Things are heating up in the NRL, with week three of the finals set to kick off this weekend. The Friday night game is between the Melbourne Storm and the Manly Sea Eagles, with the preliminary final taking place at AAMI Stadium at 7.45pm. It goes without saying that both teams will be hungry for a win, with the Storm going into this encounter as slight favourites.
Due to their recent grand final experience, lots of people think the winner of this clash can go on to win the big one. The rivalry between Melbourne and Manly has been fierce over the past few years, and the Storm will be extra keen to cement a win after being wiped from the record books against Manly in 2007 and trounced by them in 2008.
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The Storm go into this clash with a week off, and are sure to be better for the rest. However Manly have momentum on their side, after having won 6 in a row before a narrow loss to the Bulldogs in finals week 1. Melbourne have a few key players coming back from injury this week, and while this is good news, cohesion is vital at this time of year. While this game is almost impossible to pick, one thing is for sure, it is going to be a cracker.
The other preliminary final is between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the South Sydney Rabbitohs, kicking off at ANZ Stadium on Saturday at 7.45pm. The Bulldogs are going into this one as favourites, after a killer season and a good finals campaign. However, you would be a brave man to rule out the Rabbitohs, who have won 11 of their last 12 matches and have played some great footy in 2012.
These two teams are coming at this game from very different places however, with Des Hasler looking to make consecutive grand finals and the Rabbitohs trying to make their first season decider in 41 years. While the Bunnies are definitely in with a good chance of doing just that, the Bulldogs were great in week 1 of the finals and are going to be very hard to beat.