NRL Finals 2009 - Gold Coast Titans v Brisbane Broncos Qualifying Final Preview

2009 NRL FINALS SERIES - 2nd QUALIFYING FINAL - VERSUS

After missing the playoffs in their first two years back in the competition, the Gold Coast Titans secured 3rd spot at the completion of the Minor Premiership and earned a home final against local rivals the Brisbane Broncos. Skilled Park should be filled to the brim for this Qualifying Final on Saturday Night and both teams will be eager to guarantee themselvs a spot in the second week of the 2009 NRL Finals Series. News Update 11/09/09: Mat Rogers tweeted this morning he woke up feeling good and will definitely play - barring a relapse in the warm up. Ben Te'o will travel with the Broncos to the Gold Coast but will not play. Dave Taylor has a broken snoz but is a confirmed starter. News Update 10/09/09: Mat Rogers ran at 75% to test his injured hamstring on Wednesday but remains a game time decision for Saturday Night. Centre Brett Delaney - who has missed over a month with a hamstring tear is no certainty either - out of favour winger Chris Walker is an outside chance to replace Rogers or Delaney. For the Broncos - no injuries to report, with one of Ashton Sims, Josh McGuire or Joel Clinton to drop off the bench come game time. > For some great analysis on the Finalists by Phil Gould, Benji Marshall and Johnathan Thurston download the audio from their segment on The Footy Show here. Video Preview below and here are the teams announced on Tuesday. =============================================== The best way to follow the 2009 Finals Series is to follow NRL_Finals_2009 on Twitter. On the first day of operation alone, we produced 30 Tweets - with some great nuggets of information in there, as well as news as it breaks. For the Finals Games themselves, regular Tweets will be uploaded giving you an instant evaluation of how the game is being played out and what to watch out for during the match. If you don't want to miss a thing - subscribe right now or follow it on the main page of wdnicolson.blogspot.com on the right side column. =============================================== SATURDAY NIGHT @ Skilled Park 6:30pm Referees: Ben Cummins & Ashley Klein Sideline Officials: Paul Holland & Gerard Sutton Video Referee: Paul Simpkins

#3 GOLD COAST TITANS v #6 BRISBANE BRONCOS

Gold Coast Titans: Starting Lineup: 1. Preston Campbell 2. Kevin Gordon 3. Jordan Atkins 4. Brett Delaney 5. David Mead 6. Mat Rogers 7. Scott Prince (c) 8. Luke Bailey (c) 9. Nathan Friend 10. Matthew White 11. Anthony Laffranchi 12. Mark Minichiello 13. Ashley Harrison Reserves: 14. Michael Henderson, 15. Bradley Meyers, 16. Sam Tagataese, 17. Josh Graham, 18. Will Matthews, 19. Chris Walker. Coach: John Cartwright. Brisbane Broncos: Starting Lineup: 1. Karmichael Hunt 2. Antonio Winterstein 3. Israel Folau 4. Justin Hodges 5. Jharal Yow Yeh 6. Darren Lockyer (c) 7. Peter Wallace 8. Nick Kenny 9. Andrew McCullough 10. Dave Taylor 11. Tonie Carroll 12. Sam Thaiday 13. Corey Parker Reserves: 14. Lagi Setu, 15. Alex Glenn, 16. Ashton Sims, 17. Josh McGuire, 18. Joel Clinton. Coach: Ivan Henjak. Last 6 Games Head to Head (GLD 3 BRI 3) GLD 34 def. BRI 18 - Round 20, 2009 BRI 32 def. GLD 18 - Round 10, 2009 BRI 25 def. GLD 21 - Round 24, 2008 GLD 26 def. BRI 24 - Round 6, 2008 BRI 19 def. GLD 18 - Round 17, 2007 GLD 28 def. BRI 16 - Round 5, 2007 VIDEO PREVIEW BELOW

Who do you think will win between the Titans and Broncos? wdnicolson.blogspot.com Qualifying Final Predictions: BRONCOS 22 def. TITANS 16 Man of the Match: Peter Wallace, Broncos First Tryscorer: Israel Folau, Broncos