Hi everyone!
The season is coming to end and there are still four teams left in the battle for a place in next week's premiership decider.
While week one of the finals series saw three reasonably comfortable wins and a nail-biting victory to the Panthers, week two threw up two enthralling contests, with two one-point victories, one in golden point.
This week's preliminary finals look set to go down as tight tussles again.
Will it be the Rabbitohs and Panthers, who have had the week off, gaining an advantage? Or will the match-hardened Roosters and Bulldogs be better for the battles they have endured?
Whichever way it goes, we are certain for two more outstanding clashes as the season quickly heads towards the biggest stage.
In our Tipping Competition, Simply The Bears looks home and hosed leading the Tipping Championship table by 4 points with only 3 games to go. See the table below.
THE FINAL PRIZES
TOTAL PRIZE POOL - $1560 (NZ)
1st Prize: $560
3rd Prize: $150
Pool Prize: $100
The video referee ensured Sydney Roosters survived an almighty scare to end North Queensland's NRL season with an extraordinary 31-30 semi-final triumph at the Sydney Football Stadium.
A 76th-minute field goal from five-eighth James Maloney saved the Roosters after the Cowboys threatened to pull off the biggest comeback in 106 years of premiership rugby league.
The Roosters appeared home and hosed after producing a five-try, point-a-minute blitz to lead 30-0 after half an hour.
But, inspired by superstar half-back Johnathan Thurston, the Cowboys sensationally locked the game up at 30-all with 23 minutes remaining.Alas, another controversial call against the Queenslanders led to their downfall.
With the match deadlocked with eight minutes left on the clock, Roosters star Sonny Bill Williams appeared to drop the ball cold in a tackle.
The referees deemed otherwise, awarded the Roosters a penalty and, three minutes later, Maloney slotted the match-winning one-pointer."I don't think I've ever seen a footy game like that. I don't think I've ever coached in one like that," said Roosters coach Trent Robinson.
"I think we saw the best and worst of both teams tonight."
But even after Maloney nudged the premiers in front as the clock wound down, Thurston had Roosters fans with their hearts in their mouths when he crossed in the final minute of the match.
But the Cowboys hero was denied the try when the video referees ruled a knock-on against North Queensland five-eighth Robert Lui in the lead-up.
It was another bitter pill for the Cowboys to swallow after last year's infamous seventh-tackle try to Cronulla winger Beau Ryan ended their campaign.
The year before, the Cowboys were eliminated after Kieran Foran's so-called "Hand of God" allowed Manly a dubious try in another controversial finals finish.
This time, though, the Cowboys refused to cry foul, with both Thurston and coach Paul Green blaming the side's dreadful opening half hour - not any calls at the death - for their finals exit.
"At the end of the day, it was the start to the match that put us behind the eight-ball," Thurston said.
"I'm still filthy. It still hurts. It's a bitter pill to swallow."
The Roosters' heart-stopping win sets up a blockbuster preliminary final with South Sydney next Friday night at ANZ stadium.
On Saturday, the Canterbury Bulldogs qualified to the NRL preliminary final after a 18-17 golden-point win over the Manly Sea Eagles at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Trent Hodkinson's second field goal of the evening saw Manly denied in extra time, after the Bulldogs valiantly defended a threatening Sea Eagles set early in the added stanza.Michael Ennis, playing in what could have been his last-ever NRL game for the Bulldogs, saw a costly fumble on his own try-line allow Manly to level the scores from 16-0 down, as the Sea Eagles swept to parity with 16 unanswered points.
But after Hodkinson's late heroics spared his blushes, Ennis praised his team for showing character to follow up last week's big win over the Melbourne Storm with victory over Manly.
"You play the two benchmarks in finals games two weeks in a row and come out on top in both. It's just a credit to the boys," Ennis told the media.
"We knew it was going to take an 80 minute performance to beat them. In the end it showed, it was longer than that, you just can't give a side like Manly a sniff.
"They're such a good side. They were missing a few tonight and they still kept turning up, it was a good game of footy."
"It's very disappointing. So close yet so far, it's just really disappointing," Manly's Daly Cherry-Evans said.
"Obviously we felt like we could get the win, but they came up with the big play at the right time and that's our season, unfortunately."We needed to lift, we had a lot of errors and I was a big part of those errors at half-time.
"So unfortunately it just wasn't enough, but I thought we really dug deep and gave everything we had."
Canterbury will meet the Penrith Panthers in next weekend's preliminary final.
Only a couple of minor changes in the Top 10 of the the Tipping Championship ladder were seen this week as Simply The Bears (175) continued holding his 4 point lead over Redv4me (171).
3rd placed Feet Little is now 2 points back on 169 but still a further 2 points ahead of The Neighbour (167) in 4th place.
3rd placed Feet Little is now 2 points back on 169 but still a further 2 points ahead of The Neighbour (167) in 4th place.
