Thursday, 20 September 2012

WEEK 28 - DOGGIES, STORM, SEAEAGLES OR RABBITS?





Hi everyone!

The NRL finals are now into the 3rd week and for the first time, in a very long time, we have the Top four sides that finished Top Four after the round robins, all through to the Preliminary Finals - largely thanks to the new finals system that was introduced this year and should've been introduced years ago.

It was a weekend full of high drama for two teams bowing out of the competition as one side would've considered themselves hard done by, while another would've felt they left their worst performance till last after such a glorius run of victories.
I'll let you decide which is which in these quick match reports....




Furious North Queensland coach Neil Henry has accused NRL referees of not being up to the standard the competition deserves after his side went down 22-12 to premiers Manly in last Friday's semi-final at Sydney Football Stadium.



With the scores locked at 12-12, the Sea Eagles scored two contentious second-half tries to win the game and book a clash with the Storm in Melbourne next Friday for a place in the grand final.

Henry and his skipper Johnathan Thurston were livid after the game, following the decisions to award efforts by Jorge Taufua and Michael Oldfield.

Both were given the benefit-of-the-doubt by video referees Paul Simpkins and Steve Clark, with the Cowboys claiming Taufua made a double movement before touching down.

But the decision to give Oldfield's try left the visitors feeling robbed after Kieran Foran appeared to knock the ball forward from a Daly Cherry-Evans kick, allowing Jamie Lyon to bundle the ball towards Oldfield.

The Hand of God Foran
"The players in this competition have taken the game to the next level," Henry said.

"There is no question as the quality of our product, but we're not keeping pace in the officiating.

"Our season hung on a couple of decisions and I don't care if you put five in the video box.

"I am not saying they are biased, they are incompetent."

Thurston said he was angered by the loss and claimed during the game to referee Shayne Hayne that his side had: "Twice been robbed."

"Those decisions, they can't justify them, I am just gutted by them," Thurston said after the match.

You are f**ken kidding me, Ref???
Manly coach Geoff Toovey admitted his side got the rub of the green in the second half and sympathised with Henry.

However, he was equally unhappy with the decision that went against his side for the Cowboys' second try, claiming Taufua was stripped of the ball, with referee Shayne Hayne penalising the winger for a knock-on.

He insisted Manly deserved the win and said Foran had told him he didn't touch ball forward in the lead-up to Oldfield's try.

"I saw them as benefit-of-the-doubt tries, but I thought it would have not been awarded if was not a knock-on," Toovey said.

"There's so much coverage with all the cameras out there but the blokes in the middle have to make the calls. Maybe they can do something about that."

"Neil will be frustrated and I feel for him."

Kiwi international Foran insisted he didn't touch the ball as he jumped up with Thurston in the build up to the fourth try and said he was confident it would be awarded.

"I jumped up for it and Thurston kind of went for it at the same time, I didn't feel my hand touch it so he must have got a hand to it," Foran said.

"I was reasonably confident, provided Killer (Jamie Lyon) didn't have a hand on him when he flicked the ball."

Manly's clash with the Storm next weekend will be a rematch of the 2007 and 2008 grand finals and Toovey is looking forward to the challenge of facing an old foe.

"We'll head down there Friday, and we'll be ready for it," he said.



South Sydney is one step away from a first grand final appearance in 41 years after brushing aside Canberra 38-16 in their semi-final at Sydney's ANZ stadium last Saturday night.

Rookie half-back Adam Reynolds was the star of the show for the Rabbitohs, scoring a try and kicking seven goals on his way to becoming only the second player in the club's history to chalk up more than 200 points in a season.


Eric Simms was the last player to record that feat in 1970 - the year the Rabbitohs won the 19th of their 20 premierships - and they must now beat Canterbury next Saturday if they are to add to that tally.

The win was Souths' first finals victory in 25 years.

Reynolds told media the Rabbitohs tried to stay calm under pressure in attack in what was a high-stakes encounter.

"At times it didn't go right but we just got back in the structure," Reynolds said.

"If it didn't go right we just tried to get repeat sets and play field position."

Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire said the win was the perfect response to last weekend's disappointing 24-6 defeat to the Melbourne Storm.

"(It was) pleasing after what we went through last weekend," Maguire said.

"The boys were very disappointed ... and they bounced back the way they should have.

"They played to their capabilities tonight."


