State Of Origin is over for another year and again Queensland are just too good on the night. While the excitement of Origin is gone for another year we must remember that semi-final football is only 8 weeks away.
The rep period allowed teams less affected by Origin such as Newcastle, Cronulla and Penrith to close the gap and move into the top 8 with Cronulla just outside after their season looked dead and buried.
Teams like the Tigers, Bulldogs and Warriors werent able to capitalise despite each team only having one player committed to Origin duites. The Bulldogs in particular have been poor while the Tigers lost 3 in a row and young backrower Simon Dwyer for the season. The Warriors lost 4 on the trot but got back on track with a solid win over the Gold Coast Titans.
The top 5 looks to be all but a certainty just the places have to be finalised. Melbourne, St George Illawarra and Brisbane all looking in good shape after being heavily affected by Origin. North Queensland will have to make the finals without Johnathon Thurston and look the worst for wear coming into the back end of the year.
The Bottom half of the 8 will be an interesting battle week to week. For and against will become a big factor and positions 6, 7 and 8 will be changing every week and at times every couple of hours.
I'm going to make a bold prediction and say the West Tigers will not make the 8 despite being tagged as a competition heavyweight before the season started.
I also thought that if Cronulla could win 8 games this year that it would be somewhat of a successful season. I'll go one better and say they will finish in 8th position. They will need to win at least 13 games for the year equating to 6 wins from their last 8 games.
There is still a lot of football to be played until we get to the magical month of September and almost anything can happen. If it gets as exciting as last year did, we are in for one hell of a rollercoaster ride.
Knights to win the comp in 2011?
No comments:
Post a Comment