Monday’s only NRL Round 18 match is between Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos with the opening kick to commence at 19:00 local time. The game is to be played at Sportingbet Stadium which see’s home team Penrith Panthers hold favouritism in the market. View our NRL live scores, odds and results for the game between Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos.

Where and when: 19:00 | Monday 14/07/2014 @ Sportingbet Stadium

Preview:

The Panthers earned themselves a spot at the top of the competition ladder with a 26 – 10 win over the Tigers last week at Leichhardt Stadium.

It was the Panthers sixth win from their past seven outings with the only defeat during that period coming after a poor second half performance against the Warriors in New Zealand.

This will be the first home game for the Panthers in three weeks, a venue where they boast a very strong 6 – 1 record this season.

This season’s new halves pairing of Jamie Soward and Peter Wallace, has seen the Panthers produce plenty of points this season and average a whopping 28 points from their past seven matches.

This week though Tyrone Peachey has been named at five-eight with Wallace injured.

Winger Josh Mansour continues to improve on his impressive try record tally this season with another last week and has crossed six times in seven homes games for the Panthers this season.

BRONCOS
After strong wins over Manly (at Suncorp) and the Raiders (in Canberra) in rounds 12 and 13 respectively, it appeared the Broncos were back to their best with four wins on the trot.

However a loss – albeit it a courageous one with an undermanned line-up – to the Warriors was compounded with an inexplicably second half performance against the Sharks in round 16.

The Broncos led 16 nil at halftime and looked to be cruising but a stunning come-back by the team that up until then had only won two games all year, saw them shattered losers 24 – 22.

The Broncos had the bye last week and have been hurting after that loss for two weeks now. They should come out against the competition front-runners all guns blazing here as they look to reinstate themselves as genuine contenders this year.

They’ll be boosted by the return from injury of Hooker Andrew McCullough, Co-captain Corey Parker and Matt Gillett.

Also named to take their places in the side is Origin pair Justin Hodges and Sam Thaiday, giving the Broncos one of their strongest line-ups for many weeks.

HEAD TO HEAD
These two teams have taken it in turns of winning matches in six games since 2010. If that trend is to continue, the Broncos will be successful here however, they’ve lost their last two games when visiting the Panthers by margins of 16 and 23 points.

In fact, the Broncos can only boast two wins from their past seven trips to the foot of the mountains and given the Panthers record at home this year, this year will definitely be no easier for them.

The Broncos were travelling very well prior to their last two games and the bye just might give them the chance to regroup. The $2.40 for them here, despite the stats at this venue, seems a little too generous to ignore given the quality of their line-up.

Teams:

PANTHERS: Matt Moylan, Josh Mansour, Dean Whare, Jamal Idris, Kevin Naiqama, Tyrone Peachey, Jamie Soward, Sam McKendry, James Segeyaro, Brent Kite, Sika Manu, Elijah Taylor, Adam Docker. Interchange: Lewis Brown, Jeremy Latimore, Nigel Plum, Bryce Cartwright, Isaah Yeo.

BRONCOS: Ben Barba, Daniel Vidot, Jack Reed, Justin Hodges, Dale Copley, Josh Hoffman, Ben Hunt, Josh McGuire, Andrew McCullough, Corey Parker, Alex Glenn, Matt Gillett, Sam Thaiday. Interchange: Ben Hannant, David Hala, Corey Oates, Todd Lowrie, Jake Granville, Jarrod Wallace, David Stagg.

News:

Brent Kite has no regrets about bringing up his 300th NRL game away from the Manly club, and has revealed he’s being groomed for a post-football coaching career at new home Penrith.

On Sunday against the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt, prop Kite will become just the 20th player in history to register the 300-game milestone and will do so wearing Panthers’ colours.

Kite will go down as a Manly great after 221 appearances, two premierships and a Clive Churchill medal with the Sea Eagles – as well as regular appearances for NSW and Australia – but he sees his future out west.

His mental preparation for his 300th game has been sentimental, but largely taken up with the stresses of moving into a new house in Glenmore.

After he hangs up the boots next year, 33-year-old Kite hopes to start a coaching career in the Panthers system having already held discussions with Penrith boss Phil Gould.

“That was part of the plan coming out here. I don’t know in what capacity that’d be. It’s a really good club, Penrith; seems to have more pathways than other clubs by having such a big junior base,” said Kite.

“That was something that was discussed (when signing) … you can’t secure your future beyond playing, but it’s something we’d love to do and hopefully it works out.”

After 13 seasons and playing the toughest position on the field, Kite says the secret to his sustained success has been simply turning up every week willing to have a crack.

Kite signed with Manly from St George Illawarra in 2005 when the club was still struggling to recover from the Northern Eagles collapse. Along with fellow recruit Ben Kennedy, he helped pioneer a culture of dominance at Brookvale which is ongoing.

Manly will always be a part of Kite, but he’s not living in the past – with his experience and leadership helping to inspire Penrith’s rise up the ladder this year.

“It’s definitely gone quick. (Footy) is like being in high school. Everyone always tells you ‘enjoy this years – they won’t last forever’. Before you know it, you’re nearly done and you’re thinking maybe they did know what they’re talking about.

“I’ll miss playing but it can’t go on forever.

“It would have been nice (to do it at Manly) but I had such a great run at Manly and I don’t really have any regrets.

“The Clive Churchill and the 2008 premiership was my best achievement, hands down.

“If I look at that game and what we achieved, it just felt like 17 blokes had close to their personal best games. I obviously got the medal but I think they’d all feel similar. It was just such a special feeling to put the old enemy (Melbourne) away by such a big score.”