Kiwis to star in NRL finals

Any predictions of grand final contenders?

The favourites now would have to be the Roosters and Rabbitohs surely?

But as we've seen already with Wayne Bennets boys rolling the Storm that nothing is guaranteed.

We're hoping for our boys to come through uninjured though with the RLWC kicking off at Millenium stadium in Cardiff next month .

We will need the likes of Isaac Luke, the pocket dynamo with his brilliant forays out of dummy half not to mention all the Kiwi talent in the Roosters squad and Manly

.

The final Kiwi squad of 24 for the RLWC is to be named two days after the NRL grand final on Oct 8.

We have what has been described as the best Kiwi squad in yonks so... Go the Kiwis

SQUAD SO FAR 

Brisbane Broncos: Alex Glenn, Josh Hoffman 

Canterbury Bulldogs: Greg Eastwood, Krisnan Inu, Sam Kasiano, Sam Perrett, Frank Pritchard 

North Queensland Cowboys: Jason Taumalolo, Antonio Winterstein 

St George Illawarra Dragons: Bronson Harrison, Jason Nightingale 

Penrith Panthers: Lewis Brown, Sam McKendry, Dean Whare 

New Zealand Warriors: Shaun Johnson, Thomas Leuluai, Kevin Locke, Simon  Mannering, Ben Matulino, Sam Rapira, Elijah Taylor, Manu Vatuvei 

Wests Tigers: Adam Blair, Tim Simona.

Rabbitohs: Isaac Luke

Manly: Kieren Foran

Roosters: SBW, Jarred Waerea Hargraves, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Shawn Kenny Dowell

Storm: Kevin Proctor, Jesse Bromwich, Tohu Harris 

Dragons: Jason Nightingale

Possible final 24

Josh Hoffman (Broncos)
Manu Vatuvei (Warriors)
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Roosters)
Jason Nightingale (Dragons)
Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Roosters)
Krisnan Inu (Bulldogs)
Dean Whare (Panthers)
Kieran Foran (Sea Eagles)
Thomas Leuluai (Warriors)
Shaun Johnson (Warriors)
Jeremy Smith (Knights)
Simon Mannering (Warriors - captain)
Sonny Bill Williams (Roosters)
Kevin Proctor (Storm)
Alex Glenn (Broncos)
Elijah Taylor (Warriors)
Greg Eastwood (Bulldogs)
Frank Pritchard (Bulldogs)
Sam McKendry (Panthers)
Jesse Bromwich (Storm)
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Roosters)
Ben Matulino (Warriors)
Sam Kasiano (Bulldogs)
Issac Luke (Rabbitohs)

@steiny,

OMG i was shocked when bennets knights beat the storm, if bennet can defy the odds and win the premireship, he would have to go down as the best NRL coach ever IMO.
its one thing to build a team up and make them champions, but to do it at three different clubs, thats huge.

but be that as it may, im predicting a roosters and rabbits finals and its anyones call how thats going to turn out, both teams have the star players and form, but im cheering for the roosters, a win to them will all but assure SBW comes back home for union in 2014.

i also cant beleive how good our squad is, having a tournament like the RWC will help the kiwis gel together, ittakes time for them to adapt, its why we always do so poo during the ANZAC tests, its a one off with no time to synchornise.
kangaroos dont need as much time to gel, and this theory could also apply to rugby unions RWC and the All Blacks who despite being the best rugby team for pretty much all of them have only won 2 from 7 (so far).

anyway, im loving our chances for the RLWC, and ive never said that before ever, SBW needs to assert his influence over the boys so that they can overcome all the obstacles as professionally and ASAP.

also where is konrad hurrel??? o_O he would make my team easy. and proctor should be in the squad too.

my top kiwi team with this  mob would be,,,

1 j robinson
2 r sheck
3 SBW
4 s kenny dowall
5 m vatuvei
6 k florian
7 s johnson
8 w hargraves
9 i luke
10 s kasiano
11 b matlino
12 a glenn
13 j smith

14 f pritchard
15 k proctor
16 j bromwhich
17 s mannering

mean team, cant wait for the RLWC.

