NRL Round 4 Preview and Prediction - Brisbane Broncos v Canberra Raiders @ Suncorp Stadium

 Brisbane Broncos v Canberra Raiders @ Suncorp Stadium
 
Preview - It's the battle of two supposed competition heavyweights when the Raiders travel North to tackle the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night. The Broncos have not done too much wrong this year, however find themselves under pressure after heartbreaking losses at the death against the Cowboys and Storm. The Broncos had opportunities to win both games and, despite some outstanding goal line defence for most of the 80 minutes against the Storm, the Broncos were far too undisciplined with the football and gave away far too many cheap penalties. The Raiders finally got their season up and running with a comprehensive flogging of their whipping boys, the Wests Tigers. The Raiders have put 60, 50 and now 46 on the Tigers in their last three starts, however a much bigger test awaits this Friday. I think Ricky Stuart would have been a lot more pleased with their defence last week, as well as an improved showing by their forwards who really dominated the Tigers’ pack and showed the sort of form which propelled this team to second place in the regular season last year. 
 
History - The Broncos have an incredibly imposing record over the Raiders over the past seven years, with their last loss to the Raiders at Suncorp coming in 2010. The Broncos have won their past 3 against the Raiders by an average margin of 14 points, as well as 6 of the last 8 overall. 
 
Brisbane Broncos Scouting Report - Benji Marshall's return to 1st Grade was short lived with Tevita Pangai Junior fit to return to the bench. I have no idea what sort of role Marshall was playing last week coming on from the bench, however he looked a bit lost playing in the middle of the field. It looked like Wayne Bennett threw him on just for the sake of it. Ben Hunt stepped up, at least in the second half last, week scoring an excellent solo try against a Strorm defence that is always hard to crack. 
 
Canberra Raiders’ Scouting Report - The Raiders have named an unchanged 17 from the side that demolished the Wests Tigers, however boom young forward Joseph Tapine is named on an extended bench as he looks to come back from injury. Some of Canberra’s stars of 2016 had got off to a slow start this season, however it was great to see Jordan Rapana and Joey Leilua back causing some damage on the edges last week. Junior Paulo made some strong charges up front in his run, no more so than when he ran straight over the top of Luke Brooks setting up an easy try for ....
 
Verdict - Raiders in a hight quality game by 6 or less
 
I really like the prospects of the Raiders to cause somewhat of an upset in Brisbane. The big concern I have is the Raiders are coming off one of those dreaded 5-day turnarounds, whilst the Broncos have had a full 8 days to prepare and fully recuperate for this game. However, in saying that, last week’s game was like a training run for the Raiders against the Tigers. It was that easy, so I expect them to be fresh and ready to go. I just think if the Raiders show up with close to their best football here they might just have too much size, power and once for the Broncos. I think the Broncos prefer defending against teams like the Storm that are more of a grinding style of team. I think the Raiders can potentially get the better of them out wide and have a size advantage in the forwards.