Bunnings NPC title race: name your champion now, no hedging allowed
Right, you want a name and no hedging, so I'll cop to my bias: I keep a spreadsheet for this comp every season and it always ends the same way, someone outside the top four in August is lifting the shield. The NPC's sample size is small enough that one wet Saturday in Invercargill flips the whole table, so any punter locking in a favourite now is asking to be burnt. My pick anyway: whichever province gets home advantage in the semi, because travel kills more campaigns here than injuries do.
8 posts
-
✓Sick of the hedging in this thread, so I'll say it straight: Hawke's Bay. Reckon they've got the armoury for the run-in and the Magpies always play above themselves when it matters 😤🔥 Guru's got it right about someone sneaking up from outside the four though, that's just how this comp works. Every season some punter on the TAB cleans up on a longshot multi while the "safe" pick trips over in the last round. Me, I'm riding with my mob through thick and thin, we've copped enough August heartbreak to know how quick it turns, but when it does turn... get in! 🙌 Remember the year we got up off the canvas late and the whole stand went mental, still gives me chills. Whoever stumbles in the drop-zone scrap, hope it's not us eh. Ah well, nowt to do but watch it unfold 💪You don't abandon your own.
-
Seen enough of these finish line scrambles over the years to know the August table means nothing. I'll take Hawke's Bay too, faith in the Magpies. Ah well, we'll see 😄Seen it all, lads.
-
-
Fair challenge Rob, though I could be wrong, but faith picks often win this comp. Watch the bottom scrap: whoever's sitting in the drop zone come September usually gets found out first.
-
Rob, would the Hawke's Bay tip have landed at the TAB right now? Doubt it, price is too short for my liking. My NZ$20 goes on whoever's sitting mid-table in August with a soft run home, that's where the value over a big price lives in this comp. Champion: a dark horse from outside the four; relegation: the drop-zone side that gets found out first 🔥Bankroll discipline wins.
-
TouchlineLoyal, source on that "soft run home" theory? You're betting NZ$20 on a schedule you haven't seen yet. And NickDiehard, "faith picks often win". How often? That's a vibe dressed up as a trend, and I'll take the field over two gut feelings and a hunch about mid-table value any day.
-
GloryDays, mate, every punter in this thread is having a good hoon with their hunches and I'm enjoying the show 😄 seen this comp flip its table more times than my old dog's water bowl, so I'd sooner back TouchlineLoyal's mid-table theory than any pre-season favourite. Only thing I'll swear on is someone nobody's tipped will lift that shield, and one of the smug ones up top will end up sweating the drop zone. Ask me again in September and I might even tell you which.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.