2016 NRL Finals - Week 3 - MATCH THREAD

[Graham]

[Graham]

Dale Finucane has been receiving treatment and had light training but has passed a fitness test and will play.

[Graham]

The line ups as announced earlier in the week:

Storm: 1 Cameron Munster 2 Suliasi Vunivalu 3 William Chambers 4 Cheyse Blair 5 Marika Koroibete 6 Blake Green 7 Cooper Cronk 8 Jesse Bromwich 9 Cameron Smith 10 Jordan McLean 11 Kevin Proctor 12 Tohu Harris 13 Dale Finucane. Interchange: 14 Kenneth Bromwich 15 Tim Glasby 16 Christian Welch 17 Ben Hampton 20 Matthew White 21 Felise Kaufusi

Matt White and Felise Kaufusi are expected to miss out.

 

Raiders: 1 Jack Wighton 2 Edrick Lee 3 Jarrod Croker © 4 Joseph Leilua 5 Jordan Rapana 6 Blake Austin 7 Aidan Sezer 8 Junior Paulo 9 Josh Hodgson 10 Shannon Boyd 11 Josh Papalii 12 Elliot Whitehead 13 Iosia Soliola. Interchange: 14 Kurt Baptiste 15 Luke Bateman 16 Paul Vaughan 17 Joseph Tapine
 

[Lounge Room Lizard]

A stat that has gone completely unnoticed by the media & RL public in general - of the 17 selected players for the Melbourne Storm tonight 12 of them signed for the club at 19 or younger. An incredible affirmation of the culture, development pathway and coaching structures set up and led by my mate, who sadly left the Storm and now at Manly, Anthony Seibold, Craig Bellamy, Frank Ponissi and football staff at the club in a non traditional RL area. It shows hard work, consistency & perseverance is rewarded at the club. Well done. 

[USRLFAN]

 Last week Taumalolo looked like he could start in the NFL.  This week not so much.

[Graham]

Cowboys gave everything last week and it probably cost them this week, that and Sharks hitting good form.

[Sports Prophet]

Lost my voice from cheering so much last night. what a great victory for the boys from the Shire. Tickets already ordered for the GF.

[Sports Prophet]

I'm picking the Raiders in an upset tonight and hoping to maintain my 100% tipping record during the finals!

[Graham]

Can Canberra keep their dream season alive and make their first grand final since 1994 or will Melbourne fire in Cooper Cronk’s 300th game?
The Storm are coming off a 16-10 win over North Queensland in week one of the finals which earned them last weekend off.
Meanwhile, the Raiders lost their week one match in a tough contest with Cronulla before bouncing back to defeat Penrith 22-12.
Both sides are expected to line up as per program.
After 80 minutes of footy we’ll finally know our 2016 grand finalists.

[Graham]

Storm team for the game:

1 Cameron Munster
2 Suliasi Vunivalu
3 Will Chambers
4 Cheyse Blair 
5 Marika Koroibete
6 Blake Green
7 Cooper Cronk 
8 Jesse Bromwich 
9 Cameron Smith 
10 Jordan McLean 
11 Kevin Proctor 
12 Tohu Harris 
13 Dale Finucane 

Interchange: 

14 Kenneath Bromwich 
15 Tim Glasby
16 Christian Welch 
17 Ben Hampton

•  

[Graham]

Raiders

1 Jack Wighton
2 Edrick Lee
3 Jarrod Croker
4 Joseph Leilua
5 Jordan Rapana
6 Blake Austin
7 Aidan Sezer
8 Junior Paulo
9 Josh Hodgson
10 Shannon Boyd
11 Josh Papalii
12 Elliott Whitehead
13 Iosia Soliola

Interchange: 

14 Kurt Baptiste
15 Luke Bateman
16 Paul Vaughan
17 Joseph Tapine

[Graham]

Craig Bellamy has finalised his line-up to take on the Raiders in Saturday night’s Preliminary final at AAMI Park.

Christian Welch comes into the side for the injured Nelson Asofa-Solomona while Felise Kaufusi and Christian Welch drop out of the extended bench.

Cooper Cronk will also play his 300^th NRL game, becoming just the 25^th player in NRL history to reach the milestone.

[Graham]

[Farmduck]

Light rain in Melbourne. Does it help either side? Probably not since I'm guessing both teams will be trying to play no-error footy anyway.

[Allora]

Is it correct that of Croker scores 13 points this game he has equaled the total points that the Newcastle Knights have scored this season?

[Graham]

Teams out on the pitch warming up.

It's drizzling.

Tv went over to betting but we stayed looking round.

Storm have won the toss.

Two tv pundits seem to be backing Raiders.Saying clinical Storm vs flamboyant Raiders.

That seems to over simplify the teams.

[Graham]

Is it correct that of Croker scores 13 points this game he has equaled the total points that the Newcastle Knights have scored this season?

Don't know, but that sounds about right.

Had Croker in my Supercoaches team this season and he has been top notch for me.

[Graham]

Croker 276 points

[Farmduck]

Is it correct that of Croker scores 13 points this game he has equaled the total points that the Newcastle Knights have scored this season?

Knights scored 305 so that could be right.

[Lounge Room Lizard]

Nervous as hell. Pressure is very much on Melbourne and Canberra are a very very good team that have gone under the radar. Game that could go either way. We need to get off to a good start and not chase the game.

[Graham]

Knights scored 305 so that could be right.

You just beat me there FD drat

Yes, 305 pets for Knights in 2016

[Graham]

Sorry points!

[Graham]

Plenty of Raiders fans, big letters, presumably some big heads... You know what I mean.

Enjoy the game.

Go Storm!

[Futtocks]

Looking forward to this! I reckon Melbourne will grind it out.

[Futtocks]

Steve Marsh's kids delivering the match ball.