Boyd is followed closely at the odds by Will Chambers, Will Hopoate, Daniel Tupou and Greg Inglis with Jacob Lilyman the rank outsider at $101.00.

NRl punters are inundated with special promotions for the State of Origin but Palmerbet are leading the way by offering odds of $3.00 for a NSW win in game 1. Don’t forget NSW are at home for game 1 which should give them a huge advantage

There’s little doubt that Johnston is going to be in the mix – he’s a genuine flyer, and the Souths create plenty for him to capitalise on. But there will be lots of tries in the 2015 season, and there are some guys with a real chance of chalking up more than the favourite. Manly’s Peta Hiku stands as the second favourite, with odds of $15.00 beside his name, and he splits the two Souths men in the most likely three – Greg Inglis is a $17.00 bet and he might be value at that price, too. Beyond those three, look out for a trio of Roosters who might well be strong choices: Daniel Tupou, Michael Jennings and Blake Ferguson are all real chances to finish the 2015 campaign with the NRL’s biggest tally of tries. It helps all of those guys that they will be involved in winning sides more often than not, and you can be sure that both the Roosters and the Rabbitohs will be those sides again this season. We’ve got all the NRL odds you need for their head-to-head fixtures, as well as all those great markets on offer, including the top tryscorer markets!

Which means that first up are the Brisbane Broncos, who square off against the Rabbitohs in the season opener, and who will be looking to make good on early odds of $1.80, ahead of the $2.00 we’re currently seeing for the Souths on Sportsbet. One of the things in their favour is likely to be an ability to create tries from more than one source, and that’s reflected in the NRL odds for their top tryscorer – on the shortest odds, $4.00 as they stand at the moment, you’ve got your choice of three men, and they’re all going to be right in the running (barring extended time on the sidelines, of course).

The first of them is Daniel Vidot, who last season was right up amongst the players with the most metres made to their name. The Broncos used him as a battering ram last year, and he made a good one, to his credit, but the buzz coming from the training camp is that he’s looking leaner and quicker, which could translate into more tries for him in 2015. With him on odds of $4.00 are new star signing Anthony Milford and speedster Dale Copley. Copley is a man who is growing into his Broncos shirt with every season, and his game is sharpening at the same time. Milford, meanwhile, will be under a degree of pressure to deliver, but should benefit from a fruitful partnership with the impressive Ben Hunt.

Those three are on the same odds of $21.00 to be the league’s top tryscorer, too, in case you were wondering, and you’d think that if that trio can find try-scoring form, then the Broncos are going to be more than a handful!

So with the season creeping closer – you only have to wait for March 5th for the first clash, between the Broncos and the Rabbitohs – we’re starting to take a closer look at the markets on offer at our favourite online betting sites. Some of our favourites are the markets for the players who chalk up the most tries, both in their respective teams and in the whole competition. So what we’ll be doing over the next few weeks is bringing you a closer look at the NRL odds, plucked hot off the press (well, off Sportsbet, at any rate), and we’ll be going into more detail for each of the players we think will be right in the running for the top tryscorer prizes.

The beauty of the markets that let you pick the top tryscorer for each team (aside from letting you back your favourite players at your favourite franchise) is that no matter how well or badly your side is going on the ladder, they’re still going to have a top tryscorer! For the 2015 season’s top tryscorer, mind you, you’re going to have to take into consideration the volume of tries their side is going to provide over the course of the season, so you’ll want to be looking more closely at the teams you’ve picked to be stronger over the course of the campaign…

Either way, watch this space over the next few weeks, as we’ll be focussing in on those top tryscorer markets, and working hard to find value for you ahead of the new season!

It was the Rabbitohs who took the title in 2015, and it was on the back of an impressive display, you have to say. It’s probably bold to predict that the Souths will go into the new season firing on all cylinders on the strength of a Nines tournament, but there were some very encouraging signs for their fans to relish. They will be the outsiders in their first game – against the Broncos on March 5th – but they look like they will go in with real confidence, too, so that could be worth a look.

Elsewhere in the NRL odds that are waiting for you at the end of the link there, have a bit of a look at the Sharks. Again we caution that the Nines aren’t necessarily the most reliable guide, but again there were encouraging signs of good things to come from Cronulla. The Sharks are a $21.00 bet to make 2015 a winning year, and that’s probably ambitious even for their more dedicated fans, but they will want to make gains in the coming season, and the Nines were a step in the right direction…

There was criticism from no shortage of directions last year for the Dragons front men, and their bulk is still being questioned as we head towards the start of the 2015 campaign. The word from inside the camp, though, is bullish. Here’s Gareth Widdop: ‘our forwards probably copped a bit of flak last year. I know for a fact it probably hurts them. We have certainly worked really hard on our defence up the middle. They are confident in their ability and I am confident in them as well. If those blokes can put their best foot forward and get a start then we won’t be so small any more. They [the Rabbitohs] are one of the bigger packs in the game and if we can contain them on the weekend then that’s a good stepping stone.’

