shantystar
03-17-2008, 04:46 AM
Melbourne Storm http://www.betshoot.com/images/vs.gif NZ Warriors
READERS NOTE:No Comments are mine and if you want to talk to me then do so through the pm's.
Monday Night Football returns again this season and in the first MNF match we see last years Premiers the Melbourne Storm facing the NZ Warriors,a great game for MNF first up.
The Storm have lost a host of players from last season but they have done an excellent job of bloodinbg thier younger breed of players over the last couple of years and this side although missing big names such as King and the like is still the best put together side in the NRL,all of the younger players are coached well and have First Grade experience,in fact in this Storm side for this season there are no less than 9 international Representitive players which is very impressive considering the calibre of players that are not there from last season,Slater,Turner,Chambers,Folau and Quinn form a very good Backline with alot of talent and punch,Inglis is till not back yet and will be out for another couple of weeks but Aitken and Cronk are a well put together set of halves and with a forward pack consisting of Lima,Smith,White,Hoffman,Jhonson and Smith they are the evny of many a club,their bench is also handy with Geyer,Blair,Manu and Tagataese all a waiting their bording passes to enter the fray,not bad,not bad at all.
The Warriors have started their new season with what could be their biggest set back in losing Mc'Kinnion in the Trails and although that is a major blow for them and I can see them struggling a bit this season there are a few othe rpositives in this Warriors line up mainly in defence,the Warriors may not have the best attack but they can tackle and defend well and there are still a few players in this side who can make an impact and could have big bearings on games,Kirk comes in at Fullback and wh knows what we should expect from this youngster,reports are that he is solid but no superstar so we wait and see exactly what he brings ot the NRL but the rest of their backline is quite good with Ah Van and Vatuvei on the flanks and a very strong defensive centre pairring of Ropati and Tate and both can attack also,once again we are subjected to seeing the up and down fortunes of Witt and Rovelli in the halves,Witt I like,Rovelli even after a full season the jury is still out on him,a good support runner but very much a hospital passer if you ask me,but the Warriors forward pack and bench does add some optimisim for them Price,Fien and Rapira make up a very hard working front row and Mannering,Swann and Luck make a very good defensive unti in the back row,Hohia,Tumivave,Wiki and Lauaki make up a decent looking bench with one hard toiler in Wiki,Speed and cover for a number of positions in Hohia and two forwards with great leg drive and abilty in Lauaki and Tumivave,now what don't I like about this Warriors side,easy...Rovelli as said is a half who won't take the hit and can ofload silly passes just to save himself,Fien at Hooker is a bit of a joke at times and our back row although defesivly very good is not much else apart from that,Swann shoukld be dropped in favour of Sonny Fai who for some reason is never given a go in this Warriors outfit but he is big and strong and can offload,eventually he will have to be given a go and when he does this warriors side could really take off,Hohia should be at half or Hooker,mainly Hooker as he is an ex sprint champion and couldreally make an impact if given one good season to establih him self,but apart form those players mentioned they do still have a strong forward pack and good centres and in the modern game those positions are very important.
They call Olympic Park "the graveyard" and that name suits home ground of the Storm,undefeated there last season and have only lost once there in the last two seasons,intrestingly enough to this very side the Warriors 20-24 in 2006.
Now remeber that i said that only one club is undefeated in their first match in the last 5 seasons? Well it is the Storm,4 wins and a bye have seen them start they last 5 seasons on a winning note,last season it was the Tigers to fail to beat the Storm in what was a very good game 18-16,2006 and it was the Warriors who hosted the Storm and they went down 16-22,2005 and the Storm destroted the Knights in Rd 1 48 - 10,2004 was there bye year and 2003 they beat the Sharks in Cronulla 32-36.
The Warriors have only won one of their past 5 seasons opening matches and that was last years home match against the Eels in which the Warriors were leading by 20 at half time.
This match is a good one for the first Monday Night game and should be a beauty,if there is any time to play the Storm it is now while they are still finding out what works for them and what does'nt,the loss of Mc'Kinnionfor the warriors is huge and will cost them,but this match looks very,very even apart form that the Storm have a good cetre pairing in Folau and Chanbers both young big and strong but the Warriors also have a good centre pairing defensivly in Ropati and Tate ,the halves are in the Storms favour as is the Hookers role,but the Forward packs are very much equal and the Benches are also very well suited to one another.
It was noticible in the World Club Challenge that the Storms defensive line speed is still very much in check and to add that the Leeds Rhinos have come away with the spoils in that game but have been racked by the pysical nature of this Storm outfit and have lost players to injury now while this Storm side apart from the inclusion of Smith is still very much the same shows you exactly how tough it is to play against this side,I think this gae will be very close and unlike last year when the Warriors were put away after 15mins of that match and then held the Storm to only one try and scored 2 of their own in the remaining 65 mins is a peek at what can happen if the warriors can start well,both sides although still very new to the they have shown that they can both suceed and the Kiwi influence throughout both these clubs is reason for that,we love to bash each other and this match will be no different,I think the Storm will win this but by no more than 10 and for those reasons I'll take the Storm by 12 or less option...Good Luck.
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Pick : Storm by 12 points or less
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Odds : 3.10
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Stake : 9 / 10
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Bookmaker : TAB(NZ) (http://www.towforum.com/)
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Date : 2008-03-17
READERS NOTE:No Comments are mine and if you want to talk to me then do so through the pm's.
