NRL Weekly Blog Post - 25th January

The NRL season is fast approaching and I, like many, am pumped up and ready for the competition to light up in 2012. New transfers, coaching rollercoasters and the even spread of talent will make this year extremely competitive.

Each Wednesday evening, NRL Weekly will provide news and reviews of the week passed. I will also share what I think to be the best team of the week and analyse the Toyota NRL Dream Team competition.

 The week its been…

This last week has been quite uneventful actually with all players involved, training hard for the All Stars match. Eels recruit Esi Tonga (Willie Tonga’s brother) is in a bit of strife after his ‘no show’ at one of Wayne Bennett’s Emerging Blues Origin camp. In other news Dream Team is finally up and running on NRL’s official website with a new and improved points scoring system.

  

Big games coming up…

Despite still being pre season, there are still several big games coming up that should be crackers:

·         Dragons v Bulldogs (trial)

·         Broncos v Cowboys (trial)

·         Indigenous All Stars v NRL All Stars

All three games should be exciting to watch! My tips go to the Bulldogs (Dragons may struggle in 2012 without Boyd and Bennett), Broncos and Indigenous All Stars, who have a killer backline this year.

Team of the Week…

It’s quite difficult to put forward a team of the week when no games have been played so I’ll put forward the whole Newcastle Knights team for some great player (and coaching) transfers in the off season.  First and foremost Wayne Bennett, who will influence the club undeniably as well as his trusting assistant Darius Boyd. Former Knights veteran Danny Buderus will be back in the blue and red, and with Kade Snowden, they will boost the front row for the Newcastle boys. Timana Tahu will add some experience in the backline, and young gun Alex McKinnon, from the Dragons, could be one for the future. Add those players to a team with Kurt Gidley, Jarrod Mullen and Akuila “the thriller” Uate and this team will be a force to be reckoned with in 2012.

Dream Team News…

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Danny Buderus is back the Knights and is a great Dream Team bargain

The Toyota NRL Dream Team http://dreamteam.nrl.com/ competition is great fun and I recommend it for you all. It’s a great way to analyse statistics and battle in head to head matches with friends. There are a few great bargains this year that I will share.  New Tigers recruit Adam Blair is up for a relatively cheap price of $183,100 and is a dual position player. This means that you can put him in your dream team in two different positions, (in this case front row forward and second row) and can interchange him between the two. He is constant threat to defending teams; always attacking the line and providing offloads, so I think he is well priced for a player of his calibre. Danny Buderus, at $186,500 is also well priced considering how hardworking he is, often making plus 40 tackles per game. I recommend both these players for your teams.

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