NRL NRL 2024 - Round 4

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Tipping!

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/pickem/picks/2024-nrl-board-tipping.129/?week_id=376

Thursday 28th March
Sydney Roosters vs Penrith (Allianz Stadium - 20:00)

Friday 29th March
South Sydney vs Canterbury-Bankstown (Accor Stadium - 16:05)
Brisbane vs North Queensland (Suncorp Stadium - 20:00)

Saturday 30th March
St.George-Illawarra vs Manly-Warringah (WIN Stadium - 17:30)
Gold Coast vs Dolphins (Cbus Super Stadium - 19:35)

Sunday 31st March
New Zealand vs Newcastle (Go Media Stadium - 16:05)
Cronulla-Sutherland vs Canberra (PointsBet Stadium - 18:15)

Monday 1st April
Parramattavs vs Wests Tigers (CommBank Stadium - 16:00)

Bye:
Melbourne

 

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NRL Team Lists: Round 4

Official team lists, updates and injury news for Round 4 of the 2024 NRL Telstra Premiership.

www.nrl.com

Roosters: Sam Walker has been cleared to play after two independent doctors appointed by the NRL Chief Medical Officer ruled his Category 1 HIA against the Rabbitohs should have been deemed a Category 2. He is joined in the halves by Luke Keary, who has served the 11-day concussion protocols after he suffered a concussion in Round 2. Lindsay Collins is out with a hamstring injury, replaced at prop by Terrell May with Egan Butcher added to the bench for his first NRL game of the season.
Panthers: A huge blow with Nathan Cleary set to miss four weeks with a hamstring injury, while Scott Sorensen (knee) is also out. Brad Schneider is the new No,7 in his first game back in the NRL after a stint in England and Luke Garner is promoted to start in the back row. Mavrik Geyer, son of 1991 grand final hero Mark, will make his NRL debut off the bench.

Rabbitohs: Jason Demetriou has resisted the urge to make mass changes in the wake of three straight losses. Damien Cook moves to the starting side and Siliva Havili drops to 18th man while Michael Chee Kam and Shaquai Mitchell join the 17 with Sean Keppie relegated to the reserves.
Bulldogs: Coach Cameron Ciraldo has named an unchanged 17 off the back of last week's impressive win. Listed among the reserves and a chance to make a return from a shoulder injury is flyer Josh Addo-Carr, who hasn't played since Round 1. Bronson Xerri is 18th man.

Broncos: Injured fullback Reece Walsh (facial fracture) is replaced by Tristan Sailor while skipper Adam Reynolds returns from a knee injury so Jock Madden makes way. Jaiyden Hunt comes into the back row for Brendan Piakura, who injured his ankle at training on Tuesday. Veteran Corey Oates comes onto the bench for his first NRL game since Round 27 last year. Martin Taupau drops to the reserves.
Cowboys: Zac Laybutt returns in the centres after being a late withdrawal last week with an ankle injury in the only change to the squad that downed the Dragons so convincingly. Tom Chester reverts to 18th man.

Dragons: A number of changes in the starting pack with Francis Molo (suspension), Jacob Liddle (concussion) and Jaydn Su'A (quad) all back on deck after missing Round 3. Jack de Belin, Jesse Marschke and Raymond Faitala-Mariner all move to the interchange bench. Hame Sele is back from a hamstring injury on the bench. Connor Muhleisen, Michael Molo and Viliami Fifita all drop out of the side.
Sea Eagles: No changes to the 17 that went down narrowly to the Eels. Tommy Talau is again listed among the reserves as he looks to return from an ankle injury so Raymond Tuaimalo Vaega retains his spot on the wing. Toafoafoa Sipley has served his suspension for a Crusher Tackle but is unable to force his way into the pack so he is among the reserves.

Titans: Some much-needed good news following last weekend’s crushing loss of captain Tino Fa'asuamaleaui to a season-ending knee injury, with Jayden Campbell named to return at fullback and David Fifita a good chance of making his comeback from a pre-season pectoral injury after being included as 18th man. Campbell, who returned from his own knee injury in Queensland Cup last weekend, replaces Keano Kini in the No.1 jersey and Keenan Palasia comes in to start at prop, with Joe Stimson the new face on the bench.
Dolphins: Ray Stone returns from concussion and replaces Jarrod Wallace on the bench in the only change to the 17 which hammered the Dragons in Round 2. The bye last week means Kodi Nikorima is good to go after picking up a head knock in Round 2 and he’ll once again partner Isaiya Katoa in the halves, with Sean O’Sullivan in the reserves.

