Round 8 does not offer too many difficult to judge matchups. For example, the two bottom teams are facing off against two in the top eight. Probably the most interesting game features the current ladder leaders, St George Illawarra, facing off against fourth placed Sydney City – their first real test of the season. Penrith might be able to stitch together some pride if they can topple Parramatta.

“Success”

Everyone, Greeks and me, had a pretty solid round for a change. Archimedes and Euclid actually had clean sweeps! Eratosthenes lost out by tipping the Cowboys over the Dragons, although they were nearly proven right. As was I had the Tigers been able to hold out the Eels.

After round 7:

Draw

 Manly (3-4) @  Canberra (4-3)

 Brisbane (4-3) @  South Sydney (3-4)

 Penrith (2-5) @  Parramatta (3-4)

 Newcastle (1-6) @  North Queensland (4-3)

 Gold Coast (1-6) @  Cronulla (5-2)

 Canterbury (4-3) @  Wests Tigers (2-5)

 St George Illawarra (6-1) @  Sydney (5-2)

 New Zealand (3-4) @  Melbourne (6-1)

Tips

Consensus amongst the Greeks and myself is again strong, so I think our respective eyes are now in.

The only one I’m unsure about is Parramatta against Penrith. Neither are in particularly good form but the Greeks correctly called the Tigers-Eels game last week that I ignored and cost myself a perfect round. This week I won’t make the same mistake and am listening to them and they have unanimously backed Parramatta (which means they will almost certainly be wrong).

The Greeks are allocating some very strong probabilities to the Raiders, Cowboys, Sharks (79% average!) and the Storm – all are at home and all are facing weaker-to-much-weaker opposition. Broncos are only slightly favoured to beat Souths but that has more to do with a poor showing against the Titans and playing away from home.

The Dragons-Roosters matchup will be interesting. The Broncos showed the Roosters’ defence is weak but the Dragons almost let the Cowboys in last week after taking their foot off the gas too soon. If the Roosters can catch them off guard, an upset could be in the making.