Rugby League: NRL Round 10 Preview

With just two weeks to go until State of Origin league fans have just one more week of a full 8 matches before the byes start to take effect. Fantasy players and punters will love Round 10 for that exact reason and when you see the size of our multi predictions you might too.

Read through our NRL Round 10 Preview below:

Canterbury Bulldogs v Sydney Roosters

Bulldogs – $2.60

Roosters – $1.52

After four weeks on the sidelines suspended, Bulldogs captain James Graham returns to lead his team in a difficult Friday night encounter against the Roosters at ANZ Stadium. Graham’s form over a tricky origin period where they will almost definitely lose Trent Hopkinson and Josh Morris, and could lose Josh Jackson and David Klemmer, is important for the Dog’s playoff chances.

Josh Reynolds and Greg Eastwood also return to boost the Dogs, in doing so, relegate Sam Kasiano and Moses Mbye to the bench (although rumours are Mbye might play at centre ahead of Chase Stanley).

Their opponents for tonight found some form in an impressive win over the Tigers last week and field an unchanged side.

Roosters favourites and we won’t argue. Roosters by 1-12.

North Queensland Cowboys v Brisbane Broncos

Cowboys – $1.63

Broncos – $2.35

Friday’s night second match is an absolute belter- probably the closest a regular season game will come to matching finals intensity. It’s a Queensland derby right on the eve of Origin. It’s 1st vs 4th. And it’s Thurston against Hunt.

The Broncos meet the Cowboys in Townsville hoping to maintain their lead on the NRL ladder and also hoping to overturn a poor run of form at 1300 Smiles Stadium. Having won just twice their in the last six attempts at the venue, and having lost to the Cowboys in the qualifying final last season, the history book is right against them.

2015 presents a fresh opportunity and considering the form of Corey Parker, Sam Thaiday and Alex Glenn they have a realistic chance. They’re slight outsiders but we’re going to give them the win by 1-12.

Parramatta Eels v New Zealand Warriors

Eels – $2.12

Warriors – $1.75

Konrad Hurrell’s running style was the major talking point in the media throughout the week. The half blockbusting centre, half Instagram clown was this week suspended for three matches after a nasty collision in their win last week against the Sharks that left Anthony Tupou with a badly fractured jaw. The Warriors have pledged to help Hurrell redevelop his running style, but there are definite concerns that the centre is now becoming a liability.

He’s been replaced this week by Dominique Peyroux, who gets his an overdue chance to impress in his preferred position. The Samoan international was influential in his Nation’s representative round win over Tonga and will be looking to avoid names like Dane Nielsen, Joel Moon, and Krisnan Inu as failed centre recruits.

He’s the only change to the starting line up with Sione Lousi taking his place on the bench.

In stark contrast to the settled side of the Warriors, the Eels have made three changes as they look to halt a two match losing streak. Gone are Chirs Sandow, David Gower and Joseph Paulo, and in come Luke Kelly, Pauli Pauli and Tepai Moeroa.

The Eels can be a bit of a bogey team for the Warriors, but the NZ side have won three of the last five, and on the evidence of recent performances seem to be getting better.

Warriors 1-12.

Gold Coast Titans v Cronulla Sharks

Titans – $1.70

Sharks – $2.18

A bit of a fizzer really in an otherwise exciting round (with all due respect to Titans and Sharks fans).

Both teams are coming off losses in Round 9. The Titans were way off the boil and got annihilated by the Raiders. They badly missed their enforcer Greg Bird, and if their next most aggressive player, Nate Myles, is affected by his mid week singing with Manly, they’ll be struggling.

The Sharks missed a good opportunity to take two competition points form the Warriors. They led with two minutes to spare thanks to an Andew Fifita special, but could not quite close it out, despite making great strides in their ability to play composed footy while draining the clock.

