NRL round 8 betting wrap

Round 8 was a tough week for punters. Well supported favourites, Penrith and Newcastle managed to win but failed to cover the $1.90 line.

Both Melbourne and Brisbane had more than their fair share of supporters as slight outsiders, but both went down in tight contests.

St George Illawarra were well supported to beat the 3.5 line against Cronulla, even without stars Barrett and Bailey. They looked after their devout followers nicely.

North Queensland were the biggest 'go' of the week, with the line shortening significantly throughout the week, and continuing to do so on Saturday. The scoreline may have been only 4 points in the end, but the Cowboys were by far the better side on the night, and Cowboy punters didn't deserve to have to go through the stress created by the close result. I'm sure many were literally 'standing in the queue' waiting to collect at half time.

SportOdds biggest bets of the week were spread across the weekend. A Panther fan lost his $30,000 after he expected Penrith to easily beat the Tigers on Friday night, and took them at the $1.90 line of minus 14.5 points.

There were two $20,000 bets on the Cowboys plus the 6.5 start that was on offer, which duly saluted, and there were two bets on Sunday of $30,000 and $20,000 for the Storm and Broncos respectively, which both, unfortunately for the usually astute punters, went down.

Round 9 NRL action will be disrupted by the scheduling of the annual City Origin v Country Origin clash at Gosford on Friday night. In another situation similar to the ANZAC Test match a fortnight ago, if your favourite team have players featuring on Friday night, it would be wise to wait until they come through the Origin selection trial unscathed before investing your hard earned. If you are going to have an early bet, look at the teams that have minimal or no representation on Friday night.

Sides like the Warriors, North Queensland, Brisbane and even Parramatta. They should be virtually unaffected, no matter what happens in Gosford.

Best of Luck everyone.