NRL Friday: Storm v Warriors, predictions & odds, round 7, 2020

This Friday’s Melbourne Storm v New Zealand Warriors NRL match has been relocated from AAMI Park in Melbourne and will now be played at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Sydney.

And further to that, the Melbourne Storm could also be forced to train and play more home games in NSW or south-east Queensland given the surge in COVID-19 cases in the Victorian capital.

Of course, that type of scenario is nothing new to the New Zealand Warriors, who have been based in Australia since the NRL restarted its 2020 season.

We chose to preview this clash ahead of the Friday night match between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra at Bankwest Stadium for several reasons.

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There is great interest in how the Warriors players will react to the surprise axing of coach Stephen Kearney.

Assistant coach Todd Payten takes the reins and in many sports it’s become a great if strange betting lead to back the team that has sacked its coach. The players seems to lift for a week at least to impress the next boss.

The odds looked stacked against the Warriors, who have lost their past eight matches against the Storm, who are boosted by the return to the starting side of flying winger Josh Addo-Carr and halfback Jahrome Hughes.

NZ Warriors have hooker Wayde Egan suspended and he is replaced by Karl Lawton, while Jack Murchie replaces the injured Eliesa Katoa in the second row.

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Read on for our best bets and winner prediction for the Storm-Warriors clash at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on Friday, June 26.

Storm v Warriors odds

Kick-off: 6pm local time
Venue: Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Sydney
Head to head odds: Melbourne $1.17, NZ Warriors $5.75
Line betting: Melbourne (-13.5 points) $1.85, NZ Warriors (+13.5 points) $1.95
Match total: 41.5 points: over $1.89, under $1.91

Storm v Warriors free betting tips

Below our NRL betting expert has highlighted his free tips for the Storm v Warriors clash.

Melbourne Storm v New Zealand Warriors prediction

As much as we’d love to buck recent form and history and tip the Warriors, even with the boost of a change of coaches we can’t see the Warriors turning over Melbourne here. They just look undermanned in comparison to the Storm, who have been rock solid season and have dropped games only to teams right at the pointy end of the competition. We think the Warriors will be brave but our tip is the Storm by six points. Good punting.

Storm v Warriors lowdown

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