Warriors: With Taine Tuaupiki out with concussion the club is onto their third-choice fullback, which happens to be a pretty useful one in Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. That move brings Adam Pompey back into the centres, while on the bench there is a big in with Marata Niukore set to play his first game of the year following a layoff with a foot injury. Dylan Walker (ankle) is named on the bench and Wayde Egan (elbow) is a good chance of returning at hooker.
Knights: Leo Thompson’s one-game ban means Daniel Saifiti is elevated into a starting role this week, with Brodie Jones the new face on the bench. Jack Cogger is again the preferred No.7 with Jackson Hastings shaping to run out with the reserve-grade side who are also playing in New Zealand on Sunday.

Sharks: Coach Craig Fitzgibbon heads into Round 4 missing 491 games worth of experience in the middle of the park, with Dale Finucane (facial injury), Royce Hunt (calf) and Toby Rudolf (ankle) picking up injuries last week and joining Braden Hamlin-Uele (hamstring) on the sidelines. It means Kayal Iro comes in at centre, allowing Siosifa Talakai to go into the second row and Jack Williams to return to the bench. Daniel Atkinson and Tuku Hau Tapuha are the new faces on the interchange.
Raiders: For the second round in a row there is no room for Corey Horsburgh, with the Queenslander listed in the reserves after playing NSW Cup last week. Ata Mariota returns on the bench in place of Emre Guler, who will play NSW Cup this weekend. There are a couple of changes in the backline with James Schiller coming in for his first NRL game of the year on the wing to replace Albert Hopoate, who sustained minor burns to his right arm in a cooking accident on Monday night. Seb Kris returns from concussion at centre. Fullback Jordan Rapana will make his 200th appearance for the club.

Eels: After an impressive debut in the centres last week, Blaize Talagi has been thrust into the hot seat at five-eighth following the loss of Mitchell Moses to a fractured foot. Powerhouse winger Maika Sivo returns from suspension, with Bailey Simonsson left in the reserves for the time being after sitting out Round 3 with concussion.
Wests Tigers: A sole change to the 17 which got the job done in convincing fashion against the Sharks last week and it’s a forced one, with Alex Twal ruled out with concussion. His spot on the interchange is taken by Asu Kepaoa. Jayden Sullivan will again come off the bench, with Aidan Sezer and Lachlan Galvin the halves.

 

[LebaneseForces]

My Tips for this week;

Thursday 28th March
Sydney Roosters vs Penrith

Friday 29th March
South Sydney vs Canterbury-Bankstown
Brisbane vs North Queensland

Saturday 30th March
St.George-Illawarra vs Manly-Warringah
Gold Coast vs Dolphins

Sunday 31st March
New Zealand vs Newcastle
Cronulla-Sutherland vs Canberra

Monday 1st April
Parramatta vs vs Wests Tigers

 

[Jatz]

I am not looking forward to the beating we'll cop this week...

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Penrith- honestly the Roosters have just as many out and Schineder is actually a very competent 7.
Souths- they will win the one thing with them they love a good flat track game
Brisbane- only because Reynolds is back
Manly- by a lot
Titans- no idea why but I’ll give them ONE more chance with Campbell back at FB
Newcastle- don’t rate the Warriors. But this will be close one try either way
Cronulla- they won’t be as bad this week
Parra- but this won’t shock me Moses is so crucial to this side.

 

[phantom13]

Mark Geyers son debuting for the panthers.

God I feel old.

 

[3207]

Mark Geyers son debuting for the panthers.

God I feel old.

His father in law used to deliver the bread to us in St Mary’s.

Remember when bread used to be delivered to homes?

Yeah, I’m that old too.

 

[PhatBoy]

In following on from the blow up about the the disallowed Manly try - and I understand THAT blow up because regardless of the rule, that was a reward for Parra essentially for a player making no effort to make a tackle….

I could not believe the blow up on 360 on Monday about the Penrith tactic from dummy half to ‘protect’ Cleary kicking.

I understand that there are rules about obstructing and escorts and so forth. I understand that dummy halves, or in this case just one dummy half - Mitch Kenny - is only doing it on one tackle, the last, so it’s obviously a deliberate tactic to simply offer some extra protection to the halfback before he kicks and to make it harder to the markers to pressure him.

But how can they expect any legislation to be made to stop it?

What rule can be brought in that can be enforced to stop it?

He’s onside automatically because - wait for it - he has the ball. Tick.

He passes the ball.