GO KIWIS!!!

bro who have you got at fullback Jason Robinson ?

I think you must mean Josh Hoffman?

Konrad Hurrel would have been awesome too but he's playing for his country of birth Tonga.

Would have been good if Benji had hung around long enough to play as well but like you say we're looking good regardless.

SBW is'nt even a sure bet to play yet but it's hard to see him resisting the temptation to win a World Cup with both the Kiwis and the ABs.

All we need now is for Billy Slater to have another shocker like at the last WC and drop a few highballs like he did against the Knights on the weekend. lol

Defending our title is well within our capabilities with this team and i'm also looking forward to it.

Should be a real smashfest.

@stiney,

meant jason nightngale for fullback, not robinson, lolz.

but im a dragons man and think st george needs some good represnetation in my kiwis team, :oP
nightngales always been reliable and thats what were going to need out back.

i would also prefer locke over hoffman, but i do rate hoffman, really good to see NZ with some decent options in most poitions, instead of the slim pickings we use to have a few years back.

also didnt konrad hurrel put in a request to be able to play for the kiwis??? im sure hes filled in his residency quota issues by now, but i could be wrong.

IMO SBW going to league in 2013 was always about the RLWC, im sure missing out the last time round has given him a case of the hmmmmmmmms.

i like the looks of our squad too, very promising for back to back titles, but the kangaroos are still the favourites, just not as clear cut as they use to be in years gone past.

bro heres the link

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/8888548/Hurrell-turns-down-Kiwis-in-favour-of-Tonga

Seems he may have thought he would'nt get as much game time playing for the Kiwis?

Was just looking at the pools and Australia and England look favourites to go through in Pool A.

Fiji are also in that pool, without Hayne this year but are sure to soften up, punish and possibly inflict a few injuries on OZ and the poms.

Pool B it's the Kiwis to go through and who else would you say France or Samoa ?

Discipline could be a factor with passions riding high and hopefully the Samoans (and Fijians) can keep all their players on the field as we don't want to see any no contests.

Only one team going through in Pool C and D as only 3 teams in each one.

Group C : Scotland or Tonga? Tonga 's my guess but haven't followed the NH comp. Certainly won't be Italy.

Group D;  Cook Islands or Wales? Not the USA anyway. Did'nt even know they played RL.

But big PI communities in the States so maybe it's another Samoan team i dunno?

How do you see it play out ?

Yarpy Red Honestly mate ,stick to the sports which you know something about which is... ????

Lets count the times you've been right... Well that was easy.

You been abit quiet though Red.

Pretty hard to comment i guess with what you Queensland dick chewers have got in your mouths LOLZA.

Honestly though Red another week,another disgraced Australian sportsman. Funny az these Aussies.

Then another hiding imminent this week at the hands of the Springboks.

I guess we'll hear from you again when Australia finally win something...like never LOLZA.

@stiney,

just ignore redsneck, the saffa wanna be is proven himself to be quite the shit talker with the IQ of an empty coke can.

cheers for that link, hurrel maybe right about not getting as much game time with the kiwis, especially with that depth we have, but hed make my starting team every week.
hes one of the players with a real low center of gravity which makes him unbelievably hard to stop, id bump kenny dowall or the shrekster in my team just for him.

there is a big PI community in the states, but most are playing gridiron and then union snaps up the majority of whats left.
they could be like kiwis though where they play both at club level???

fiji could make the finals too, cos the top 3 in pools A and B go through and only one team goes from the last 2 pools, so IMO

pool A - kangaroos, england, fiji
pool B - kiwis, france, samoa
pool c - tonga or scotland???
pool d - wales

the reality is simple though, england, austalia and NZ are the odds on favourites to play in the grand final, and france not too far behind with the rest there to make up the numbers.

aussies should really just send in another team, maybe an aussies A team, or even better, scrap their kangaroos and just send in their state of origin teams, both QLD and NSW would still be favourites though.

hopefully theres still some discord amongst the QLD and NSW players, will go along way towards the kiwis cause.