Stilesy’s Late Mail – Round 11

What a cracking Magic Round weekend. The footy, the atmosphere, catching up with people from the community. It had it all. Special thanks to Wilf and Jacob for the ticket link-up. Legends. Back to reality though this weekend with a standard slate of games.

PSA though, I’m on best man and travel duties for a wedding from Thursday night onwards, so the Twitter updates will be a team effort on the @NRLSCTalk account. Systems will return to normal next week.

STORM V BRONCOS, THURSDAY 7:50PM

STORM: Tui Kamikamica survived the first cut on the extended bench and seems a chance to return this round off the interchange. No other changes expected.

24 HOUR CUTS: Wishart, Moeroa, Nikorima

BRONCOS: Kurt Capewell was named despite his head knock but he seems to be good to go. I think the Broncs might still be passed out somewhere from Magic Round because they have simply not done a 24 hour team cut this week.

24 HOUR CUTS: ??

BULLDOGS V WARRIORS, FRIDAY 6:00PM

BULLDOGS: Josh Addo Carr will be ruled out after failing to get through training Thursday.

WARRIORS: Wayde Egan was a late benching last round for Freddy Lussick on what was likely a match-up dependent decision, though I now can’t rule it out that it could happen again. Not expecting any major changes to the rest of the side despite the chaos from a fortnight ago.

PANTHERS V ROOSTERS, FRIDAY 8:00PM

PANTHERS: Liam Martin has resurfaced on the extended bench and has a chance to be a late inclusion, though will likely need to tick some boxes during the week. I expect he would replace Scott Sorensen on the edge if he is good to go.

ROOSTERS: The pulling of Sam Walker and Billy Smith from the NSW Cup side last week in the lead up sparked plenty of interest, and eventuated as half right in relation to late ins. So long as the Roosters’ attack stutters and Walker is on the extended bench, there will be constant speculation about game day shuffles, however I believe the Roosters will continue holding form for now.

RABBITOHS V TIGERS, SATURDAY 3:00PM

RABBITOHS: 1-17 on the cards here and the prop-swap is forever on the cards, though they held firm last week.

TIGERS: John Bateman was a late withdrawal last week after final teams had been locked in. He was named on TLT and for now seems good to go.

COWBOYS V DRAGONS, SATURDAY 5:30PM

COWBOYS: The Cotter/Granville swap didn’t eventuate last week but that doesn’t mean it can’t resurface. Not envisioning any other changes at this stage and 1-17 wouldn’t surprise.

DRAGONS: The well-covered Hunt-to-hooker swap didn’t occur until partway through the match in Magic Round and that could be on the cards again, with the starting side likely remaining is-as.

RAIDERS V EELS, SATURDAY 7:35PM

RAIDERS: Given their history, the Raiders are becoming one of the more consistently 1-17 sides this season and expecting another one here.

EELS: Named according to their injuries so no major changes seem likely this round, with the forward-pack shuffles seemingly over for now.

KNIGHTS V TITANS, SUNDAY 2:00PM

KNIGHTS: 1-17 likely, though as usual a change somewhere in the forwards wouldn’t surprise.

TITANS: Apart from some semi-regular switcharoos on the bench, I’m not expecting any major changes this round.

SEA EAGLES V SHARKS, SUNDAY 4:05PM

SEA EAGLES: Josh Schuster is named on the extended bench and is a chance to return. There was a pre-TLT pic of Cooper Johns running around training in the orange bid with the reserve side but that may or may not translate to anything on game day in relation to Schuster. Time will tell on that one.

SHARKS: Cameron McInnes started at lock last week with Dale Finucane shifting to the bench. It could happen again, and not expecting any other changes.