Round 8 in the NRL season kicks off on Thursday night as the Brisbane Broncos take on the Cronulla Sharks at Suncorp Stadium from 7.50pm. Greg Davis is back on deck with another full preview and betting tips for the clash below.
Remember, you can check out our previews for every game in the NRL this weekend by heading to our NRL Tips page.
Broncos vs Sharks Betting Tips
Suncorp Stadium, Thursday 28th April, 7.50pm (AEST)
Squads
Broncos
1.Te Maire Martin 2. Corey Oates 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Herbie Farnworth 5. Selwyn Cobbo 6. Tyson Gamble 7. Adam Reynolds 8. Corey Jensen 9. Billy Walters 10. Payne Haas 11. Kurt Capewell 12. Jordan Riki 13. Kobe Hetherington 14. Cory Paix 15. Rhys Kennedy 16. Thomas Flegler 17. Keenan Palasia 18. Brenko Lee 19. Jordan Pereira 20. TC Robati 21. Ezra Mam 22. Ethan Quai-Ward 23. Logan Bayliss-Brow 24. Ryan James
Sharks
1.Will Kennedy 2. Sione Katoa 3. Jesse Ramien 4. Siosifa Talakai 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo 6. Matt Moylan 7. Nicho Hynes 8. Toby Rudolf 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Aiden Tolman 11. Briton Nikora 12. Teig Wilton 13. Dale Finucane 14. Jack Williams 15. Cameron McInnes 16. Royce Hunt 17. Andrew Fifita 18. Braydon Trindall 19. Wade Graham 20. Matt Ikuvalu 21. Mawene Hiroti 22. Lachlan Miller 23. Luke Metcalf 24. Franklin Pele
Match Prediction
Almost 95,000 people packed into London’s Wembley Stadium last weekend to see “The Gypsy King” Tyson Fury defend his world heavyweight boxing titles with a KO victory over Dillian Whyte.
And another bone-crunching heavyweight bout looms large this Thursday night at Suncorp Stadium when Brisbane’s Kotoni Staggs and Cronulla’s Siosifa Talakai go head-to-head.
Talakai produced one of the finest individual first half performances in modern NRL history in the Sharks’ 34-22 win over Manly last Thursday.
It was like Talakai had spiders on him, nobody could or would go near him.
He crossed for two tries and had three try assists for the rampaging Cronulla who opened up a 32-0 lead by halftime with the powerfully built centre finishing with a whopping 262 running metres, eight tackle busts and three linebreaks.
It was fast, fierce and ferocious on the left-hand edge of Cronulla’s attack which terrorised Manly’s shellshocked defensive line with Talakai the chief destroyer.
He’ll get to pick on somebody his own size this week when he matches up with Brisbane’s own centre strike weapon – Staggs.
When these two come together, the force of the tackles could register on the Richter scale.
After a slow start to the year, Stagg produced some career-best numbers in Brisbane’s brave loss to the Roosters in Round 5 when he was scoring tries, setting them up and busting tackles like nobody’s business.
Staggs will be able to physically match Talakai when the Cronulla star has the ball in hand while also putting legitimate defensive pressure on his Sharks rival when it is Brisbane’s turn to attack.
It is the marquee match-up in the clash between the fourth-placed Sharks (5-2) and the ninth-placed Broncos (3-4) with Brisbane taking some mentum into the match with five second-half tries against the Bulldogs last Friday for a morale-boosting 34-14 victory.
It was like the olden days at Lang Park with the Broncos running rampant over visiting sides with brilliant attacking waves.
Buck – the club’s real-life horse mascot that trots around the outside of the field after every try – did enough work to be ready for a tilt at this year’s Melbourne Cup.
The Sharks took the foot off the pedal in the second half against the Sea Eagles which was understandable and they welcome back inspirational backrower Dale Finucane with Cam McInnes shifting to the bench. Wade Graham has also been named on the extended bench.
Cronulla are travelling that bit better than Brisbane at the moment but the Broncos will be buoyed by the drought-breaking win. The Sharks should win but not by much.
Prop Bet:
Siosifa Talakai 1st Try ($11 at Ladbrokes)
Sharks by 1-12
$3.20 (1 Unit)
