The last game on Monday for NRL Round 25 is between Parramatta Eels and St George Illawarra Dragons. The opening bounce is set to commence at 7:00pm with the game to be played at ANZ Stadium. The favourite for the match is away team St George Illawarra Dragons. View our preview and teams for the game between Parramatta Eels and St George Illawarra Dragons.
Parramatta Stadium
Monday 7pm
Parramatta Eels $1.03 vs St George Illawarra Dragons $10.00 at Sportsbet Australia get a $250 FREE BET on this match
Parramatta Eels $1.02 vs St George Illawarra Dragons $16.00 at Luxbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match
Odds Comparison by NRL Odds:
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| Parramatta Eels | 2.00 | 2.15 | 1.96 | 2.15 | 2.00 | 2.01 |
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St George Illawarra Dragons
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1.80 | 1.70 | 1.88 | 1.70 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
Preview:
Not all matches in a round can be block-busters but at least we’ve saved the worst to last.
Between them these two teams have won ten from forty-four matches this year – a winning strike rate of 22%!
Both sides were embarrassed last week. Parramatta by Melbourne 64 – 4 and St. George by the struggling West Tigers (34 – 18) who were led by an eighteen year old kid making his debut.
For both teams and their supporters particularly, the season can’t finish soon enough!
Whilst each of Parramatta’s four wins this year have come at Parramatta Stadium, they haven’t beaten St. George since they were in the middle of their remarkable run into the 2009 Grand Final were they accounted for St. George 25 – 12 in the first week of finals.
Since then, the closest they have come has been a 14-all draw in 2011.
St. George, prior to last week, were at least competitive in their losses to Brisbane, Sharks and Bulldogs and should be able to bounce back, not that they’ll have to bounce back too high for Parramatta, and extend their winning sequence over this year’s Wooden Spooners.
Teams:
Parramatta Eels:
Jarryd Hayne, Ken Sio, Ryan Morgan, Vai Toutai, Semi Radradra, Ben Roberts, Luke Kelly, Tim Mannah, Matt Keating, Fuifui Moimoi, Reni Maitua, Mitch Allgood, Darcy Lussick. Interchange: Joseph Paulo, Peni Terepo, Pat O’Hanlon, Junior Paulo
St George Illawarra Dragons:
Jason Nightingale, Brett Morris, Chase Stanley, Charly Runciman, Daniel Vidot, Adam Quinlan, Nathan Fien, Jack Stockwell, Mitch Rein, Ben Creagh, Tyson Frizell, Leeson Ah Mau, Jack de Belin. Interchange: Matt Prior, Michael Weyman, Bronson Harrison, Josh Drinkwater
Transfer window on the NRL agenda
Transfer windows, transfer fees, player loans and getting rid of the second tier salary cap could be part of a revolutionary new-look NRL in 2015.
In one of the most significant shake-ups to the game since Super League, NRL chief operating officer Jim Doyle is aiming to roll out a new salary cap arrangement in November.
He hopes it will address some burning issues which have affected teams this season.
A major bone of contention is clubs losing star players who are still under contract but seek an early release, without receiving any compensation in return.
Canberra got nothing from St George Illawarra when Josh Dugan signed with them after the frustrated Raiders sacked the misbehaving fullback with two years left on his deal.
The same club also face losing fellow backline stars Blake Ferguson and Anthony Milford to rival clubs next year despite still being contracted, while Canterbury are likely to lose Ben Barba to Brisbane with two years to run on his contract.
Doyle confirmed he will put forward the idea of a transfer window when club officials meet next month.
“We’re looking at what issues have been coming up for a while and what needs to be addressed,” Doyle told AAP.
“One of those is that if clubs or players want to break contracts how do we deal with that?
“We’re looking at what other sports do … like for example a transfer window.
“It could be that if a contract is to be broken it would have to be during a certain window.
“We would also look to see if a player breaks a contract, can a fee be paid to his club and vice versa.
“If a club want to take a player for a certain amount of dollars … then the money received by the selling club wouldn’t form part of their (salary) cap.
“It would be compensation for the time spent on development.”
Doyle is also hoping to scrap the second-tier salary cap due to the problems generated this year when injuries have hit a club’s top-25 squad hard.
Last week Wests Tigers had to seek special permission to breach the cap so Holden Cup players Luke Brooks and Nathan Brown could play NRL against the Dragons last Saturday.
Doyle said that decision was a one-off and could only be taken because neither side had any chance of affecting the finals, but he accepted the system’s flawed.
“The cap’s been in place for the last 15 years and we want to make significant changes to how it operates,” Doyle said.
“At the moment we have the second tier cap and we’re looking to go forward and make that one cap not two.
“Wests Tigers applied for dispensation and it was good for the game and it was good that it could happen.
“But it’s not an ideal situation to deny players the chance to play.”
In addition, a player loan system is used by clubs in Europe’s Super League to good affect and Doyle believes there’s merit to bringing it into the NRL.
“It is certainly something we will look at,” he said.
“If you have a player injured and you don’t have adequate replacements in your own ranks … and there’s a first-grade standard player not playing in a top team a club can give him some experience.
“It could potentially benefit both parties.
“We’ve looked at what works in other sports and what we might be able to take from them.”