expected to lose by a largish margin but they pushed the all conquering Roos all the way. That is why they will go into this game as favourites. The Cats deserve a break after all the years of hard luck but it won't come this week. They are more likely to be a threat at home this year and should use that to great effect and a launching pad for next year.
Prediction: The Bulldogs to bark loudly at home to the tune of a 47 point win.
The Eagles have the bye this week.
Last Modified on 01/06/2011 18:56