Nah not writing Pennies off at all. Finishing 8th is an Anthony Griffin special. When I say 6 thru 8 will fight for their positions, you always have to include 9th in the back of your mind. 8th is always a clusterf**k of who is gonna get their nose over the line quickest.
The only bold statement I'm really making is, I'm not sold on the Sharks as a top 4 side at all. They have looked pretty clunky at times over the past few rounds, not least of which getting toweled up by the Titans. I think you'll find when they come up against the Broncos, Cows and Roosters, they're gonna get exposed pretty badly only to smash the Knights in R26 to put themselves in the frame for 5th.
Everyone thought the Cows were done after JT went down, myself included, but you can't deny they're a well drilled, well oiled footy side who do not give up, ever.
Fair enough.
I'm not sold on us either, very patchy, but we certainly play better the higher the opposition. We flogged the Roosters just a few games ago.
The Sharks v Broncos, Roosters and Cowboys games will obviously be big for us, though we could lose them all and still make top 4.
I agree the Cowboys have been super impressive since losing JT, and I think they are a chance of winning now, something I wrote off when Thurston was ruled out.
Broncos also play top 8 sides most their remaining games (critically, 2 against the Eels, the only top 8 team the Eels have to play- Eels could easily make top 4 over Sharks, Cowboys or Broncos, who all have tougher draws- if Eels are to overtake Broncos they'd have to beat them twice, but their destiny is in their own hands).
Roosters are a game up and have 2 games vs non contenders, so probably should finish top 4.
But I expected Manly to win this easily, and they were my top tip to make top 4 out of all the teams (other than the Storm, who look unshakeable from the top spot), so what do I know?
Dragons finding form and Panthers winning keeps 2nd to 9th super competitive, which is good given 10th to 16th are all out of it early this year.
