NRL Betting: Back Melbourne Storm to return to winning ways with narrow win over Brisbane Broncos
Recommended bet: Winning Margin – Melbourne Storm to win by 1 – 12 points @ 2/1 (3.00) with William Hill
Brisbane Broncos play host to Melbourne Storm at the Suncorp Stadium on Friday night, with the home team knowing that a victory would close the gap on the leaders to just a couple of points.
The Broncos are currently third in the table following last weekend’s 30-20 victory away to the Canberra Raiders. For their part, the Storm just missed out on extending their lead at the top of the table in going down 25-24 at Sydney Roosters, courtesy of a Mitchell Pearce golden-point field goal for the Roosters.
The Broncos will again be without Anthony Milford and Darius Boyd, while Sam Thaiday has to be a doubt after training separately to the main group on Tuesday.
For the Storm, following State of Origin II, Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Will Chambers all missed the golden point loss to the Roosters on Saturday and they remain doubts for the trip to Brisbane.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has already indicated that there are no guarantees Smith and Cronk (precaution), Slater (soreness) and Chambers (concussion) will take the field, although in their first training run since their golden point loss to the Roosters, skipper Smith was the only (albeit notable) absentee. The remaining three Origin players who sat out the Round 17 match – Slater, Cronk and Chambers – all trained.
The Storm have certainly been on top when the two teams have faced each other in recent times, having won 11 of the past 13 Premiership meetings between the two. They only just edged home 14-12 when the two teams met at AAMI Park back in March though and, particularly if the Storm are missing any key players, this could be an equally tight encounter.
The general consensus would appear to be that the Storm will have all their Origin players back on duty and that makes them the team to be with here.
The Storm will be keen to make amends after their defeat last weekend, so a Storm win by 1 -12 points on offer at 2/1 (3.0) with William Hill looks like a decent value rugby bet under the circumstances.
