Crikey’s NRL Hot Form Chart: Round 19

Crikey’s NRL Hot Form Chart shows just how fortunes are fluctuating in a competition where 15 of 16 teams are still a chance of playing finals football.

Crikey

Jul 27, 2007

Crikey’s NRL Hot Form Chart shows just how fortunes are fluctuating in a competition where 15 of 16 teams are still a chance of playing finals football.

The obvious standout is the Melbourne Storm. They seem untouchable on the Form Chart as well as the NRL ladder and this weekend will present Freddie Fittler’s resurgent Roosters with the ultimate test.

Beneath the Storm though, things are getting messy. The Broncos, for example, sit fifth on the NRL ladder and have won four of their last five matches. But can they hold their position in the face of injuries to key players and the hot form of teams below them, most notably the Bulldogs and Warriors?

After hard-fought victories on the weekend, form teams Manly and Parramatta face off in the match of the round on Sunday. And the Rabbitohs up and down season appears to be surging again. They are just one win out of the NRL top 8 but as the Form Chart shows, are in better shape than some of the teams above them.

An anomaly of a chart ranking form is how losing teams can climb spots on the ladder. The Sharks, for instance, have lost three in a row but climbed from 15th to 12th on Crikey’s Form Chart. The answer here lies in the competitive nature of Cronulla’s losses and the comparative form of the teams below them on the chart.

Canberra, Penrith and Newcastle have had wretched runs of late but the standout slumper is undoubtedly the Gold Coast. The Titans have tumbled eight places in two weeks, and now sit last on the Form Chart after four consecutive losses.

Form last 5 weeks	Team	Last week’s form rating	NRL ladder position	Sequence
1	Melbourne	1	1	W-B*-W-W-W
2	Warriors	3	6	W-W-L-W-W
3	Bulldogs	6	7	W-W-W-L-W
4	Brisbane	2	5	W-W-W-W-L
5	Parramatta	4	3	W-B*-L-W-W
6	Manly	5	2	L-L-W-W-W
7	Rabbitohs	9	9	W-L-W-L-W
8	Cowboys	7	4	W-W-L-L-W
9	Dragons	8	14	L-W-W-L-W
10	Tigers	11	8	L-W-W-L-L
11	Roosters	13	15	L-L-L-W-W
12	Cronulla	15	12	L-B*-L-L-L
13	Newcastle	10	11	L-L-W-L-L
14	Canberra	14	13	L-L-L-W-L
15	Penrith	16	16	L-L-L-W-L
16	Titans	12	10	W-L-L-L-L

*Bye counted as win. Columns indicate: Comparative form over the last 5 weeks; Position on form as of last week; Position on NRL ladder; Win/Loss sequence.

Crikey’s NRL Hot Form Tips for round 20 are: