NRL Round 8 (May 3-4) + City v Country (May 2)

[Crouch Potato]

6 byes this week, so only 5 games across Sat-Sun, and the annual waste of time City v Country game on Friday Night. Knights v Titans Panthers v Eels Wests v Broncos Rabbitohs v Cowboys Warriors v Raiders Slightly surprised that the Knights won favouritism given the table topping Titans are their opponents. That being said, I wasn't keen to take the Titans to begin with and wont be now either, though I maybe have been tempted by an above evens Knights. Not to be. Panthers v Eels is IMO the toughest game to call. The Eels have been leaking points all season (average well over 20pts against). Panthers are up and down - Ironically, both these teams meet a statistical criteria that I often use to select bets...Overs might be the go depending on line. Wests v Broncos - No Marshall, No Farrah, a couple involved in City v Country. Most of them Tigers, bar our halfback Wallace. Brisbane -4 @ 1.91 looks very tempting, and depending what happens in City v Country could well be gone come Saturday. TIgers won 2 of past 3 vs Broncos which is a little worrying, but the last 10 has Brisbane winning the rest and all by comfortable margins. Game is at ANZ, not Leichardt. Rabbitohs v Cowboys - I actually like Rabbitohs, but then I look at the team, and like them less. Line is 7.5 which is probably about right. A potential banana peel or gold mine, depending on what you're after. Have tipped Rabbitohs though. And finally, Warriors v Raiders, where IMO the best bet of the round lies. Warriors -5.5 @ 1.91, have won their past 4 @ Mt Smart v Raiders by a margin of 6+. Warriors have injury problems as has been documented but so too Raiders. Carney and Monaghan involved on Friday and then have to make the tasman trip and back up on Sunday. Would be worse if they were forwards but Carney is easily the Raiders best player so could be significant none the less. Witt is kicking at well above 90% this year so 4pts will almost certainly become 6pts. Carney on the other hand is a pretty average kicker and he'll generally miss at least once. City v Country, honestly the favourites should win easily (the one that has Laffranchi in their team, I honestly don't care enough about this fixture to find out which team that is). Absolutely nothing for me, except maybe a follow up Laffranchi bet. So there you have it, IMO Warriors -5.5 and Broncos -4 are the two best bets from a reduced set of games, with the Warriors -5.5 my favourite of the two.

[rleague_punter]

Re: NRL Round 8 (May 3-4) + City v Country (May 2) Hey boys, early on i like the look of city+5.5/knights/broncos/rabbitohs/raiders+6.5 its still early days and i think ill wait to see how the players back up from city-country match before i commit to anything.