Would you rather play Melbourne or Riff first week of finals

[Thirteen]

Storm are much easier to beat. IF we show up.

[Thirteen]

It's a weird season. The last few weeks are huge.

Melbourne have arguably over performed with the players they've had available. Can they keep it up?

The Riff been strong even without Clearly. Now he's back and the business end.

The Chooks... who knows with us. We're in a better position on the ladder this time of year than we've been in ages. But the Wall is down. Is thee rounds enough time to rebuild it?

Robbo said he could fix it in a week.

[Bruce Pickett]

Our D has been terrible.
We can play a one off perfect game ala 2018GF to beat either Riff or Mexico. But to beat both of them in a row?
Very difficult task.

[Lydon]

Robbo said he could fix it in a week.

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that mate,ridiculous..

[Teddy]

Nope, Jazz misses the Parra game as his 4th week of suspension. He returns in Rnd 25 against the Titans.

I reckon (hope?) we will play Penrith in the GF, after beating the Storm in the first week of finals. I can't see the Storm beating Penrith out there and I think the Panthers will end up minor premiers.

Cheers Waylander feels like it’s been 3 months since he last played, we’re simply not the same without him it’s imperative he stays fit and out of trouble for the run into September.

[Billy Gunn]

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that mate,ridiculous..

I couldn't believe either, our goal line defense is bizarre. Take the Manly second half, they were on our line most of the half and only scored from intercepts.

Then a week later the first two tries scored by the Dolphins were simply embarrassing. I guess we will see how if the week is enough time to see an improvement.

[gragra]

When a finals game is on the line, where a loss means it's all over, I believe the team will go to another level to gett the win. They all know with both Joeys,JWH and Luke leaving this is the likely shutting of the premiership windows for a while. That will make the premiership win more than attainable....if we have the full squad.

[Thirteen]

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that mate,ridiculous..

I thought it was a pretty strange comment too. He’s put a bit of pressure on himself. I guess when he said it he knew Parra was next up.

[Easts75]

Serious question as I want to be a believer !!!

To those who.say they're confident we can beat both and win the comp can you explain where you think we have it over Penrith and the Storm?

Pump up my confidence as I have seen absolutely nothing that suggests we can get past Penrith...I do believe at our best and full strength we can beat Melbourne through middle dominance

[The Marshall]

We will have to play and beat them both most likely. It’s as simple as that.

[BraveTheWorld]

Serious question as I want to be a believer !!!

To those who.say they're confident we can beat both and win the comp can you explain where you think we have it over Penrith and the Storm?

Pump up my confidence as I have seen absolutely nothing that suggests we can get past Penrith...I do believe at our best and full strength we can beat Melbourne through middle dominance

We've scored 152 more points than they have this season (albeit we've played an additional game). Our attack when it's clicking seems to be better than anyone elses, and I think we have more star power across the park than the Panthers. We have more players who, if they play a 9/10 game, could define the game. We have an enormous amount of strike and I think we can potentially beat them in a power-running game. If you just imagine both Manu and Crichton playing a 9/10 game, while the rest of our team plays solidly, that would almost be enough to get it done.

The main issues for me would be our long kicking game and discipline. If we start a set on our 10m line, the Panthers and Storm can potentially restrict us to 20 or so metres. After Keary or Walker kick, Edwards will be charging it back and starting their close to their 40m line. Even if we defend just as well as they do, they'll always beat us going set-for-set with the additional kicking length. In regards to disclipline, you just cannot turn over cheap ball to Penrith. They abuse possession better than anyone, and can dominate the game for 10-15 minute blocks off of just one error. It's not even the points you concede that is the problem; but rather the expending of all your energy in defense, just to stay in the contest.

[Bruce Pickett]

We've scored 152 more points than they have this season (albeit we've played an additional game). Our attack when it's clicking seems to be better than anyone elses, and I think we have more star power across the park than the Panthers. We have more players who, if they play a 9/10 game, could define the game. We have an enormous amount of strike and I think we can potentially beat them in a power-running game. If you just imagine both Manu and Crichton playing a 9/10 game, while the rest of our team plays solidly, that would almost be enough to get it done.

The main issues for me would be our long kicking game and discipline. If we start a set on our 10m line, the Panthers and Storm can potentially restrict us to 20 or so metres. After Keary or Walker kick, Edwards will be charging it back and starting their close to their 40m line. Even if we defend just as well as they do, they'll always beat us going set-for-set with the additional kicking length. In regards to disclipline, you just cannot turn over cheap ball to Penrith. They abuse possession better than anyone, and can dominate the game for 10-15 minute blocks off of just one error. It's not even the points you concede that is the problem; but rather the expending of all your energy in defense, just to stay in the contest.

Can we do so 2 games in a row?

[BraveTheWorld]

Can we do so 2 games in a row?

I'll tell you at the end of the season.

[ism22]

I don't really care... they're both gonna be tough to beat and I don't think there's THAT much of a difference between the two in terms of what are our chances?'

On paper the Drizz is slightly better at scoring points and the Riff is slightly better at defending them (PDs are almost identical). Whereas, we are THE attacking powerhouse this season (when we get momentum).

IMO both of them are good at grinding teams out. Thus to me the job's pretty similar either way... we need to be sharper with our defence and play for the full 80 if we wanna beat me.

Neither of the two teams is gonna be blown away and really... week 1 of the finals... I don't wanna see a situation where we go all out, absolutely murder one of the two and then end up with key suspensions. The NRL's made it clear that just about any poorly timed tackles can get you sidelined for 3-5 weeks, and I doubt the NRL judiciary's gonna do the old Billy Slater 'yeeeeeah... but we can't have him missing his last game!!!!' for JWH.

Honestly I wish Wayne Bennett hadn't chucked his big tanty when the Dragons lost to Parra!!! (In a season where there's no premiers anyway as the Drizz cheated). IMO it'd make more sense for us to get a home game against the Dragons, Manly, Cows or Dogs. Don't really know why the top-4 have to nut it out in round 1 of the finals. Bloody Skelator...

[BTRD]

4 weeks ago I would be confident to say we’d beat either but now I’m a little nervous. Still think we are a rung below both of those teams however on our day I still believe our absolute best is better than both of theirs. Problem is we struggle to show it against the top teams but if we do and start getting it together we can give this comp a real shake.

Let’s hope the bye serves us well and we come out refreshed and ready to go.

I agree 100% Nayfo.

Fingers crossed we get our #hit together.