Tries from Reynolds, Andrew Everingham and Sam Burgess helped the home side into a 20-10 advantage at half-time.

But despite being on the back foot for the majority of the opening stanza, tries from Sam Williams and Sandor Earl just before the break gave the Raiders some hope.

The second half started in a similar fashion, with Reynolds, criticised for his quiet performance in the loss the Melbourne last week, continuing to shine.

Despite being under pressure from two Raiders players, the 23-year-old somehow threaded a grubber towards the in-goal area that deceived Josh Dugan and Dylan Farrell pounced to score.

Maguire's side looked in full control but a risky no-look pass from back rower Dave Taylor was punished when the Raiders won possession and floated the ball out wide towards Reece Robinson, allowing the winger to score his 17th try in an impressive debut season.

Dugan's conversion closed the gap to 10 points once again but Souths continued to press in attack.

John Sutton was held up just short of the line on the hour mark, only for Shaun Berrigan to be punished for the Raiders for not being square of the marker.

Reynolds kicked the penalty and four minutes later the game was iced when a penalty try was awarded to the hosts after Greg Inglis was hauled back by Blake Ferguson without the ball.

And 10 minutes from time Reynolds produced a perfectly-weighted kick to the right corner after Inglis made a 50-metre break, to turn defence into attack, and Everingham did well to get the ball down and score.

Raiders coach David Furner said his team failed to execute its game plan.

"There were certainly some areas there we needed to put pressure on and we didn't do that tonight," he said.

"It wasn't a bridge too far. But it is possession wise and not completing those sets and building pressure ... it puts a lot of strain on your defence and it showed that tonight."

























In our tipping competition, the deadlock has been broken with sava4 (160) taking an all important 2 point lead over The Neighbour (158) at the top of the Tipping Championship Table with 3 matches to go.
The Neighbour dropped both matches backing both the Cowboys and Raiders and now will be looking to peg Sava4 back when both tipster's sides square off in the Preliminary Final on Friday night. Will both tipsters stick with their hearts and back their sides? A win to the Storm may just see The Neighbour pull Sava4 back to a 1 point lead with the Dogs and Bunnies to play. A big weekend for both tipsters!
BEARlythere (155) is sitting 3rd but currently 3 points behind which kills any chances of a 2nd spot grab but he does have plenty to think about with Kiwi_Misty (153) only 2 points behind and boasting a better margin than BEARlythere. Vee8Head (152) will also be pushing to past Kiwi_Misty to take the $100 Pools Bonus prize in Pool G.
Rounding off the Top 10 (and perhaps looking to push or secure their 1st place Pool spots) are:
Wilshere Wonderland (149), ootz (149),  Jessamine (147), Feet Little (146), Link Abrams & melz (both 145).






With 2 weeks to go, here is currently how the prizes stand at this point in time:

TOTAL PRIZE POOL: $1640 (NZ)

sava4(Rio Savage)
1st Prize + POOL C
$620
(Currently 1st on 160 points, 2 points ahead (and a +52 Margin difference) over The Neighbour. Leads Pool C by an unassailable 20 points)

The Neighbour(Wayne Long)
2nd Prize + POOL B
$320
(Currently 2nd on 158 points but 2 points behind (and a -52 Margin difference) from Sava4. 3 points ahead of BEARlythere. Leads Pool B by an unassailable 14 points)

BEARlythere(PATRICK CRAWFORD)
3rd Prize + POOL D
$200
(Currently 3rd and 3 points behind The Neighbour, 2 points ahead of Kiwi_Misty & 3 points head of Vee8Head. Leads Pool D by an unassailable 12 points)

ootz(Lewis Bavister)
POOL A
$100
(Currently leads Pool A by an unassailable 8 points)

Wilshere Wonderland (Laurie Coyne)
POOL E
$100
(Currently leads Pool E by 5 points ahead of Evra69)

Jessamine(Jessamine Bailey)
POOL F
$100
(Currently leads Pool E by 2 points ahead of melz and 3 points ahead of Simply The Bears)

Kiwi_Misty(Misty Taylor)
POOL G
$100
(Currently leads Pool G by 1 point ahead of Vee8head including a +16 margin difference)

cmcnls+1day(clancy condran)
POOL H
$100
(Currently leads Pool H by 1 point ahead of blo1, 2 points ahead of Warmess and 3 points ahead of Dean Campbell)

So two weeks of finals (3 games) left to go...Good luck everyone!








