Right the finals are here finally. And after 26 rounds of fierce competition we have our 8 finalists. And the Eels arnt one of them. While I havnt watched many NRL games this year for various reasons (flatmates not liking me watching too much tv, hey i pay for it why cant I?, holidays, Eels performing badly etc etc) I have kept a close eye on whats been going on. The Minor premiers didnt get sorted out til the last round with Melbourne Storm pipping the Sea Eagles, and the Sharks as well kinda I guess,  at the post by points differential. Manly were 8 points clear before the start of the last round, then they bet the Panthers by 18 points which meant the Storm needed to beat the Rabbitohs by an unlikly score of 25 or more to take the Minor Premiership by points difference. Of course they tottally uprooted the Rabbitohs by 42-4 which ended up giving them the title.

Now if you havnt noticed my favourite team is the Eels, I have been keeping track of them for the whole competition, and since they arent in the top eight all I have to do is think about next year for them, so dont worry I am not going to go on about them any more in this article.

So the top eight comprise of Storm (38), Sea Eagles(38), Sharks(38), Roosters(34), Broncos(33), Raiders(30), Dragons(30) and the Warriors(30). That means this weekends games the top four will face the bottom four. Lets see how they match up for the weekend.

Friday Night Footy, Roosters  vs Broncos.
Last met Round 2 - Broncos win 20-14. My prediiction Broncos win again. Mainly because the roosters have lost their big enforcer(though highly over-rated) in Willie Mason. I still think it will be a close one for most of the game, with the winners coming out in the last 10-15 minutes, but dont hold me to that.

Saturday 6:30pm (local time), Sharks vs Raiders
Last met Round 6 - Sharks win 23-16. The sharks should also take this one out, though sometimes the Raiders can pull one out of the bag and just surprise the oposition. I dont see the Raiders coming close this year, which is sad as I would like them to take out the finals now that the eels have gone (sorry couldnt help it, i am still miffed at that :D)

Saturday 830pm (local time), Sea Eagles vs Dragons
Last met Round 11 - Dragons won 20-18. Close game in Round 11 and i dont see much difference here. On paper both teams are pretty close, but with Nathan Brown leaving at the end of the season maybe the Dragons can pull out another upset and stay alive for the second round of the finals. who knows. I pick the Dragons, just cause i like the name.

Super Sunday 4:00pm (local time) Storm vs Warriors
Last met Round 20 - Warriors win 8-6. But also in Round 1 where the Storm thrashed them 32-18. I would like to say that the Warriors are going to take this out, but i dont see it. The Storm are just going to be too big, too strong and are going to be too fast for them as well. I am going to go the Storm by 10 points.

So thats my predictions for the first finals weekend of 2008. This years competition has been hard fought, and marred mainly because of the "release" of one of the top players in the NRL this year. We all know who he is and if you dont you either dont follow rugby leauge, or have been living under a rock. Unfortunatly this weekend wil not be me sitting infront of the tv watching the actioin unfold as I am off home. I think the only footy I will get to see this weekend is the All Blacks thrashing Australia again. But thats for later, in another blog maybe.

Thanks for reading my first blog, I am going to go back and do some work (sleep)