He then moves backwards which if he wanted to hypothetically be involved again is the ONLY way he could get onside again. Tick.

He doesn’t change his line to step in front of the marker, he simply keeps on the line he starts on as he passes. Tick.

If you were to airbrush the tackled guy out of the picture that just played the ball, Kenny would look like a first receiver passing the ball to a 5-8 during a backline movement, ie: following the direction of his pass laterally along the field, and no one has ever been penalised for that when the 5-8 kicks the ball even if the first receiver’s run prevents the defenders from being able to pressure him.


It was a truly bizarre blow up for such a minor thing

 

[Jatz]

In following on from the blow up about the the disallowed Manly try - and I understand THAT blow up because regardless of the rule, that was a reward for Parra essentially for a player making no effort to make a tackle….

I could not believe the blow up on 360 on Monday about the Penrith tactic from dummy half to ‘protect’ Cleary kicking.

I understand that there are rules about obstructing and escorts and so forth. I understand that dummy halves, or in this case just one dummy half - Mitch Kenny - is only doing it on one tackle, the last, so it’s obviously a deliberate tactic to simply offer some extra protection to the halfback before he kicks and to make it harder to the markers to pressure him.

But how can they expect any legislation to be made to stop it?

What rule can be brought in that can be enforced to stop it?

He’s onside automatically because - wait for it - he has the ball. Tick.

He passes the ball.

He then moves backwards which if he wanted to hypothetically be involved again is the ONLY way he could get onside again. Tick.

He doesn’t change his line to step in front of the marker, he simply keeps on the line he starts on as he passes. Tick.

If you were to airbrush the tackled guy out of the picture that just played the ball, Kenny would look like a first receiver passing the ball to a 5-8 during a backline movement, ie: following the direction of his pass laterally along the field, and no one has ever been penalised for that when the 5-8 kicks the ball even if the first receiver’s run prevents the defenders from being able to pressure him.


It was a truly bizarre blow up for such a minor thing

I honestly thought the same.

The bigger thing - not one player was actually impeded by what he was doing.

Absolutely bizarre carry on.

 

[Jatz]

Penrith- honestly the Roosters have just as many out and Schineder is actually a very competent 7.
Souths- they will win the one thing with them they love a good flat track game
Brisbane- only because Reynolds is back
Manly- by a lot
Titans- no idea why but I’ll give them ONE more chance with Campbell back at FB
Newcastle- don’t rate the Warriors. But this will be close one try either way
Cronulla- they won’t be as bad this week
Parra- but this won’t shock me Moses is so crucial to this side.

Penrith are also missing JFH.

Cleary is the best player in the game. The Chooks really should be winning this.

 

[phantom13]

Penrith are also missing JFH.

Cleary is the best player in the game. The Chooks really should be winning this.

Yeh completely agree.

Cleary and JFH are HUGE holes for Penriff. Teddy is back in really really good form, Young has slotted in nicely, Radley seems to have ironed out the brain fades Keary is back as well.

 

[Jatz]

Yeh completely agree.

Cleary and JFH are HUGE holes for Penriff. Teddy is back in really really good form, Young has slotted in nicely, Radley seems to have ironed out the brain fades Keary is back as well.

Collins is undoubtedly a loss but I just think if they can't beat this Penrith side, they've got no hope in September.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Penrith are also missing JFH.

Cleary is the best player in the game. The Chooks really should be winning this.

Penrith have a million props they are the one team that cover that area. Penrith by 10

 

[phantom13]

Penrith have a million props they are the one team that cover that area. Penrith by 10

Do they have a million half as good as JFH? Come on LP.

If Penrith win its because their system works so well, not because they have blokes who can cover and provide what JFH and Cleary do.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Do they have a million half as good as JFH? Come on LP.

If Penrith win its because their system works so well, not because they have blokes who can cover and provide what JFH and Cleary do.

I’ll back the system before I back anything else. The system wins more than it loses. They still have more quality for me

 

[Jatz]

JFH is literally the current Golden Boot winner. I don’t care if they have 10 other props, they’re not just replacing him with the same output.

Cleary is exactly the same. The system stands up unless you lose a few key individuals. Yeo is absolutely another, as is Edwards (defensively - in attack they’d be fine without him).

 

[PhatBoy]

If we are going to beat them it will be tomorrow night but a few concerns:

- much as I don’t rate Luai they did go 4-1 without Cleary last year and the game they lost was in golden point to the cowboys.

