NRL Round 7 Review: Can the Panthers win the flag this year?

Some things went as we expected in round seven, but there were still a few curveballs that have kept the competition healthy as a whole. Here are the major takeaways from last week’s action, including some brilliant and bizarre NRL betting plays.

Penrith can win the 2020 NRL Premiership

This is a thought probably only their most diehard fans had at the start of the season, but after seven rounds you’d be naïve now to think the Penrith Panthers are not capable of winning it all.

Another solid performance lead to a 20-12 victory over a Souths team who came into the game full of confidence.

Boasting a physical forward pack and a spine who are now producing enough points to compete with the big boys, the Panthers have a great blend of youth and experience that should take them far.

They are the big movers in the 2020 NRL Premiership market at $8 with Sportsbet and could be leading the competition at 7-0 but for a drop goal off the post and 10 minutes of Waqa Blake brilliance.

Are Newcastle who we thought they were?

The Newcastle Knights travelling up to Townsville to take on the lowly ranked Cowboys seemed a fait accompli, but it proved to be anything but.

Is the same-day 4,000km journey going to prove difficult for teams the longer the season goes? And do Newcastle still have a bit of the ‘old Knights’ in them that Adam O’Brien has to beat out?

Their next three matches are against Manly, Parramatta and South Sydney. All of a sudden, one bad Saturday in Townsville has those ‘top four certainty’ calls put into a bit of doubt.

The $20,000 someone placed at $1.35… you’d want that over again.

Punter loses the plot as Broncos hit new low

To the punter who placed $30K on the Brisbane Broncos, may I ask:

1. Have you watched them play this season?
2. Were you having a mid-life crisis?

To be down 22-0 at half-time against a team who have conceded an average of 30 points per game since the start of the 2019 season is almost unthinkable.

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Anthony Seibold had earned a reputation as an attacking genius after his one season coaching the Rabbitohs, but it’s becoming clearer by the week how wrong that was. He is the only Brisbane coach to have never scored 40 points and he has only scored 30 once.

They are stuck up a creek without a paddle and are now $6 for the wooden spoon. With the resources they have, the Broncos should be $6 for the premiership.

Pressure eases on Cronulla with Manly win

Manly hadn’t conceded 20 points all season, yet the Cronulla Sharks hung 40 on them in a sensational attacking display on the Central Coast.

We mentioned before about certain results being good for the competition and this was without doubt one of them. It shows the mountain to climb for Manly without Tom Trbojevic, but it also shows Cronulla’s best can cause some headaches.

How often we see them play this well is hard to predict, so much so that one punter put $10k at $1.67 on the Sea Eagles for the win.

Punter lands mega same-game multi on Storm

If you wanted to turn $5 into $7,505 like one punter did, all you needed was this absurd combination from the Storm vs Warriors:

• Paul Momirovski and Suliasli Vunivalu to score a first-half try
• Brandon Smith and Josh Addo-Carr to score a try anytime
• 10 or more tries to be scored
• Melbourne Storm to win by 13+ points
• Melbourne Storm to win by 19+ points
• Melbourne Storm to win by 41-45 points

Incredible stuff.

Which NRL Round 7 betting tips did we get right?

We thought Brett Morris might score off a kick to get the first try in the Roosters vs Dragons game. It wasn’t quite how we wanted to get from A to B, but he crossed nonetheless and delivered a $9 return.

The Friday night multi at $2.56 was in doubt when the Dragons aimed up against a depleted Roosters outfit, but a late conversion got the margin to 14 and we are sure plenty of punters rejoiced.

Taking overs at 43.5 in the Cowboys vs Knights clash was a steal at $1.90 given the warm conditions in Townsville, even if the winner wasn’t who everyone thought it would be.

Parramatta needed the golden point against Canberra, but a Clint Gutherson field goal meant the $2.90 for the Eels by 1-12 points saluted in the end.