Knights vs Eels NRL Sunday tips, odds & value bets – 24/4/2022

Sunday afternoon footy kicks off with an intriguing game between the Newcastle Knights and Parramatta Eels at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The Eels slipped up against the Tigers, who were a $9 outsider with online bookmakers, while the Knights suffered their fourth-consecutive loss against the Dragons.

Both clubs disappointed in Round 6, but it means two desperate sides will collide and no doubt bring out the best in one another.

The Knights might be a $3.20 outsider as the home team, but they have been boosted enormously by Kalyn Ponga signing on the dotted line for another five seasons. No ratchet clauses, no more walking on eggshells. The Knights’ season might finally have some clarity about it after falling into a funk over a tumultuous period.

Ponga did produce his best performance of the season despite losing to the Dragons, and you could see the pressure valve release now his future is sorted.

It wasn’t that the Knights as a team were poor against the Dragons; they just played with a sense of timidness that didn’t allow them to fully gain control of the contest at any stage.

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If the Knights can hold their ground in the middle against a stacked Parramatta forward pack, Ponga has the capability to tear them apart on the edges, as he did to the Dragons on a few occasions.

Outside of David Klemmer, the Knights middles have been disappointing in 2022 and they’ll need the Saifiti twins to get back to their 2021 form. Perhaps the desperation of avoiding five-straight losses could be the catalyst for a turnaround.

Parramatta traditionally have a poor record in Newcastle, but they did win 40-4 at the venue last year, so for a lot of the side it holds no battle scars.

Win or lose, the Eels have played in the most entertaining game each round this season so far. A golden point win in Melbourne, losing to a 38-metre field goal and conversion attempt on the siren, two shootouts with the Titans – their season has had more excitement in six weeks than most teams endure throughout a year of footy.

They shape up as a $1.37 favourite with NRL betting sites, but as has been the case with the Eels for so long, they are allergic to prosperity and they’ll make much harder work of this than many believe they should.

Key matchup: Clifford vs Brown

The two five-eighths in Dylan Brown and Jake Clifford possess great running games when they want to pull the trigger, and the man who gets the most space to move is going to decide the match here.

Brown has been rejuvenated in 2022 and some of his line breaks this year have been remarkable, while Clifford for a month has been behind a forward pack that hasn’t been on the front foot. In the opening fortnight when the Knights pack rolled their sleeves up, Clifford produced back-to-back man of the match performances.

They are directly opposite on another on Sunday afternoon, so let us pray to the weather gods for no rain so these two five-eighths can play their game and bend the line.

Knights vs Eels match predictions

This feels like the Eels will win in another thriller, so the Knights at the +8.5 line makes sense purely for how Parramatta’s season has gone so far. They just have a missing ingredient that doesn’t allow them to be as ruthless as they should be, which sounds strange given the form of Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown, but this is the reality.

Knights vs Eels NRL same-game multi

We are taking Edrick Lee and Mitchell Moses to both score tries, rolled into the Knights at the +8.5 line. That gets us a cool $21.70 at Ladbrokes.

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