They weren’t missing JFH in those games but they did win two of them without Isaiah Yeo and one of those was also without Luai as well. This is an amazing team at finding a way.

I would want us to show we are fair dinkum this year by beating them without those two superstars but if we don’t I certainly won’t be tearing my hair out over it.

 

[Aucklander]

Roosters
Bulldogs
Cowboys
Manly
Redcliffe
Warriors
Cronulla
Parra

Nice to see the Warriors on 9.

 

[sosos]

Everyone picking Manly, but the mistakes were back last week. Going to take a little while for me to trust them again.
I didn't mind Keppie, but nice to see him fumble for someone else these days.

Anyone think Olakau'atu might go OK in the centres? I like Koula and Garrick. but I just feel we lack some size, and fear factor there. To argue against it though I guess he's played some good footy where he is.

For me, it's on the halves, they just have to get him steaming onto a ball, and he'll make ground. But I also think it's maybe getting a little predictable, DCE to Ola. Tommy back in some form will help break that up I think.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Everyone picking Manly, but the mistakes were back last week. Going to take a little while for me to trust them again.
I didn't mind Keppie, but nice to see him fumble for someone else these days.

Anyone think Olakau'atu might go OK in the centres? I like Koula and Garrick. but I just feel we lack some size, and fear factor there. To argue against it though I guess he's played some good footy where he is.

For me, it's on the halves, they just have to get him steaming onto a ball, and he'll make ground. But I also think it's maybe getting a little predictable, DCE to Ola. Tommy back in some form will help break that up I think.

Dragons are terrible and prepared to give them a pass last week and yet they were one try off winning that’s despite as you pointed out being terrible for a large portion. Manly by a lot this week I’ll go 32-14 or something

Ola wouldn’t be laterally quick enough to be a full time centre, suits being a ball playing backrower. Manly will be fractionally predictable until Brooks is used to the side and that will take a good 6-8 weeks. Despite this you are 3-1.

 

[phantom13]

If we are going to beat them it will be tomorrow night but a few concerns:

- much as I don’t rate Luai they did go 4-1 without Cleary last year and the game they lost was in golden point to the cowboys.

They weren’t missing JFH in those games but they did win two of them without Isaiah Yeo and one of those was also without Luai as well. This is an amazing team at finding a way.

I would want us to show we are fair dinkum this year by beating them without those two superstars but if we don’t I certainly won’t be tearing my hair out over it.

I ******* hate the Riff (and not just for the miracle comeback in last years granny to deny my boys) but you have to respect what they’ve built and how efficient that system is, it’s frankly incredible.

I think similar to Jatz I think if the rooster with their tails FIRMLY up and everything going for them can’t get it done now against that panthers side then they probably never can.

 

[PhatBoy]

I ******* hate the Riff (and not just for the miracle comeback in last years granny to deny my boys) but you have to respect what they’ve built and how efficient that system is, it’s frankly incredible.

I think similar to Jatz I think if the rooster with their tails FIRMLY up and everything going for them can’t get it done now against that panthers side then they probably never can.

I didn’t realise until tonight how bad we’ve been against them watching 360 - we haven’t beaten them since 2019. And aside from one 1-point loss it hasn’t been close. I knew we’d been flogged the last few years but yeah it’s just been smashings mostly.

Anasta posed the question as to why and didn’t really get an answer. I can tell him straight away:

Your guys NEARLY beat Penrith in the decider by throwing something incredible at them but even after all that it still didn’t work. I think Melbourne in round one set the template. Parramatta have the wood on them relatively speaking and people might think that they do it by throwing the ball around but they really don’t. They bash it up through RCG and Junior Paulo, they hold the ball and they just run plays through Moses and Brown and Gutherson and beat them there.
They’ve been able to do it because in those games they’ve been disciplined and held the ball and defended well.

Melbourne in round one held the ball and defended well. They were disciplined.

We, on the other hand, are not a team synonymous for these things. Ball control and discipline are not our strong suits.

I think we’ve come up against Penrith and probably got sucked into thinking we have to try and throw the kitchen sink at them to beat them because they’re so good. But if you do that they’ll just soak it up and turn you away 99 per cent of the time anyway.


I hope we play percentage footy, hold the f**kin ball, and don’t be dumb.

 

[phantom13]

Tried to post a detailed reply but it’s not letting me.

Safe to say I agree with you PhatBoy if I can work out what the * is going on I’ll post the full reply

 

[Jatz]

360 were pretty funny with the Roosters critique.

"They've struggled to beat them since 2019".

No s**t, just like every other team in the comp then.