{"id":11354,"date":"2016-07-08T05:04:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T05:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bb-auae-prd-ext-blog-01.azurewebsites.net\/more\/nrl-round-18-the-extra-point\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T09:52:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T09:52:41","slug":"nrl-round-18-the-extra-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-round-18-the-extra-point\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL Round 18 &#8211; The Extra Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fri 8 Jul\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluebet.com.au\/Sport\/Rugby_League\/NRL_-_Round_18\/Matches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eels v Roosters<\/a> Pirtek Stadium 7:50PM<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pearce is back. He\u2019s back in a big way. He was simply sensation when he picked up man of the match honours in a losing team last week. He\u2019s been left out of the Origin team for game 3 for reasons not certain however expect him to have a big game put himself back on the rugby league map for the right reasons.<\/li>\n<li>Eels a rabble. Despite playing arguably the best football the club has played in two decades earlier in the year, the season has been an absolute disaster for the Parra faithful. It started so promisingly with the signing of Kieran Foran however they\u2019ve gone from issue to another. We\u2019ve done our best to convey the Eels season in one Hitler Parody video which you can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluebet.com.au\/blog\/2016\/07\/01\/parody-hitler-reacts-to-the-semi-radradra-circus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">watch here<\/a>. Amazingly, even since the video was produced last week, their season has hit an even lower low. Will the team galvanise in front of their parochial home crowd or will this be the straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back?<\/li>\n<li>Backseat Semi. A week ago, the news cycle was all about Semi Radradra; will he come home, won\u2019t he? Will he play, won\u2019t he? He ended up coming home and played against Cronulla but was met with a chorus of boos from the Shire locals. He tried hard all night but wasn\u2019t nearly as effective as he has been throughout the year. The Eels will need him to be at his best against a Rooster side who can smell blood.<\/li>\n<li>Buoy by Boyd. Rumours are rife that Blues second rower Boyd Cordner will be back on deck on Friday night. He was one of the Blues best in game 1 but has since been sidelined with an injury from that very match. He\u2019s a huge in for the Chooks who will be desperate to finish of the season strongly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sat 9 Jul\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluebet.com.au\/Sport\/Rugby_League\/NRL_-_Round_18\/Matches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bulldogs v Tigers<\/a> ANZ Stadium 7:30PM<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No Teddy and the Woods. Tigers will be without 3 of their bests in Tedesco, Woods and Farah when they take on the Dogs. They\u2019ve fared reasonable well through the rep period winning 4 of 6 however they have had the luxury of having the league\u2019s most inform fullback James Tedesco in the side. One would think taking on the Dogs without their 3 guns will be a mountain too large to climb.<\/li>\n<li>B-Moz has still got it. Fresh off his hat-trick in his first game of the season against the Broncos, the former Origin and Test winger followed it up with a double against the Roosters last Friday night. How good is it to see the Morris twins flying down the same sideline; it truly is a sight to behold. Brett\u2019s return gives the Des\u2019 boys the much needed speed and class on the back of their back line move.<\/li>\n<li>Bulldogs building nicely. The Dogs have now won their last 3 matches since their narrow 2 point defeat to ladder leaders Cronulla. They\u2019re slowly starting to get their best backline on the park and you\u2019re starting to see the results having posted an average of 36 points in their last 3 matches. Despite sitting 4<sup>th<\/sup> on the ladder they\u2019re somewhat flying under the radar in the run in to the finals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sun 10 Jul\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluebet.com.au\/Sport\/Rugby_League\/NRL_-_Round_18\/Matches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Panthers v Sharks<\/a> Pepper Stadium 4:00PM<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gunning for 13. The Sharks are having arguably their best year in the history of the club. They\u2019ve won a club record 12 straight games but face a big test this weekend against the Panthers in Penrith without their Origin troops. The writing has been on the wall the last 4 weeks were they gave the Eels an 18 point start last week before running them down late and only scraping home by less than 3 points in each of the 3 games prior. The smart pundits are tipping that the Sharks are \u2018due\u2019 for a loss shortly but with a team line up with the likes of Barba, Holmes, Ennis, Lewis and Bukuya, you would imagine they will still be competitive \u2013 but can they make it 13 straight?<\/li>\n<li>At the start of the week the Panthers looked to be in a strong position going into the game with the omission of captain Matt Moylan from the Origin side, he was back at training with the Panthers at the start of the week but an injury to half Adam Reynolds has seen him recalled to the squad. The market has reacted accordingly with a 3 point move from -7.5 to -4.5 for the Panthers. They\u2019re at home, the Sharks are down on troops and after an 8 point loss to the Tigers last week they need to win \u2013 but will they?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mon 11 Jul\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluebet.com.au\/Sport\/Rugby_League\/NRL_-_Round_18\/Matches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raiders v Cowboys<\/a> GIO Stadium 7:00PM<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are they the real deal? The green machine have now won 5 of their last 6 matches and the fan in the nationals and beginning to dream \u2013 could this be our year? They sit 6<sup>th<\/sup> on the ladder (5<sup>th<\/sup> once the Eels finally lose their points) and have put in some scintillating performances with the ball. Scoring points is their strength but it\u2019s their mental lapses in matches which has the fans questioning whether they are the real deal. Last week they leaked 22 points against Newcastle before troubling the scorers themselves only to pinch the game in golden point extra time \u2013 you simply can\u2019t do that against the best teams.<\/li>\n<li>Is rep season over yet? The Cowboys will again be without their Origin stars most importantly Johnathon Thurston \u2013 how good is that guy? They\u2019ll be playing with a skeleton crew who are faced with an uphill battle on a freezing cold night in the nation\u2019s capital. They\u2019ve dropped only 2 matches through the rep period which they would\u2019ve undoubtedly signed for at the beginning of the season. They\u2019ll likely limp out of the rep season with another loss but will be looking forward to having the full complement back on deck in coming weeks including the injured Michael Morgan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fri 8 Jul\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eels v Roosters Pirtek Stadium 7:50PM Pearce is back. He\u2019s back in a big way. He was simply sensation when he picked up man of the match honours in a losing team last week. He\u2019s been left out of the Origin team for game 3 for reasons [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nrl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15444,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354\/revisions\/15444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}