RANK
|
TIPPER
|
FINALS WEEK 2 SCORE
|
FINALS WEEK 2 MARGIN
|
TOTAL SCORE
|
TOTAL MARGIN
|
1
|
Simply The Bears
|
2
|
5
|
175
|
381
|
2
|
Redv4me
|
2
|
3
|
171
|
340
|
3
|
Feet Little
|
1
|
7
|
169
|
330
|
4
|
The Neighbour
|
1
|
5
|
167
|
276
|
5
|
Scotsta
|
1
|
9
|
165
|
343
|
6
|
NZ Tiger
|
2
|
1
|
164
|
342
|
7
|
Lainey
|
2
|
9
|
164
|
359
|
8
|
Sincas
|
0
|
11
|
163
|
312
|
9
|
Butch
|
2
|
13
|
162
|
325
|
10
|
sava4
|
1
|
9
|
161
|
341
|
11
|
kazgriffo
|
2
|
1
|
161
|
363
|
12
|
Richard McCourt
|
1
|
9
|
160
|
320
|
13
|
cmcnls+1day
|
0
|
1
|
159
|
354
|
14
|
Tonz
|
2
|
7
|
159
|
354
|
15
|
Warmess
|
2
|
7
|
159
|
372
|
16
|
steven bowers
|
0
|
7
|
157
|
337
|
17
|
Heath Caldwell
|
1
|
12
|
157
|
352
|
18
|
Brad Ellison
|
1
|
11
|
157
|
373
|
19
|
Yo Mama
|
1
|
9
|
157
|
394
|
20
|
Steve Rootsey
|
0
|
1
|
156
|
348
|
21
|
danz ??
|
0
|
7
|
155
|
339
|
22
|
Anotherstranger
|
0
|
1
|
155
|
359
|
23
|
Mr Busy
|
1
|
7
|
155
|
362
|
24
|
jall091 (2014 Champion)
|
2
|
5
|
155
|
367
|
25
|
Vee8head
|
1
|
6
|
154
|
343
|
26
|
Anu
|
2
|
7
|
154
|
387
|
27
|
BT Ross
|
2
|
9
|
154
|
389
|
28
|
Titta
|
1
|
5
|
153
|
351
|
29
|
Misty Taylor
|
2
|
5
|
153
|
363
|
30
|
trey waldron
|
2
|
0
|
153
|
367
|
31
|
Alfie
|
2
|
7
|
152
|
357
|
32
|
Bearass
|
2
|
11
|
150
|
351
|
33
|
emmy_k
|
1
|
11
|
150
|
385
|
34
|
mickeytheboot
|
2
|
7
|
149
|
348
|
35
|
Bronco2020
|
1
|
9
|
149
|
367
|
36
|
Darren Scott
|
0
|
6
|
149
|
434
|
37
|
Link Abrams
|
2
|
9
|
148
|
337
|
38
|
melz
|
0
|
1
|
147
|
436
|
39
|
Rex Kwando
|
1
|
5
|
146
|
367
|
40
|
Keith Wilton
|
0
|
13
|
146
|
402
|
41
|
Jessamine
|
1
|
7
|
145
|
358
|
42
|
boogs_nz
|
0
|
5
|
144
|
380
|
43
|
NO1QPRNZ
|
0
|
2
|
142
|
306
|
44
|
BEARHUG
|
0
|
1
|
142
|
349
|
45
|
tais1
|
2
|
6
|
142
|
390
|
46
|
Balmainadrian
|
2
|
7
|
141
|
445
|
47
|
blo1
|
2
|
12
|
140
|
447
|
48
|
taijay
|
2
|
14
|
140
|
458
|
49
|
Westroar
|
1
|
11
|
139
|
350
|
50
|
eaglesrock
|
1
|
7
|
139
|
355
|
51
|
haze13
|
0
|
1
|
139
|
458
|
52
|
Burnside_NZ
|
1
|
7
|
138
|
366
|
53
|
Desire Wilton
|
1
|
1
|
137
|
360
|
54
|
Toddy
|
2
|
5
|
137
|
380
|
55
|
killswitch
|
0
|
1
|
135
|
326
|
56
|
Kye Hudson
|
0
|
3
|
134
|
347
|
57
|
Craig Carnihan
|
0
|
1
|
131
|
398
|
58
|
Team Upton
|
0
|
1
|
129
|
378
|
59
|
rog the dodge
|
1
|
9
|
125
|
478
|
60
|
eviltwin
|
0
|
1
|
124
|
370
|
61
|
HUDS99
|
0
|
1
|
124
|
401
|
62
|
1YEARWONDERBARBA
|
0
|
1
|
116
|
436
|
63
|
campbell roberts
|
0
|
1
|
96
|
386
|
64
|
LOUNGIN SON
|
0
|
1
|
84
|
424
|
65
|
Bruiser
|
0
|
1
|
67
|
404
|
66
|
Joejoez
|
0
|
1
|
60
|
398
|
67
|
Stevefromoz(2009 Champion)
|
0
|
1
|
53
|
381
|
68
|
Wilshere Wonderland
|
0
|
1
|
47
|
419
|
69
|
pimp machine
|
0
|
1
|
33
|
383
|
Where do you sit in your POOLS TABLE? Check out the LATEST POOLS TABLES link at the top of the blog site!
That's it for this update.....enjoy week 03 of the finals!!
Til next week....
Mark
aka NZ Tiger
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