Panthers vs Eels NRL betting tips & value picks – Round 9, 2022

The battle of the West will be reignited on Friday night as the Parramatta Eels travel to Penrith to take on the red-hot Panthers. Penrith are yet to be beaten in the 2022 NRL season, and the Eels task of defeating them will get no easier as the Panthers look to welcome back both Moses Leota and Brian To’o from injury. On the other side of the park, Dylan Brown returns to the centres as Tom Opacic comes back from injury, a change that will be welcomed by many Eels fans.

The hardest road trip in Rugby League is to the foot of the mountains in recent years, and their price to win reflects the Panthers are showing no signs of slowing down. In 45 matches between the two clubs, Penrith have been victorious on 24 occasions.

Their most recent clash was the 2021 finals series, where the Eels were desperately close to beating the eventual premiers. With the Eels failure last week against the Cowboys, the Panthers will be looking to capitalise on the Eels current form. With the line currently set at -12.5, the Panthers should cover this comfortably at $1.93 with BetOnline.

On what will be a dry and fast track in Penrith Friday night, the Panthers will be looking to dominate the Eels early, making the match as difficult as possible early for them. With this in mind, Penrith should be both the first team to score and the first team to 10 points. At odds of $1.41 and $1.30 respectively, these look smart plays.

Another play in betting markets is the overs for the total match points, currently set at 39.5 with most online bookmakers. With Penrith looking to bring Brian To’o back to the starting side, this will give halfback Nathan Cleary options on his left and right for scoring points. Meanwhile, with Dylan Brown back in the halves for Parramatta, the Eels will have a much greater ceiling for scoring too.

While their semi-final clash last year was a low scoring clash, weather was against both sides who were defending their way to the NRL Grand Final. This will be a high-scoring match, making the total points overs a great play at $1.90.

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Key matchup: Nathan Cleary vs Mitchell Moses

The battle of the halfbacks will be one of the highlights of the night, as both halves played for the NSW State of Origin side in 2021. In recent weeks, the future of Mitchell Moses has come under scrutiny, about whether he will stay in Parramatta. As always, the Eels will require a strong game from Moses in both his game management and attacking ability to lead this side towards a win. But more importantly, the Eels side as a whole will need to lift and fight as a club, in order to encourage Moses to stay in Parramatta long term. Moses will have the best halfback in Rugby League as a benchmark Friday, and he will have to play right up to Cleary’s level to give the Eels any hope of beating the Panthers.

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