Manly Victorious over the Dragons

888sport had Manly as underdogs in the game against St George at Brookvale Oval last Saturday night. St George has been clearly the best team in the competition this year and hasn’t put a foot wrong. Even though Manly was at home they had eight of their players backing up from representative duties less than 24 hours earlier. You could even get a 4.5 points head start on the Eagles that were expected to really suffer towards the end of the game.

Rugby league is the hardest team sport on the planet and to play two games at the highest level in two days is nearly unthinkable. There was much criticism leveled at the NRL about their schedule. It was ludicrous that the game with the most players backing up was put on less than 24 hours after the two rep games on Friday night.

The end result, however, certainly created one of the most memorable victories as the Manly side found hidden reserves of energy to out muscle, out class and most importantly out last the disappointing Saints. It was a complete performance from a side that had already relinquished some big leads this season.

The other great game of the weekend saw the Gold Coast Titans score a narrow 2 point victory against Newcastle, in Newcastle. In a high scoring encounter the Titans played from behind most of the day but when the final siren sounded they were ahead when they needed to be. The Titans are a good side and they will only get better as Prince continues to grow as a leader and the returning Matt Rogers will further strengthen their already impressive backline.

Get prepared for an incredible round next weekend which will see some mouth watering match-ups included the Bulldogs v Saints, Brisbane v Gold Coast, Tigers v Souths and Manly v Parramatta. This is certainly the round of the year to date and my best bet is for the Warriors to serve it up to North Queensland.