Yo Mama,  cmcnls+1day, taijay, TUMUCH, BT Ross & Bronco2020 with a top score of 2 points and a margin of 0. Well done fellas!



RANK
TIPPER
FINALS WEEK 2 SCORE
FINALS WEEK 2 MARGIN
TOTAL SCORE
TOTAL MARGIN
1
sava4
2
5
160
275
2
The Neighbour
0
16
158
327
3
BEARlythere
1
20
155
373
4
Kiwi_Misty
2
4
153
310
5
Vee8head
1
17
152
349
6
Wilshere Wonderland
1
12
149
289
7
ootz
2
6
149
312
8
Jessamine
2
2
147
328
9
Feet Little
0
16
146
292
10
Link Abrams
1
10
145
342
11
melz
1
16
145
365
12
Evra69
1
0
144
285
13
Keith Wilton
1
16
144
326
14
Simply The Bears
1
24
144
375
15
Harveysan
1
17
143
304
16
cmcnls+1day
2
0
142
334
17
boogs_nz
0
10
141
299
18
steven bowers
1
2
141
323
19
Heath Caldwell
1
11
141
359
20
blo1
2
6
141
373
21
kazgriffo
1
8
140
284
22
wayne
0
20
140
292
23
Sincas
0
10
140
305
24
Warmess
2
6
140
324
25
TUMUCH
2
0
140
351
26
Bronco2020
2
0
140
391
27
Beakster
2
2
139
310
28
Lainey
1
18
139
322
29
Dean Campbell
2
4
139
338
30
TimmyDemon
1
10
139
346
31
NO1QPRNZ
2
2
138
324
32
Brenda Kirkman
0
10
137
313
33
Rex Kwando
2
9
137
344
34
jared francois
2
4
137
352
35
killswitch
1
20
136
294
36
Steven Marshall
1
19
136
315
37
Matthew Bowers
2
5
136
322
38
Scotsta
2
4
136
355
39
NZ Tiger (Aka NZ Ranger)
1
14
135
327
40
sole@basher
0
10
135
333
41
Richard McCourt
0
10
134
322
42
taijay
2
0
134
342
43
OVERATEDBENJI
0
10
133
331
44
Yo Mama
2
0
132
313
45
Shay Wall
0
12
131
314
46
Bearass
2
6
131
332
47
MrBusy
0
10
130
268
48
eviltwin
2
9
130
289
49
Balmainadrian
1
2
130
293
50
Bearette
1
22
130
300
51
Staks
0
20
130
328
52
Scott Nielson
0
10
129
324
53
Redv4me
1
18
125
313
54
kelren
2
4
124
276
55
tais1
0
10
123
372
56
money_box_man
1
18
123
434
57
ROOSTERSRCHAMPIONS
1
16
122
285
58
Hemi Ropata
1
18
122
323
59
5JS
0
10
121
325
60
Gaddaffi
0
18
121
355
61
Joejoez
0
10
120
283
62
katie rice
1
22
120
375
63
Kyle Thomson
0
10
118
326
64
Tiger Warrior
0
10
117
356
65
Bruiser
0
10
116
290
66
Pistol
0
20
114
360
67
BT Ross
2
0
113
359
68
Radman
1
22
112
365
69
mdt64
0
10
110
302
70
melros
0
10
106
282
71
Darren Scott
0
10
106
337
72
rog the dodge
0
10
94
351
73
Anotherstranger
0
10
93
292
74
Tubasaurus
0
10
90
360
75
haze13
0
10
89
326
76
Joey James
0
10
88
301
77
Irontiger
0
10
87
318
78
Tigerstu
0
10
87
356
79
Dave Gearey
0
10
72
303
80
Sanka
0
10
68
295
81
Big Trouble
0
10
64
302
82
Tiger77
0
10
60
364


TO SEE WHO TIPPED WHAT - VISIT THE FOOTY TIPS 'WHO TIPPED WHAT' LINK (YOU MUST BE SIGNED IN TO VIEW). FOR THE LATEST POOLS TABLES PLACINGS - VISIT THE CURRENT POOLS TABLE PAGE

That's it for this update.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the second week of the 2012 finals series!

Mark
aka NZ Tiger



IN STORES 11th OCTOBER 2012 on both PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®

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