Perhaps the magic wasn’t completely exhausted in Round 9 with some teams still having some tricks up their sleeves for this past weekend in the NRL.
Some pulled off miraculous escapes, others showed nerves of steel in tight finishes and others… well they just wanted to leave nothing to doubt by pulling out a huge win.
As always there was plenty to take away from the past weekend of action in the NRL so let’s get right to it.
1 – Underdogs Bite Back
It all started with the Storm’s nailbiting escape on Thursday night and finished with the Sharks going down to Manly on Sunday.
This weekend was one for the underdogs all over as the “disrespected” had their strongest week of the season.
Overall the underdogs went 5-3 head to head and a miraculous 7-1 against the spread.
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise considering six of the eight lines were 4.5 points or smaller.
2 – Storm’s Home Struggles
There was great drama Thursday night between the Storm and the Tigers, unless you were in the Storm coach’s box.
It was another game where the Storm struggled at home pushing their record at AAMI Park (& Suncorp) to 5-1 straight up and 2-4 against the spread.
Their only two covers as the home side have involved Brisbane, with their Round 1 win over the Broncos and last weekend’s thumping of the Eels at Suncorp, which kind of makes sense given the number of Queenslanders in the team.
Of course they are still the Storm but it’s something worth keeping an eye on with Origin on the horizon, especially if they still find themselves big favourites in some games.
3 – Panthers Slow Starts
With the Panthers recent struggles you might need to find a couple of different ways to back against them in games.
Some of the early return markets might be the way to go when they take on Manly this Thursday night.
Over the past four weeks they have dug themselves in a big hole on the scoreboard with that trend continuing against the Warriors.
They found themselves down 14-0 after half an hour a week after giving up the first 26 points of the game against the Tigers.
The earliest score they have had in the past four weeks was their 28th minute consolation try in that battering from Wests and they have been held scoreless in two of the last four games with just 6 first half points in that span as well.
In short, the first try, first half result, team to score first, first half total and other similar markets might be the place to look in Panthers games.
4 – Over Adjustment
Another correction that came into play this past weekend was the points totals which had the average number going over 40 this season.
The lowest number of the round was 38.5 for the Thursday game which wound up going over, although five of those games did go under.
Most of the points totals were in the same range with the highest number coming in at 42.5 for the Rabbitohs-Raiders game in Canberra.
The lowest number this season was 35.5 for the Knights-Titans game in Round 6 while the highest was 45.5 for the Rabbitohs-Titans game in Round 3.
In case you were wondering, four teams are equal top performers against the total points line, the Rabbitohs, Raiders, Roosters and Warriors have all gone overs in seven games while the Broncos, Bulldogs and Storm have all been more defensively focused with just three overs on the season.
5 – Knights Charge
With the Roosters losing this weekend, the Rabbitohs take sole possession of the “hottest team in the NRL” title although there’s another team definitely worth keeping an eye on.
The Knights have won four in a row now and while their run hasn’t included beating the 1993 Broncos side, they have beaten teams they should if they want to win finals.
It will be put to the test this weekend when the 6th placed Knights host the 3rd placed Roosters on Friday night in a game that will be well worth tuning in to for sure.