Anyone Brave enough to call the Grand Final teams yet ?

[tiger john]

tigers / storm

 

[Galeforce]

depends on Souths making the 8. If they do Manly versus Souths.

 

[adamkungl]

Roosters to beat Manly or Warriors. According to NRL ladder predictor. That's scientific evidence right there

 

[miccle]

Storm vs whoever finds good form in the next six to eight weeks.

Basically I reckon their opponents will be one of Parra, Dogs, Manly or Warriors.

It's all going to come down to which team finds the best form and can grind out some momentum in the final three weeks of the season and in the finals.

It's all Melbournes to lose from there on in. If they don't win it, it'll be ever more momentous than parra 2001 IMO.

 

[Charlie124]

Cowboys V Warriors, Cowboys to win........... as long as we're in the 8 we're a chance.

2004 - finished 7th, beat the Bulldogs (2nd and eventual premiers), then beat the Broncos, were then robbed against the Roosters in our first finals campaign.

2005 - Finished 5th, got smashed in the opening game of the finals and were written off immediately, beat a more fancied Storm team, then flogged the minor premiers and held them to nil.

it just shows that once we make the finals we are a whole different football team, and with no teams playing outstanding footy at the moment (the storm seemed to be the only ones until 2 weeks ago) its really anyones game.

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

if parra have no injuries than they will be there. parra v storm, they have the class and forward packs to beat anyone

melbournes back line is awesome, their halves are good, i just feel maybe melbournes forward oack, while they are strong and effective can be domminated if they are really pushed to the limit.

parramatta, not being biased here, but probably have the most gifted talented players going around in hayne and inu, these 2 kids are freaks, of course we dont know how they will go in the big games when semis come around. also we have grothe and tahu who are 2 of the most devastating attackers, ben smith who is as strong as they come. and luke burt to come back who was in outstanding form.
Parras forward pack is awesome, hindmarsh and cayless lead the way with fuifui and cannings coming on to finish off the job, with robinson the tackling machine never letting the team down. cordoba who is coming along nicley to.
then our hooker rotation in riddell and pj, these 2 guys can change a game with just one run of the footy or one big hit.
then come the halves, what parra have lacked in recent years. but with finch doing the little work and taking pressure of tim, it has helped him. tim is now just a halfback doing his job, not throwing those dumb balls and not tryign to score off every play.

parra v melbourne imo

manly i think lack that killer instince, and if parra were on their game for 80min when they versed eachother parra would have out 50 on them

 

[Garts]

if parra have no injuries than they will be there. parra v storm, they have the class and forward packs to beat anyone

melbournes back line is awesome, their halves are good, i just feel maybe melbournes forward oack, while they are strong and effective can be domminated if they are really pushed to the limit.

parramatta, not being biased here, but probably have the most gifted talented players going around in hayne and inu, these 2 kids are freaks, of course we dont know how they will go in the big games when semis come around. also we have grothe and tahu who are 2 of the most devastating attackers, ben smith who is as strong as they come. and luke burt to come back who was in outstanding form.
Parras forward pack is awesome, hindmarsh and cayless lead the way with fuifui and cannings coming on to finish off the job, with robinson the tackling machine never letting the team down. cordoba who is coming along nicley to.
then our hooker rotation in riddell and pj, these 2 guys can change a game with just one run of the footy or one big hit.
then come the halves, what parra have lacked in recent years. but with finch doing the little work and taking pressure of tim, it has helped him. tim is now just a halfback doing his job, not throwing those dumb balls and not tryign to score off every play.

parra v melbourne imo

manly i think lack that killer instince, and if parra were on their game for 80min when they versed eachother parra would have out 50 on them

No you are not biased at all!!!!

Parra are a good team on their day but that last comment makes you look stupid!!!!

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

No you are not biased at all!!!!

Parra are a good team on their day but that last comment makes you look stupid!!!!

i know it sounded biased because ionly focused on parra lol
but seriously, parra were killing manly were all over them, they relaxed and let manly back in the game. when i say 50 i don actually mean 50, but they would have touched them up i believe and won comfortably, they let manly back in that game with soem soft tries

 

[Garts]

Same can be said by us, we had a lull in the last 20 of the first half and let in some soft tries. For Parra to touch us up Manly would need to be way off their game and Parra on theirs. If both are on their game it will go down to the wire but Parra need to learn to play for 80 mins, no good being great for 40 or 50 mins only!!!!

