NRL Tips – Round 25, 2019

I wrote about Sydney as an obstacle to expansion yesterday.

It started as an intro to this post but ended up being over 1000 words and I thought it should stand alone. It’s the result of thoughts that have been bubbling since I started paying proper attention to rugby league when I started doing this in 2017, clarified somewhat this year by League Digest (you should go listen), crystalised by Heartland by Joe Gorman (you should go buy and read it) over the last few weeks. I’m far from the only one who thinks this way: Nick Campton from the Daily Tele and NRL Boom Rookies touched on very similar themes this very week.

Whether this is having any impact in the real world is unlikely but at least we can all furiously agree with each other.

Here’s some other stuff:

https://twitter.com/AJMithen/status/1169059456723800064

Here are the tips for this weekend’s action:

Embed from Getty Images

National Rugby League

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This is the final tips post for this season. After last week’s call out, I got exactly zero requests for me to continue through September, which is great because my wife is feeling slightly neglected. If it’s a choice between doing this and going around in rhetorical circles about expansion on social media, we all know how I’ll be spending my time.

This will not be the final post of the year, as I have at least two more analysis posts up my sleeve and after a break, I have a couple of longer research projects that will actually be easier to deliver when I don’t have to spend four or more hours a week pulling data together and compiling tips.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support in 2019. At some point, I’ve gone well past 200,000 words in the last three years. Clicks to and on the site are currently up 50% on last year, which considering this is 2019’s 49th post to the 69 of 2018, is a pretty good result. I am likely to be back next year, hopefully in a format that delivers the same information in far less time.

For this weekend’s Intrust Super Cup finals, I like:

  • red-sm Redcliffe over Tweed (H)
  • ntd-sm Norths (H) over Easts
  • wms-sm Wynnum Manly (H) over Burleigh
  • scf-sm Sunshine Coast (H) over Townsville

Apparently the first game will be broadcast on Foxtel and/or Kayo, hence the insane 11.40AM kickoff and the second will be the 1PM Sunday Channel 9 game. The two potentially more interesting qualifiers will kick off at 2PM.