Tips and picks time pt 2 NRL

Origin has robbed this round of some good games (Manly and Storm) and made it rather difficult to pick. For the record I'm 61/96 this season.

Friday 10th
St George v Gold Coast; STG by 6

Saturday 11th
Manly v North Queensland; Manly by 10

Sunday 12th
Brisbane v Canberra; Brisbane by 13+
NZ Warriors v Wests; NZ by 6

Monday 13th
Melbourne v Sydney; Easts by 10

St George 14-28 GC

Bad start to the weekend, hope it's not an omen!

Missed the first one.
Manly by 14
Brisbane by 16
Warriors by 12
Storm by 8

2-5!

I blame Origin!

I blame Benji... 3/4

Did you see Brian Smith's post-match interview, Warrior? I'm not a big fan of him but must admit I feel sorry for the bloke. At first he talked about the inexperience of his players - then had a go at the ref...

Smith's life expectancy coaching wise get's shorter by the game!

I only tipped Chooks to win as the Carney/Anasta partnership worked so well for their Origin 1 game!

That Craig Bellamy bloke can coach!

It was Soward/Pearce for Origin 1, 2011...you mean 2010?

Lol, Bellamy had a bad run coaching NSW last year...so they turned to 'Sticky' Ricky, who was a top player but he has no luck in the coaching department - club or state...so far least.

It's been raining constantly all day here, more (heavier) rain for tomorrow. NSW will get 'sat upon' by the bigger heavier Qld forwards and lose the advantage of having more leg speed around the rucks. I think there'll be a lot of turnovers due to ball getting knocked out in the tackles. Maybe have to risk putting on Watmough and Lewis early if Qld are ahead early - otherwise, if NSW are in the lead, keep starting pack on for as long as possible...sub them after 55-60 mins, then bring on the 'One Man Army' and Luke Lewis.

Fingers crossed though still - hopefully NSW can spring an upset and keep the series alive.

Surprised at how error free the game was tonight.

It was an epic encounter with tries to Lewis, young Hoppa and Minichello for the Blues, Soward 3/4; and a lone try from Cameron Smith, Thurston 2/2 for the Maroons.

A desperately needed 18-8 win for NSW with Paul Gallen leading the way, putting his body on the line and deserving the MoM award. Pearce and Soward also controlled things behind the forwards - and were not outplayed by Thurston/Lockyer this time.

I would like to see Gasnier a little more involved and Hayne chime in a bit more (although he was out of position) - but the swarming defence seemed to negate their contributions. Ennis, Creagh, Watmough, Bird and later Mannah won the tussle up front tonight by just enough.

It will be a very much-awaited decider in three weeks - in what will be Darren Lockyer's final Origin game. If NSW can repeat the sort of mistake-free performance and show at least the same, or even more determination...it will make for a huge spectacle and a thrilling match.

A tough ask I know - but here's hoping for a long awaited NSW series win!

"only tipped Chooks to win as the Carney/Anasta partnership worked so well for their Origin 1 game!"

The Chooks pre Origin 1 game when Pearce was in camp and Carney moved to 7 with Anasta at 6.

"It was Soward/Pearce for Origin 1, 2011...you mean 2010?"

Chooks did the same thing for their pre Origin 2 game with a different outcome!

Oh, I see what you mean, Warrior.

So it has a 50-50 success rate, lol.

What are your tips for this weekend?

weather in SE Australia - after being lashed by rain for what seemed like a week, today; not a cloud in sight and expected to remain fine all this weekend. Feels quite warm in the sun but air temp perfect for footy.

I'll go for: (home team first)

Broncos over Dragons (Qlders will be itching to make amends for Wed nite)
Souths to get lucky over Titans (tonite)
Newcastle to beat Panthers - in a high scoring affair (Sat)
Warriors to cause an upset over Cowboys (Sat)
Bulldogs to beat Sharks (Sun)
Storm to hold out Wests Tigers (Sun)
Manly to skin the Eels (Monday nite)

Chooks, Raiders have the bye.

Only just read your reply mate, I tipped...

Broncos
Souths
Newcastle
NQ
Canterbury
Storm

Manly

It was an awesome match at Brookie tonight.

Parra nearly caused an upset. They dominated most of the second half after Manly made a powerful start in the first.

Try in the final minutes from Foran was very close to going over dead in-goal...but he got it with inches to spare. Final score Manly 22-18.

I tipped Canterbury as well - Cronulla broke their recent voodoo v the Dogs

Some good games next week too mate!

For some reason I find tipping NRL much easier than SL, only got 4-7 and even tipped against Wigan!

I think there'll be some more unexpected results in the last 10 weeks of NRL.

It's not so bad to tip against StGeorge-Illawarra when they have players missing against the Broncos...but I should have known better than tipping the NZ Warriors over Cowboys - in Townsville. What was I thinking? I bet they now beat Melbourne next weekend, lol....no way!