NRL Finals 2009 - St.George-Illawarra Dragons v Parramatta Eels Qualifying Final Preview

2009 NRL FINALS SERIES - 4th QUALIFYING FINAL - VERSUS

Minor Premiers St.George-Illawarra will take Dally M Winner Jarryd Hayne and his Parramatta Eels this Sunday afternoon at WIN Jubilee Stadium to round out the opening weekend of the 2009 NRL Finals Series. Just a week ago the Dragons put their recent struggles behind them and crushed the Eels 37-0 in a match that has to have shaken the Eels confidence going into this match. Nathan Hindmarsh will return for the Eels but the Jarryd Hayne show is all that stands between the Dragons and a Preliminary Final. News Update 11/09/09: Hard to imagine Justin Poore not playing if his calf injury is only minor. Krisnan Inu is the biggest doubt for the Eels with a hamstring strain but Nathan Hindmarsh and Eric Grothe Jr will definitely play after missing last week. News Update 10/09/09: Justin Poore is now in doubt for the game with a calf injury that flared up at training mid-week. Jarrod Saffy would be the likely replacement. The Eels welcome back Nathan Hindmarsh and Broderick Wright is the probable 18th man. > 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. =============================================== SUNDAY AFTERNOON @ WIN Jubilee Stadium 4:00pm Referees: Jared Maxwell & Matt Cecchin Sideline Officials: David Abood & Alan Shortall Video Referee: Tim Mander

#1 ST.GEORGE-ILLAWARRA DRAGONS v #8 PARRAMATTA EELS

St.George-Illawarra Dragons: Starting Lineup: 1. Darius Boyd 2. Brett Morris 3. Beau Scott 4. Matt Cooper 5. Wendell Sailor 6. Jamie Soward 7. Ben Hornby (c) 8. Justin Poore 9. Dean Young 10. Michael Weyman 11. Matthew Prior 12. Ben Creagh 13. Jeremy Smith Reserves: 14. Dan Hunt, 15. Neville Costigan, 16. Nathan Fien, 17. Jason Nightingale, 18. Jarrod Saffy. Coach: Wayne Bennett Parramatta Eels: Starting Lineup: 1. Jarryd Hayne 2. Luke Burt 3. Krisnan Inu 4. Joel Reddy 5. Eric Grothe 6. Daniel Mortimer 7. Jeff Robson 8. Nathan Cayless (c) 9. Matthew Keating 10. FuiFui MoiMoi 11. Nathan Hindmarsh 12. Ben Smith 13. Todd Lowrie Reserves: 14. Kevin Kingston, 15. Feleti Mateo, 16. Tim Mannah, 17. Joe Galuvao. Coach: Daniel Anderson Last 6 Games Head to Head (STI 4 PAR 2) STI 37 def. PAR 0 - Round 26, 2009 STI 22 def. PAR 8 - Round 5, 2009 STI 40 def. PAR 14 - Round 25, 2008 PAR 19 def. STI 18 - Round 9, 2008 STI 14 def. PAR 6 - Round 24, 2007 PAR 20 def. STI 12 - Round 14, 2007 VIDEO PREVIEW BELOW

Who do you think will win between the Dragons and Eels? wdnicolson.blogspot.com Qualifying Final Predictions: DRAGONS 26 def. EELS 10 Man of the Match: Ben Hornby, Dragons First Tryscorer: Brett Morris, Dragons