NORTH QUEENSLAND v BRISBANE BRONCOS
Saturday September 8, Dairy Farmers Stadium. The second final on Saturday is the first of the elimination matches and sees two Queensland sides facing off against each other. North Queensland Cowboys (5th) have won their last four matches and in the process have racked up 142 points, justifying their position as the competition’s best attacking side. Their only two losses in the past six weeks have been to Minor Premiers Canterbury (32-18) and a narrow loss (8-6) to the Sea Eagles. The Broncos on the other hand have struggled in the past two months and were lucky to make the finals given that they only managed to win one of their past seven matches. That win came last week over Penrith and even then, the game was in the balance until inside the final five minutes. It was evident in that match that they are side playing struggling to find their best form at the moment and having to trek to North Queensland this weekend, will not be easy.
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Both encounters this year between these two sides have resulted in victories to the Cowboys (Round 2, 28-26 and Round 15, 12-0). That made it three from the past four matches over the last two years for the Cowboys and given their current form compared to that of the Broncos, they are deserved short price favourites. They Cowboys also welcome back representative forward Matt Scott to the starting line up and possess a strong bench that should be able to maintain the pressure on Brisbane throughout the match. The Broncos have only scored in excess of twenty points once in the past nine matches (that was 22 points against Wooden Spooners Parramatta) and imagine they’ll have to score at least that figure to be competitive against the Cowboys. These games are generally close with five of the past eight matches being decided by margins of six points or less but expecting the Cowboys led by Thurston to be too good here.
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