NRL Odds: The Bulldogs Take On The Eagles
September 18th, 2014 by TJ DilferSo the Panthers and the Rabbitohs are safely through the first week of NRL finals rugby, and it will be the South Sydney boys waiting for the winners of North Queensland and the Roosters. That means that the Panthers are in store for whichever side can come through Saturday’s semi-final – the NRL odds we’ve got for you tell us that the Bulldogs are the favourites as of today, but Manly have been there or thereabouts all season, and there’s no better time to find a way to win than in the finals…
It feels like most of the questions being asked before Saturday’s final are being asked of the Sea Eagles, but the Bulldogs didn’t come to the finals with any sort of form behind them at all – six defeats in the last eight games of the regular season put them in jeopardy and saw them finish seventh on the ladder. What they did do, though, is roar to life in last week’s final, handing a heavy defeat to the Storm that has them carrying the favourites tag this weekend. That’s if you ask the bookies, of course: Bulldogs coach Des Hasler has been keen to portray his men as the scrappy underdogs (no pun intended, we hope) going into this one.
But, in fairness, the Sea Eagles will have a number of big questions to answer before they can win this one. They have been 2014’s nearly-men, letting the minor premiership slip away along with their form in the crucial final weeks of the regular season. They’ve lost three of the last five games. The list of Manly players – some of them key – missing through injury or suspension isn’t short by any means. And they found themselves 40 points down after just short of an hour’s rugby last weekend. They rallied in the closing minutes of that final to make it look more respectable, but they simply can’t afford to let the Bulldogs out of sight like that. We said it before the last game of the regular season, and we find ourselves saying it again: the Sea Eagles are going to have to step up on Saturday night of they want to get something out of their 2014 season. And this time there won’t be a second chance.
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