NRL 2025
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@African-Monkey to be fair Dolphins should have buried that game but continually found new ways to let the Tigers back in. I’m not on the Tigers bus just yet, think top teams bury them with that performance
Still good start
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@bayimports Even the Knights who were shit tonight against the Titans somehow beat the Tigers a couple of weeks ago.
Tigers definitely a lot better now than in the past few seasons.
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@bayimports said in NRL 2025:
@African-Monkey to be fair Dolphins should have buried that game but continually found new ways to let the Tigers back in. I’m not on the Tigers bus just yet, think top teams bury them with that performance
Still good start
I think they needed to take shots at goal early in the 2nd half, build some Scoreboard pressure, especially as the Tigers fitness has improved which is allowing themselves to stay in contests for longer. The Da Silva try before halftime was soft, which bought the Tigers back into the game where they were cruising at 18-6. What I will say about the Tigers is that they've recruited well in the off season so far out wide with Turuva and Skelton, up front with Hunt and May, and of course Luai, who makes a massive difference to their spine, and allows Korosau and Galvin especially to play their own games. He's a great steadying influence on that side.
Tigers Wahs next week to determine who starts the season 3-1 with the winner going 3 in a row. Not many would have predicted that at the start of the season.
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@African-Monkey one of my bold predictions was knights finishing last, they have started much better than I thought. In fact looking stupid now. I’m saying that I had Tigers beating Knights and Eels (without Moses) , this was the first 50/50 match. It’s still a soft draw. Next week the soft draw continues. Tigers at home should win this but another 50/50 type of match that if they win keeps confidence going. Just yet to play a top end team.
May is in the top three props already in the comp, Roosters are idiots. So were we for not trying to get him. But yes great recruiting, I’m not denying it. I just haven’t seen enough yet to think they won’t be a mid table finish. Again great start though
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@bayimports said in NRL 2025:
@African-Monkey one of my bold predictions was knights finishing last, they have started much better than I thought. In fact looking stupid now. I’m saying that I had Tigers beating Knights and Eels (without Moses) , this was the first 50/50 match. It’s still a soft draw. Next week the soft draw continues. Tigers at home should win this but another 50/50 type of match that if they win keeps confidence going. Just yet to play a top end team.
May is in the top three props already in the comp, Roosters are idiots. So were we for not trying to get him. But yes great recruiting, I’m not denying it. I just haven’t seen enough yet to think they won’t be a mid table finish. Again great start though
On May, he could be close to an origin call-up should one prop go down. He's been great. Will be a big battle in the middle next week between him and Barnett, both gunning for that origin spot.
It's funny how some players don't suit the Roosters set up. First Brandon Smith, now May. Robbo comes across as quite a snobby, serious person. Not saying it's wrong, but if you look at the elite coaches (robbo being one), they all seem completely different personality wise.
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Geez that Eels Dogs match was a stinker. The only memorable thing to come out of it was Josh Curran standing in the referees position telling the Eels players that they were offside, so they pulled out of the play, only for him to get penalized for it!
Better fight shown by the Eels, bit yeah, I fell asleep with 10 to go, the game was that boring.
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Round 3: The fight back
Melbourne hold out a gutsy and determined Penrith who are suddenly 1-2.
The Wahs beat the Roosters who are pretty shit, and obviously played out of their skin last week.
The Cowboys showed up this week but still weren't good enough to beat the Broncos. Payne Haas is terrifying.
Saturday Cronulla put Souths back in their box in a pretty one-sided affair.
The Dolphins are in real trouble. They lead the Tigers 18-6 and went on to lose 18-30. The Tigers have had a nice soft start to the year, are definitely improved, and aren't giving up many points.
The Knights too have had a soft start, and everyone expected them to pump the Titans. Except Tino is back and the Titans are different when he plays.
Yesterday the Eels showed some fight against Bulldogs outfit stripped of 4 of its best players. And despite Lomax having a real go, they were terrible on attack, and the Doggies held on in a game that African Monkey accurately described.
In the late game Manly took all their frustrations from last week out on a Raiders side who were horrible. It was 40-0 early enough for the 50 but Manly went easy. Haumole Olakau'atu is both huge and really good at football.Reece Walsh is once again getting a kicking for his ridiculous error count, but i tell you what, his opposite number from Friday is probably pretty happy that Reece has a higher profile, Drinkwater was dogshit. Again.
The big boys are the stand out players to start the year. Guys like Haas, Tino, Olakau'atu, Utoikamanu and May have all started the year on fire and are driving their teams forward. This is good news for the Wahs who have a couple of really good ones.I saw the two worst penalties i have seen in a while this week. First Munster gets penalised for feeding it to Liam Martin after the two of them had been going at each other all game. Then yesterday Josh Curran got penalised for pretending to be the ref and calling Eels players off side. "Not in the spirit of the game" come the fuck on.
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Home advantage helping in a lot of games so far. In terms of big guys, I think you can add E.Katoa to that list.
Knights lost both their strike second row forwards for that Titans game as well. Mind you I did suspect the Titans might bounce back anyway.
That was such a BS call on Curran, if anything it was funny but not a penalty.
Lots of hammy and knee injuries already, dont think everyone is old, and some tackles being referred as hip drops that are clearly not. Bit of a worry, just hope no one gets rubbed out for something that isnt a hip drop and just an accidental landing.
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Eels or Dolphins for the spoon.
Both have looked very ordinary so far this season.
Payten I think will be first coach sacked. I think he lost the playing group at the Cowboys.
I know the Raiders got flogged last night but I liked what I saw from them in the first two round and think they'll play finals this year and to the surprise of no one Ricky had a good old moan again.
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DCE to leave Manly at the end of the season.
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@MacDazzler said in NRL 2025:
DCE to leave Manly at the end of the season.
Lets see, Manly dont believe its over yet
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@MacDazzler said in NRL 2025:
Eels or Dolphins for the spoon.
Not sure on Eels just yet, think a lot will depend on Moses availability, if spoon handed out now, they would already have a hand firm on the handle.
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@bayimports Well he does have form backflipping from the Titans 10 years ago, you're right it ain't over yet.
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Far out 2 more years, that'll take him to 38 if it happens!
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@African-Monkey said in NRL 2025:
Far out 2 more years, that'll take him to 38 if it happens!
heard tonight he has missed 23 games since he started and most were origin. Still leads fitness tests etc.. quite a freak really
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@bayimports said in NRL 2025:
@African-Monkey said in NRL 2025:
Far out 2 more years, that'll take him to 38 if it happens!
heard tonight he has missed 23 games since he started and most were origin. Still leads fitness tests etc.. quite a freak really
Cam Smith type durability, infact, that was like the whole Storm spine back then, they were hardly ever injured.
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DCE to the Roosters makes too much sense given everything said last night (and hasn't this story just exploded in like 18 hours!)
It explains why the Roosters were passive in the transfer market, and DCE seems determined to go.
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2025:
DCE to the Roosters makes too much sense given everything said last night (and hasn't this story just exploded in like 18 hours!)
It explains why the Roosters were passive in the transfer market, and DCE seems determined to go.
Braith Anasta was confident last night that he's all but signed for the Roosters.
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what shit show Manly is, listened to their CEO this morning, tried to say they respected DCEs wishes. Reality is they had offered him nothing and expected him to do nothing about it?
Dont know where he will end up, but what an entertaining 18 hours -
One of the young wingers in NSW Cup will get a decent crack at making a case in the top team
