{"id":321010,"date":"2023-08-03T05:56:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T05:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321010"},"modified":"2023-08-03T06:59:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T06:59:20","slug":"tips-spicy-personal-duel-to-ignite-do-or-die-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321010","title":{"rendered":"Tips: 'Spicy' personal duel to ignite do-or-die clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roosters<\/a> legend Brad Fittler<\/a> has predicted a "spicy" first meeting between Matt Lodge and his former club the Roosters, with Manly<\/a> facing a do-or-die scenario at the SCG to stay in the finals race.<\/p>\n

Currently sitting in 10th place on 25 points, the Sea Eagles likely need to win four of their last five games to scrape into the top eight.<\/p>\n

And with clashes against top four sides the Panthers and Warriors still to come, Anthony Seibold's men can't afford a slip up when they visit the out of sorts Roosters at the SCG on Thursday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Adding fuel to the fire of a cut-throat contest is the appearance of Lodge, who was sent packing from Bondi in June<\/a> before picking up a train and trial deal with the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

According to Fittler, who is well connected at the Roosters, Lodge's start opposite his old teammates will be taken personally.<\/p>\n

" … the other interesting match-up is Lodge up against his old forward pack, I think that will be very spicy," Fittler told Andrew Johns on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth's Tips<\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Lodge will make his third appearance for Manly since joining the northern beaches club, starting up front with Toafofoa Sipley up against intimidating Roosters front-rowers Jared Warea-Hargreaves and Lindsay Collins.<\/p>\n

Fittler expected the clash of the forwards to be key to the result, while Johns was licking his lips at the prospect of \ufeffManly's right edge combination attempting to pick apart an area of the Roosters' defensive line that will include Luke Keary.<\/p>\n

"The big match-up I'm looking forward to is Manly's right side – Cherry-Evans, Olakau'atu, Koula – up against the Roosters' left side edge, around Luke Keary and Billy Smith," Johns said.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

The right edge of the Sea Eagles has become a focal point of their attack this season,\ufeff with Olakau'atu terrorising smaller defenders and the lightning fast Koula sniffing around for offloads or his own one on one opportunities when Cherry-Evans hits him out the back.<\/p>\n

Regardless of this attacking weapon and the fact that the Roosters' season is virtually dead and buried, the Roosters are the bookmakers' favourites for the Thursday night clash, with both John and Fittler also picking them to prevail.\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n

Scroll below for the current leaderboard and Round 23 tips by all Nine's expert tipsters!\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Nine's<\/p>\n

Brad Fittler:<\/strong> Roosters, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns:<\/strong> Roosters, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raider\ufeffs<\/p>\n

Paul Gallen:<\/strong> Roosters, Titans, Storm, Broncos, Knights, Sharks, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

Darren Lockyer:<\/strong> Roosters, Titans, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders<\/p>\n

Wally Lewis:<\/strong> Roosters, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

Billy Slater:<\/strong> Roosters, Warriors, Storm, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders<\/p>\n

David Middleton:<\/strong> Sea Eagles, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders<\/p>\n

Michael Chammas:<\/strong> Roosters, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

Peter Psaltis: <\/strong>Sea Eagles, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

The Mole:<\/strong> Roosters, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

Ben Glover:<\/strong> Sea Eagles, Warriors, Panthers, Broncos, Knights, Rabbitohs, Eels, Raiders\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roosters legend Brad Fittler has predicted a "spicy" first meeting between Matt Lodge and his former club the Roosters, with Manly facing a do-or-die scenario […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321010"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321016,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321010\/revisions\/321016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}