Friday first NRL Round 22 match is between Melbourne Storm and South Sydney Rabbitohs with the opening kick to commence at 7:35PM local time. The game is to be played at AAMI Park which see’s home team Melbourne Storm hold favouritism in the market. View our NRL live scores, odds and results for the game between Melbourne Storm and South Sydney Rabbitohs.

WHERE AND WHEN: AAMI Park, Friday, 09/08, 7:35PM

Opening odds comparison:

Melbourne Storm	1.35	1.36	1.30	1.36	1.35	1.38
South Sydney Rabbitohs	3.20	3.20	3.65	3.20	3.20	3.20

Preview:

Round 22 of the NRL kicks off this weekend, with a number of matches to look forward to as we get closer to the finals. The first game is between the Melbourne Storm and the South Sydney Rabbitohs, 7.35pm Friday night at AAMI Park. The Storm should be able to win here, with South Sydney losing momentum at the wrong time of the season. With Greg Inglis and John Sutton both out, they may struggle to regain lost momentum against an in-form Storm outfit. In contrast, Melbourne are on the rise, and will be keen to stay in front of the Bulldogs going into September.

Teams:

Melbourne Storm:
Billy Slater, Sisa Waqa, Will Chambers, Maurice Blair, Mahe Fonua, Brett Finch, Cooper Cronk, Jesse Bromwich, Cameron Smith, Bryan Norrie, Kevin Proctor, Ryan Hoffman, Ryan Hinchcliffe. Interchange: Jason Ryles, Tohu Harris, Jordan McLean, Kenneath Bromwich, Slade Griffin

South Sydney Rabbitohs:
Nathan Merritt, Dylan Farrell, Bryson Goodwin, Dylan Walker, Matt King, Luke Keary, Adam Reynolds, Sam Burgess, Issac Luke, George Burgess, Chris McQueen, Ben Te’o, Ben Lowe. Interchange: Nathan Peats, Jeff Lima, Roy Asotasi, Thomas Burgess

Storm’s Bellamy says no to NRL Nines

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy says the only way his World Cup players will take part in the NRL Nines is if his club is threatened with a big fine or being thrown out of the competition.

Bellamy says his players’ welfare comes first and he thinks the workload is already too much.

The inaugural NRL Nines event will be held in the pre-season on Feb 15 in Auckland.

“It just seems like we’re creating more in each year,” Bellamy said.

“It makes a really big workload for our elite players, who play Origin and play for Australia.

“At some stage we’ve got to look after the welfare of our elite players and I don’t think that’s happening at the moment.”

Kangaroos and Storm fullback Billy Slater said earlier in the week he couldn’t see himself playing in the Nines, with the World Cup final scheduled for November 30.

More than 100 NRL players will represent Australia, New Zealand, England, Papua New Guinea, Italy, Tonga and the Cook Islands at the World Cup.

The Storm could have up to eight players involved including Australian stars Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk.

Bellamy backed Slater, adamant none of his representative players would take part.

“Unless we’re going to get fined or thrown out of the comp or something there won’t be any of our World Cup players playing in the Nines.”

The inclusion of the Nines, with $2.2m prizemoney, has come at the expense of the All Stars match.

Bellamy has been involved with the Indigenous All Stars and said he was disappointed to see it suspended until 2015.

“Something had to give I suppose but I was involved in the All Stars last year, in the camp with the Indigenous boys.

“I must say I really enjoyed that experience and I saw how important that was to the Indigenous boys.

“I’m pretty sad to be honest it’s not going ahead.”