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Sea Eagles v Warriors Preview
NRL.com
Sydney Football Stadium
Saturday 7.45pm
http://nrl.com/News/Latest/tabid/10244/default.aspx?id=52995
TWO sides with incredible momentum square off in the second qualifying final for this years premiership decider but despite the Warriors blistering displays over the past fortnight the Sea Eagles will start warm favourites to win.
TAB Sportsbet is quoting the Sydney-based side at $1.36 and the Kiwi outfit at $3; that will be music to the ears of Warriors coach Ivan Cleary who has seen his side win 10 of their past 12 games, most of them as underdogs.
From eighth place theyve already felled the number one and number four sides and the news for them just keeps getting better this week they get major strike weapon Wade McKinnon back from suspension, which has afforded them the luxury of benching the devastating Lance Hohaia who was easily their best player in their defeat of the Roosters last week.
Injuries?
The Warriors have none.
Zilch. Now thats almost unheard of at a rugby league club at this stage of the season
Cleary has named a six-man bench, with Grant Rovelli in jersey 20 and Epalahame Lauaki in 20.
Meanwhile the Sea Eagles have had a refreshing weeks break since their demolition of the Dragons in Finals Week 1.
Likewise they have all troops on deck. Theyve named a five-man bench, with Adam Cuthbertson (jersey 21) likely to be the omission.
Steve Menzies will be hoping he can get across the try line again here he needs just one more four-pointer to make it 150 in the maroon-and-white.
Watch out Sea Eagles: Manu Vatuvei remains in devastating form on the left wing for the Warriors and its no surprise theyve scored 50 of their 96 tries on that side, compared to just 24 on the right.
Marking him for the Manly side will be rookie David Williams, who himself has been in good attacking form but who has been a little shaky defensively.
So far Williams is missing 42 per cent of his tackle attempts given Vatuvei ranks 11th in the comp for tackle breaks with 105 (from an injury-shortened season) Manly coach Des Hasler will have been drumming into his troops the importance of getting to Vatuvei in numbers.
Watch out Warriors: The Kiwis left-edge defence needs to be watertight here or it will spring a leak at the hands of one of the Sea Eagles favourite plays a second-man shift wide to their right from a play-the-ball inside the 10-metre zone near the posts, or else a decoy shift where Matt Orford, Jamie Lyon or Glenn Stewart will pop a short flat ball to the likes of Anthony Watmough wholl be hitting the line at speed.
The Warriors are particularly vulnerable on their left edge theyve conceded 49 tries down that corridor compared to just 32 on the other flank.
Look also for deft kicks behind the likes of Vatuvei; hes fast, but as a big man he finds it difficult to turn and chase.
Where it will be won: Defence.
Theres no doubt this will be a fast and open game with plenty of points in it the Sea Eagles have scored more tries than any other team this year (125) while the Warriors 96 four-pointers ranks them fifth in the comp.
That makes it all the more likely that the winner will be the team who manages to match defensive grunt with their abundant flair in attack.
The worry for the Warriors is the Sea Eagles appear to be pretty solid across the park defensively their 64 tries conceded is broken down into 25 on their left edge, 15 in centre-field and 24 on the right.
So to get across the line the Warriors will need to mix up their attacking plays; its unlikely theyll get too much joy in any one area.
The History: Played 15; Sea Eagles 9, Warriors 6.
The Sea Eagles have won six of the past eight games, including two wins this year.
In round 3 at Brookvale Oval they blasted the Warriors 52-6 to register their biggest ever win over the Kiwis.
Conclusion: Without a serious hit-out over the past month they thrashed the Wests Tigers, Titans, Panthers and then the Dragons Manly will be thankful theyre not coming up against the battle-hardened Storm or the Sharks in their quest to go one better this year.
The Warriors are on a roll but the Sea Eagles will feel a lot more comfortable trying to thwart their open, offloading style of play than they would had they squared up against an in-your-face team.
Ditto Matt Orford, who needs space and time to play to his best.
But that easy month still presents a worry for the Manly side they need to roll up their sleeves and take it to the Warriors early look for props Brent Kite and Josh Perry to lay a frantic platform in the opening 20 minutes.
It will be interesting to see how McKinnon slots back into a side that arguably fired on an extra cylinder in his absence.
And while it would appear to be more of a home game for Manly than the Warriors, the Northern Beaches boys have worryingly only won one of their past seven finals games away from Brookvale Oval.
But well lean towards Manly: their grand final loss last year will still be burning inside them and they will all know they are just 80 minutes from another tilt and a chance to balance the ledger.
Match officials: Referee Shayne Hayne; Sideline Officials Paul Holland & Matt Cecchin; Video refs Steve Clark & Phil Cooley.
Televised: Channel Nine Live from 7.30pm; Fox Sports 2 Delayed from 10.30pm.