The Sharks have made major changes to their 17. David Fifita and Michael Gordon both return from injury, replacing Anthony Tupou and Mitch Brown. Blake Ayshford also returns at centre for Ricky Leutele.

We’re picking the Sharks 1-12.

Melbourne Storm v South Sydney Rabbitohs

Storm – $1.42

Rabbitohs – $2.95

In Saturday night’s late game Melbourne are somewhat surprisingly overwhelming favourites to beat the Rabbitohs. The Storm are nicely perched in second with a record of 6 wins and 3 losses in 2015 thus far, and got even better last week when Billy Slater returned to the mix.

His inclusion makes them even more formidable, yet they shouldn’t have it all their own way. The Rabbitohs managed to snap a losing streak last week in a narrow victory over the Dragons. They ground out a win without telling contributions from Greg Inglis, George Burgess or Isaac Luke.

Adam Reynolds is injured again and a major loss for the Bunnies, there is ongoing drama around Luke’s benching, and both of those factors worry us too much to be able to tip them.

Storm 1-12.

St George-Illawarra Dragons v Canberra Raiders

Dragons – $1.49

Raiders – $2.70

The Round 3 matchup between these teams was the turning point of the Dragons season. After scoring just 4 points in each of their first two games, the Dragons got past 4 and then went on to score 22 and to beat the Raiders. The win set them up for five more wins on the trot a steak that only came to an end in a narrow loss to Souths last week.

The Round 3 match featured a tremendously unstructured second half, and although we don’t see the same happening this week (the Dragons are playing very conservative and defensively sound footy having conceded the least points in the competition) we do anticipate it will again be close.

Sam Williams played with a collapsed lung in the second half last week, brave but medically silly and he’ll miss this week’s action. That means young halfback Mitch Cornish comes back into the side in the only change for either side.

We like the Raiders here 1-12.

Newcastle Knights v Wests Tigers

Knights – $1.75

Tigers – $2.08

Expect no further penisgate incidents when the Knights take on the Tigers on Sunday. The now infamous incident featuring Korbin Sims and the appropriately named Willie Mason has gained too much attention for Sims to try the stunt again. The grapple proved just how far players will go to force an opposition error, and is in the same vein as Liam Farrell’s Super League kiss that forced a handling mistake.

The Knights are the slight favourites, presumably courtesy of their home ground advantage, because the Tigers have the recent edge, winning five of the past seven meetings.

Look for the forwards to settle this one. Aaron Woods v Kade Snowden is a classic. Jeremy Smith and his battle with Martin Taupau is also bound to feature plenty of aggression. Expect the Knights to send plenty of traffic Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses’ way in a desperate bid to stop the rot.

We’ll back them to do so too. Knights by 1-12.

Manly Sea Eagles v Penrith Panthers

Sea Eagles – $1.82

Panthers – $2.02

Brookvale should be treated to an entertaining clash between two teams who at the start of the season were top 8 shoo-ins. Currently however, both sit outside the top 8 and for Manly in particular who sit in last place their season is in disarray. Injuries and transfer speculation have wrecked havoc with Manly and the distraction is likely to continue all the way through to the Round 13 transfer deadline as they do everything they can to retain Daly Cherry-Evans.

Cherry-Evans was the best player on the park last week as Manly grabbed a win agaisnt the Knights. In fact his performance was so good commentator Andrew Voss called the best individual performance by any player in the competition this year. Voss reckons he holds the top two spots, including his performance versus Melbourne in Round 2 as well.

He’s crucial to their short term and long term future. If he plays well on Monday night the Sea Eagles will win, if not it could be loss number seven for the year.

In team news, Steve Matai comes back into the Manly fold, shifting Peta Hiku to the wing. That means no spot for David Williams. For the Panthers, James Segeyaro comes in for Isaac John and Sika Minu kits up for the suspended Tyrone Peachey.

Manly 1-12.

This Week’s Multi

Head to Head pays $166.40

Margin pays $16278.57

Odds available at Sportsbet.