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

Same can be said by us, we had a lull in the last 20 of the first half and let in some soft tries. For Parra to touch us up Manly would need to be way off their game and Parra on theirs. If both are on their game it will go down to the wire but Parra need to learn to play for 80 mins, no good being great for 40 or 50 mins only!!!!

oh forsure, parra still have alot to work on, but the signs are there that they can win it this year. tbh i think its really out of melb, parra, tigers, warriors. just can't see manly winning it, ofcourse others may think they can. but its just a personal oppinion, i dont think they have what it takes when it comes to big games. same could be said for parra, but i think with hagan in charge its a lot more relaxed and free parra instead of brian smith who was on the players backs 24/7

 

[eels_fan_01]

F*ck this sh*t on this forum right now off "oh if we played like this for 20 mins" "if you played like that for 60 mins". Manly are infront of us and have beaten us twice, they deserve the bragging rights for now, same as Eels have the bragging rights over the team that has lost twice to the wooden spooners, the Bulldogs.

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

F*ck this sh*t on this forum right now off "oh if we played like this for 20 mins" "if you played like that for 60 mins". Manly are infront of us and have beaten us twice, they deserve the bragging rights for now, same as Eels have the bragging rights over the team that has lost twice to the wooden spooners, the Bulldogs.

relax and take a chill pill, its a forum where everyone can have their say

 

[CharlieF]

Manly has more structure in their play and I would consider them more consistent than Parra. Their ability to vary their attack to suit the conditions during a game has been the reason for them winning so many games this year. Their defence has few weaknesses and their physical condition today is as good as any team in the NRL. They have won games this year at grounds that they have not won at since Parra last won a GF. I would have agreed with people that Manly will crack in big games, but not after seeing the Manly side of 2007. As a long time follower, this team plays completely different than even the team of last year. There are some extremely hungry players in the side who will be giving that over-rated tag a real shake.

Its not so clear cut as you think.

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

Manly has more structure in their play and I would consider them more consistent than Parra. Their ability to vary their attack to suit the conditions during a game has been the reason for them winning so many games this year. Their defence has few weaknesses and their physical condition today is as good as any team in the NRL. They have won games this year at grounds that they have not won at since Parra last won a GF. I would have agreed with people that Manly will crack in big games, but not after seeing the Manly side of 2007. As a long time follower, this team plays completely different than even the team of last year. There are some extremely hungry players in the side who will be giving that over-rated tag a real shake.

Its not so clear cut as you think.

The more teams with a chance the better, makes it more interesting. I'd love to be proven wrong(Actually i wouldn't i hate manly lol) but they do have talent and have shown it during the year, but we all know semi finals is a different level. ;-)

 

[Ice777]

if parra have no injuries than they will be there. parra v storm, they have the class and forward packs to beat anyone

melbournes back line is awesome, their halves are good, i just feel maybe melbournes forward oack, while they are strong and effective can be domminated if they are really pushed to the limit.

While i think everything else you said was fair enough, people have been knocking our forward pack for a couple of years now saying we can be dominated by bigger packs etc But the Storm have won 31 of the past 37 games and as i've read many many people saying games are won and lost in the forwards then i think that shows we don't often get dominated and hold our own pretty well. Maybe we don't dominate other packs but we rarely get dominated either.

 

[eels_fan_01]

relax and take a chill pill, its a forum where everyone can have their say

Im not saying everyone cant have their say but you are doing what Bulldogs supporters have done this they lost on Friday night and thats spit out excuses and reasons why the Eels could beat so and so and if they played like this for a half they would win blah blah blah. The table and the results are the main guide for form.

 

[Garts]

I am not convinced with Manly making the GF this year but one thing I am pretty confident is that we will not see a repeat of last years colapse to the Dragons, we may be eliminated but if we do it will be a very close game!!!!

 

[Ice777]

Fella's it mean jack sh*t who beat who during the season and who played crap against who in the season. All that matters is who you face in whatever final it is on any given day. If we beat Parra next week that means nothing when it comes to the finals just as it doesn't if Parra beat us. We did over Brisbane twice last year but lost the one where it counted the most.

 

[hindmarsh4pm]

While i think everything else you said was fair enough, people have been knocking our forward pack for a couple of years now saying we can be dominated by bigger packs etc But the Storm have won 31 of the past 37 games and as i've read many many people saying games are won and lost in the forwards then i think that shows we don't often get dominated and hold our own pretty well. Maybe we don't dominate other packs but we rarely get dominated either.

melbourne do have a good forward pack, with the likes oh johnson and hoffman, but the roosters dominated them and at parts of the sharks game they were getting domminated and then had no where to go. The storm's success relies on cameron smith, boy does he make a difference to that side

 

[CharlieF]

Based on current performance there are 2 standout teams. All the others will have their work cut out for them to beat them.