NRL.com
Sydney Football Stadium
Saturday 7.45pm
http://nrl.com/News/Latest/tabid/10244/default.aspx?id=52995
TWO sides with incredible momentum square off in the second qualifying final for this years premiership decider but despite the Warriors blistering displays over the past fortnight the Sea Eagles will start warm favourites to win.
TAB Sportsbet is quoting the Sydney-based side at $1.36 and the Kiwi outfit at $3; that will be music to the ears of Warriors coach Ivan Cleary who has seen his side win 10 of their past 12 games, most of them as underdogs.
From eighth place theyve already felled the number one and number four sides and the news for them just keeps getting better this week they get major strike weapon Wade McKinnon back from suspension, which has afforded them the luxury of benching the devastating Lance Hohaia who was easily their best player in their defeat of the Roosters last week.
Injuries?
The Warriors have none.
Zilch. Now thats almost unheard of at a rugby league club at this stage of the season
Cleary has named a six-man bench, with Grant Rovelli in jersey 20 and Epalahame Lauaki in 20.
Meanwhile the Sea Eagles have had a refreshing weeks break since their demolition of the Dragons in Finals Week 1.
Likewise they have all troops on deck. Theyve named a five-man bench, with Adam Cuthbertson (jersey 21) likely to be the omission.
Steve Menzies will be hoping he can get across the try line again here he needs just one more four-pointer to make it 150 in the maroon-and-white.
Watch out Sea Eagles: Manu Vatuvei remains in devastating form on the left wing for the Warriors and its no surprise theyve scored 50 of their 96 tries on that side, compared to just 24 on the right.
Marking him for the Manly side will be rookie David Williams, who himself has been in good attacking form but who has been a little shaky defensively.
So far Williams is missing 42 per cent of his tackle attempts given Vatuvei ranks 11th in the comp for tackle breaks with 105 (from an injury-shortened season) Manly coach Des Hasler will have been drumming into his troops the importance of getting to Vatuvei in numbers.
Watch out Warriors: The Kiwis left-edge defence needs to be watertight here or it will spring a leak at the hands of one of the Sea Eagles favourite plays a second-man shift wide to their right from a play-the-ball inside the 10-metre zone near the posts, or else a decoy shift where Matt Orford, Jamie Lyon or Glenn Stewart will pop a short flat ball to the likes of Anthony Watmough wholl be hitting the line at speed.
The Warriors are particularly vulnerable on their left edge theyve conceded 49 tries down that corridor compared to just 32 on the other flank.
Look also for deft kicks behind the likes of Vatuvei; hes fast, but as a big man he finds it difficult to turn and chase.
Where it will be won: Defence.
Theres no doubt this will be a fast and open game with plenty of points in it the Sea Eagles have scored more tries than any other team this year (125) while the Warriors 96 four-pointers ranks them fifth in the comp.
That makes it all the more likely that the winner will be the team who manages to match defensive grunt with their abundant flair in attack.
The worry for the Warriors is the Sea Eagles appear to be pretty solid across the park defensively their 64 tries conceded is broken down into 25 on their left edge, 15 in centre-field and 24 on the right.
So to get across the line the Warriors will need to mix up their attacking plays; its unlikely theyll get too much joy in any one area.
The History: Played 15; Sea Eagles 9, Warriors 6.
The Sea Eagles have won six of the past eight games, including two wins this year.
In round 3 at Brookvale Oval they blasted the Warriors 52-6 to register their biggest ever win over the Kiwis.
Conclusion: Without a serious hit-out over the past month they thrashed the Wests Tigers, Titans, Panthers and then the Dragons Manly will be thankful theyre not coming up against the battle-hardened Storm or the Sharks in their quest to go one better this year.
The Warriors are on a roll but the Sea Eagles will feel a lot more comfortable trying to thwart their open, offloading style of play than they would had they squared up against an in-your-face team.
Ditto Matt Orford, who needs space and time to play to his best.
But that easy month still presents a worry for the Manly side they need to roll up their sleeves and take it to the Warriors early look for props Brent Kite and Josh Perry to lay a frantic platform in the opening 20 minutes.
It will be interesting to see how McKinnon slots back into a side that arguably fired on an extra cylinder in his absence.
And while it would appear to be more of a home game for Manly than the Warriors, the Northern Beaches boys have worryingly only won one of their past seven finals games away from Brookvale Oval.
But well lean towards Manly: their grand final loss last year will still be burning inside them and they will all know they are just 80 minutes from another tilt and a chance to balance the ledger.
Match officials: Referee Shayne Hayne; Sideline Officials Paul Holland & Matt Cecchin; Video refs Steve Clark & Phil Cooley.
Televised: Channel Nine Live from 7.30pm; Fox Sports 2 Delayed from 10.30pm.
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