Monday Night Football returns again this season and in the first MNF match we see last years Premiers the Melbourne Storm facing the NZ Warriors,a great game for MNF first up.
The Storm have lost a host of players from last season but they have done an excellent job of bloodinbg thier younger breed of players over the last couple of years and this side although missing big names such as King and the like is still the best put together side in the NRL,all of the younger players are coached well and have First Grade experience,in fact in this Storm side for this season there are no less than 9 international Representitive players which is very impressive considering the calibre of players that are not there from last season,Slater,Turner,Chambers,Folau and Quinn form a very good Backline with alot of talent and punch,Inglis is till not back yet and will be out for another couple of weeks but Aitken and Cronk are a well put together set of halves and with a forward pack consisting of Lima,Smith,White,Hoffman,Jhonson and Smith they are the evny of many a club,their bench is also handy with Geyer,Blair,Manu and Tagataese all a waiting their bording passes to enter the fray,not bad,not bad at all.
The Warriors have started their new season with what could be their biggest set back in losing Mc'Kinnion in the Trails and although that is a major blow for them and I can see them struggling a bit this season there are a few othe rpositives in this Warriors line up mainly in defence,the Warriors may not have the best attack but they can tackle and defend well and there are still a few players in this side who can make an impact and could have big bearings on games,Kirk comes in at Fullback and wh knows what we should expect from this youngster,reports are that he is solid but no superstar so we wait and see exactly what he brings ot the NRL but the rest of their backline is quite good with Ah Van and Vatuvei on the flanks and a very strong defensive centre pairring of Ropati and Tate and both can attack also,once again we are subjected to seeing the up and down fortunes of Witt and Rovelli in the halves,Witt I like,Rovelli even after a full season the jury is still out on him,a good support runner but very much a hospital passer if you ask me,but the Warriors forward pack and bench does add some optimisim for them Price,Fien and Rapira make up a very hard working front row and Mannering,Swann and Luck make a very good defensive unti in the back row,Hohia,Tumivave,Wiki and Lauaki make up a decent looking bench with one hard toiler in Wiki,Speed and cover for a number of positions in Hohia and two forwards with great leg drive and abilty in Lauaki and Tumivave,now what don't I like about this Warriors side,easy...Rovelli as said is a half who won't take the hit and can ofload silly passes just to save himself,Fien at Hooker is a bit of a joke at times and our back row although defesivly very good is not much else apart from that,Swann shoukld be dropped in favour of Sonny Fai who for some reason is never given a go in this Warriors outfit but he is big and strong and can offload,eventually he will have to be given a go and when he does this warriors side could really take off,Hohia should be at half or Hooker,mainly Hooker as he is an ex sprint champion and couldreally make an impact if given one good season to establih him self,but apart form those players mentioned they do still have a strong forward pack and good centres and in the modern game those positions are very important.
They call Olympic Park "the graveyard" and that name suits home ground of the Storm,undefeated there last season and have only lost once there in the last two seasons,intrestingly enough to this very side the Warriors 20-24 in 2006.
Now remeber that i said that only one club is undefeated in their first match in the last 5 seasons? Well it is the Storm,4 wins and a bye have seen them start they last 5 seasons on a winning note,last season it was the Tigers to fail to beat the Storm in what was a very good game 18-16,2006 and it was the Warriors who hosted the Storm and they went down 16-22,2005 and the Storm destroted the Knights in Rd 1 48 - 10,2004 was there bye year and 2003 they beat the Sharks in Cronulla 32-36.
The Warriors have only won one of their past 5 seasons opening matches and that was last years home match against the Eels in which the Warriors were leading by 20 at half time.
This match is a good one for the first Monday Night game and should be a beauty,if there is any time to play the Storm it is now while they are still finding out what works for them and what does'nt,the loss of Mc'Kinnionfor the warriors is huge and will cost them,but this match looks very,very even apart form that the Storm have a good cetre pairing in Folau and Chanbers both young big and strong but the Warriors also have a good centre pairing defensivly in Ropati and Tate ,the halves are in the Storms favour as is the Hookers role,but the Forward packs are very much equal and the Benches are also very well suited to one another.
It was noticible in the World Club Challenge that the Storms defensive line speed is still very much in check and to add that the Leeds Rhinos have come away with the spoils in that game but have been racked by the pysical nature of this Storm outfit and have lost players to injury now while this Storm side apart from the inclusion of Smith is still very much the same shows you exactly how tough it is to play against this side,I think this gae will be very close and unlike last year when the Warriors were put away after 15mins of that match and then held the Storm to only one try and scored 2 of their own in the remaining 65 mins is a peek at what can happen if the warriors can start well,both sides although still very new to the they have shown that they can both suceed and the Kiwi influence throughout both these clubs is reason for that,we love to bash each other and this match will be no different,I think the Storm will win this but by no more than 10 and for those reasons I'll take the Storm by 12 or less option...Good Luck.
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Pick : Storm by 12 points or less
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Odds : 3.10
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Stake : 9 / 10
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Bookmaker : TAB(NZ) (http://www.towforum.com/)
http://www.betshoot.com/images/arrow.gif Date : 2008-03-17