Graham

Am at the Yorkshire coast for a few days. Thanks for your updates and analysis FD.

Raiders 40

Broncos Warriors Panthers Roosters Raiders Rabbitohs Storm Sea Eagles Poll: Sea Eagles v Eels Points Total: 337 Away Wins: 2 The best of luck to everyone.

Total Points After Round 17

I’ve been away on holiday(s) recently so have struggled to keep every thread up to date. This being a bit more had work than others has been let slip. My apologies for this. Here then are our latest ladders. I don’t have access to the ladders in the rounds that are missing. Head to Head After Round 17

After sacking their head coach in the last few days Gold Coast Titans are saying publicly that unless the next appointment is a success and their fortunes improve, this could be the last roll of the dice and they might then close.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley says the Competition Committee will meet at the end of the season to determine whether changes to certain rules will make the game easier to officiate. The high number of penalties in the first half of last week’s State of Origin decider had Annesley’s attention in his round 17 briefing, although he said there was nothing wrong the decisions made, and said it contributed to the intense outcome of the game. Annesley did however reference the decision to take the corner post out of the in-goal area back in 2010, which has opened up the game for wingers and brought countless highlights to the NRL. “At the end of the year we have got the Competition Committee meeting again and one of things that I think we need to spend a fair bit of time on is examining our current rules and whether we can actually make the game easier to officiate,” Annesley said. “It used to be that every time you brushed the corner post it was no try, and it didn’t matter what angle the corner post was on – whether it was leaning in or leaning out if you touched the corner post it was no try. “We took the corner post out of play and now we see some fantastic athleticism with players scoring fabulous tries, and it has really been a great addition to the game and the way the game is presented.” Annesley spoke about potential rule changes like double-movement, but stressed nothing specific will be in mind at the end-of-season meeting. “We spend a lot of time trying to determine ‘did momentum carry a player into the in-goal area’. His arm might have lifted but did it advance the ball. We spend a lot of time looking at that,” Annesley said. “In some other sports it doesn’t matter, if you get the ball over the goal line it is a try. “They are just examples and are not necessary on the agenda, but I think it is worthy of a discussion if it is going to make it easier for the officials to make decisions.”

Updated after Round 17 2019

NRL LADDER AFTER ROUND 17

Tipping Ladder After Round 17 1 Graham 79 2 Stoney100 76 3= Barney 74 3= Railway End 74 3= R L Winger 74 6= southwalesrabbitoh 73 6= StormGirl 73 8 Farmduck 71 9 Irish Saint 69 10 Lucky 7 35 11 The Future is League 36 12 Dunbar 21 13 Bedforshire Bronco 5 14 Sports Prophet 4

This week's animated awards:

As the idea is to name all the winners and one game ended in a draw it was decided that no winner had been chosen by anyone in that match. Well done to all our top scorers with 5/8. SWR,RLW,STONEY100,GRAHAM,FARMDUCK,RAILWAY END, STORMGIRL The tie breaker (nearest top scorer to the predicted points total) was used and as a result our Champion Tipster this week is StormGirl (Exact Total) - congratulations SG

Summary of R17 Results:

It’ll be late Mon or early Tues before I can summarise this comp.

Cam’s 400 A must see.