NRL 2018

A new NRL season begins this week with St George and Brisbane opening the season at Jubilee Oval on Thursday.

So far there has been no silly scandal although give Mitchell Pearce a couple of more days in Newcastle.

Warriors begin their season against South Sydney in the new Perth stadium. Already their season is in trouble with linchpin Simon Mannering out for (possibly) a month with a shoulder injury.

But without further ado, the Warriors team to face the bashful Bunnies in Perth:

1 ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK (c)
2 DAVID FUSITU’A
3 PETA HIKU
4 SOLOMONE KATA (what the fuck?)
5 KEN MAUMALO (what the fuck? part deux)
6 BLAKE GREEN
7 SHAUN JOHNSON
8 JAMES GAVET
9 ISSAC LUKE
10 ADAM BLAIR
11 ISAIAH PAPALI’I
12 TOHU HARRIS
13 LIGI SAO
Interchange
14 SAM COOK
15 LEIVAHA PULU
16 SAM LISONE
17 BUNTY AFOA
18 JAZZ TEVAGA
20 MASON LINO
21 AGNATIUS PAASI
22 ANTHONY GELLING

@sneakdefreak ah yes, excellent. The brilliant pairing of Kata and Maumalo gets to fail, yet again, in the first game.

@mariner4life It's going to be a long season. Did I mention I brought season tickets again? It's just a matter of faith....

Wee-a-we-we-warriors

Is the Nicol-Kolstad injured or is Kearny just being an idiot?

The spine?

NRL kicks off and the Dragons are not doing too bad against the Broncos. Leading 10-2 at halftime.

Also, the new NRL website is awful.

Look at all the penalties kicked. That's all this game is, kicking for goal. Run it!

@sneakdefreak said in NRL 2018:

NRL kicks off and the Dragons are not doing too bad against the Broncos. Leading 10-2 at halftime.

Also, the new NRL website is awful.

Yep

You know the loigue is on again when the video ref watches roughly 8000 replays before making any decision.

Come on Knights, get up!

I don't watch a lot of Friday night football as it mostly involves the Broncos.

But fuck what a game. That was huge. Old dog fondler came up fucking massive. Lock up ya pooches tonight Newcastle, Mitchells had a dream debut and he's keen to get in behind.

So far, everything is going as I predicted. Dragons win their first game, and will win most of their first ten before slowly running out of steam and finishing 9th.

Knights win their first but will struggle for large parts of the season (but won't finish last).

Cowboys win in Townsville, congratulations to JT on 300, and will win all the way to the Grand Final where JT will retire a champ.

@sneakdefreak That is spot on.

@sneakdefreak said in NRL 2018:

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Wasn't that what @kiwiinmelb posted?

@booboo said in NRL 2018:

@sneakdefreak said in NRL 2018:

View embedded content

Wasn't that what @kiwiinmelb posted?

Yeah but mine was a FB link and it came out a bit weird

The Tigers beat the Roosters 10-8.

Beautiful stuff, the no cap Roosters can just fuck right off!

Warriors confirm their lineup:

1 ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK (c)
2 DAVID FUSITU’A
3 PETA HIKU
4 SOLOMONE KATA
5 KEN MAUMALO
6 BLAKE GREEN
7 SHAUN JOHNSON
8 JAMES GAVET
9 ISSAC LUKE
10 ADAM BLAIR
11 ISAIAH PAPALI’I
12 TOHU HARRIS
13 LIGI SAO
Interchange:
14 SAM COOK
15 LEIVAHA PULU
16 SAM LISONE
17 BUNTY AFOA

I turn it over. And within a minute i watch Maumalo jog into contact and get put in to touch. And then the team gives up a lazy offside penalty.

So consistent

@mariner4life I turn it over and the buggers score.

Jaysus.

Comms also commenting on how trim and fit the Warriors look.

We hear that every pre season don’t we?

In all seriousness, I think they’re right, they look in good nick. The challenge will be to keep them away from KFC.

Sheesh and they’re in again.

Blake green could be a good signing ,

Probably flies under the radar a bit , good decision maker

@kiwiinmelb said in NRL 2018:

Blake green could be a good signing ,

Probably flies under the radar a bit , good decision maker

Missed a tackle he should of made for that try just then.

Warriors up to their old tricks.

Give away a silly penalty, Rabbits score.

Give away a silly penalty a couple tackles after the kick off and give them field position again.

And then another on their own 10m line just for good measure.

Kata and Maumolo picking up right where they left off by jamming in and creating an over lap for the Rabbits that was not actually there. They score and it's now level 10-10. Those two players lost us multiple games last season.

And if our discipline this first 40min of the season is an indication of Kearney hard line approach this season hard line means something entirely different to what I thought it meant. 7-1 penalty count with 11min to against us. Ffs honestly. Ffs.

When did we sign Le-saw-ney?

And just like that the Warriors strike, and what’s more the bunker has overturned the on field call to give it.

That just doesn’t happen with the Warriors, WTF have they been feeding g the guys in the bunker in the off season?

@nepia said in NRL 2018:

When did we sign Le-saw-ney?

The same time we signed Car-Tar?

@gunner Carrots by the looks mate.

Oh wow!

Johnson creates a try from nothing on half time.

Without getting carried away, there have been some promising signs in this first half - mixed with the usual facepalm moments to keep us grounded.

Johnson and Fusitua create some vintage warrior magic. What about the pick up.

But I'm not going to believe in anything until round 5...

Leading at half time by 10. Most unexpected

Still 40 mins to go to break the Perth drought.

What were the odds that it’d be the Warriors benefiting from a refereeing howler just short of half time.... !!

@stockcar86 said in NRL 2018:

Leading at half time by 10. Most unexpected

Totally going to stuff my round of work comp tipping but happy to see some very positive signs. Souths look under done and have yet to really show their hand. Inglis, Gagai, The Burgess brothers and a fit Adam Reynolds aren't going to be out of it for long.

@donsteppa said in NRL 2018:

What were the odds that it’d be the Warriors benefiting from a refereeing howler just short of half time.... !!

About 50,000/1

The true story about this years version of the Warriors will come out in the 2nd half.
We saw them in front at half time on several occasions last year, just to completely fold in the second.

40 minutes to see if anything has changed.

How many times will we see Maumalo drop the ball under zero pressure this year?

Gagai drops a 6 point gift from Johnson.

Yesss boy.

Maumalo no issues catching that one.

Warriors showing more creativity in the first 50 minutes of this game than they showed the entire 2017 season.

Tohu an improvement over that other ex Melbourne bloke we used to have whose name I can't remember.