Josh Dugan agrees, and he was keen to highlight the other aspects that he thinks the Dragons forwards bring to the party, too: ‘everyone says how small we are but I think we are one of the most mobile packs in the game and our forwards can also ball play. I don’t think there isn’t one of them that couldn’t catch and pass or draw and pass if it came down to it. Not everything is a negative.’

Time will tell, of course, but we’ve got all the NRL odds for this one waiting for you. The Rabbitohs go in as favourites, with odds of $1.50, but if the Dragons can beat odds of $2.60 and win it, the critics will be quieter for a week or two…

The next game on our radar is the Charity Shield clash between the Rabbitohs and the Dragons, and it’s set to be an intriguing encounter for more than a few reasons. We’ll be talking elsewhere in these pages about the Dragons forwards and the challenges they’ll be squaring up to this year, and the attitude they’ll need in approaching that stiff challenge – the Charity Shield is the first taste of how they’ll get on. It’s a good chance to see a couple of the key teams in the 2015 title race in action – and not in the Nines format, but with full sides out and with pre-season bragging rights on offer. This is likely to be more of a genuine test for both teams, and will give us something to consider when we’re assessing those NRL odds. Look out for Alex Johnston, Glenn Stewart, and Tim Grant, whose performances will be closely scrutinised, as well as Benji Marshall and young Euan Aitken. All of those guys are going to be worth watching.

And spare a thought for the referees. There will be, under new guidelines, ten officials at the Charity Shield game, and we’re as curious as anyone else to see how they get on. Here’s hoping that they don’t have too much of a say in the result, which, in case you were wondering, is more likely (say the bookies) to go to the Rabbitohs: they’re seeing odds of $1.50 where it’s $2.60 for a Dragons win on Sportsbet right now…

Lots of the talk ahead of the Auckland Nines has been about the coaches and their concerns about hard surfaces in New Zealand (where there’s soon to be a Cricket World Cup, you might have heard), and over the potential injuries that might come from them – obviously the last thing any of the franchises need is key players warming the physio table before the 2015 season even starts! But there has to be lots to be said for the initial momentum that’s to be had from a positive – and especially from a winning – Nines campaign, and the Warriors at least seem to be seeing it that way. Looking at the NRL odds we’ve got for you, it’s the ‘home’ team that will go in as the favourites at odds of $4.00, and rightly so when you look at the star quality they’re going to bring with them. Behind them it’s last year’s winners the Cowboys, who are a $9.00 bet, and then there’s a host of the teams that the bookies are understandably not sure about.

Which could be where the value is in the 2015 Auckland Nines. The Panthers, for instance, will be protecting their star players by not committing them to the tournament, but they will be sending some exciting new talent to Auckland. They’re a $21.00 bet to storm to victory, but there’s really no telling what the young guns can do in a free-flowing format, especially when the pressure will be completely off them, and very much on the more established, big-name players. Check out the NRL odds for the tournament and beyond, and see if you like the look of any of the bets on offer…

There will be plenty of expectation, then, that the Warriors can make a success of what amounts to a home tournament for them – and we like the attitude that their coach Andrew McFadden has taken to the selection of the squad for the tournament, with a number of key players set to make an appearance. It’s especially good to see when you take into account the cautious approach by some other franchises to the season-opener (mentioning no names, but don’t expect to see a strong Panthers outfit take the field). Shaun Johnson will skipper the Warriors side in the Nines, but he’ll be well supported by club captain Simon Mannering, Manu Vatuvei, Sam Tomkins, Ben Matulino and Nathan Friend, who will all be on hand to lend star quality to the line-up. We’re excited to see all those high-quality Warriors in action ahead of the regular season – we’re hoping it’ll give us an impression of how they’ll go in the 2015 campaign. They reached the Semi-Finals of the Nines last year, but finished outside the finals berths – they will be hoping for a better return from their efforts in 2015, and we like the way they’ve chosen to approach the Nines. With some momentum from a strong Nines showing at the start of the year they might be good value at NRL odds of $1.75 to be playing finals Rugby at the end of the season…

Most vocal about the risk to his players ahead of the regular season has been Panthers coach Ivan Cleary, who saw the injury toll last year, and is a worried man: ‘yes, I am concerned about more injuries. We’ve done our own research – because we haven’t got any back from the NRL – and based on last year we have found the game is 35 per cent faster. It’s played on a cricket oval, which is prepared for cricket, so it’s rock hard. It’s a very fast, very hard surface. It’s two weeks earlier this year. Last year, it was five weeks after the New Year break. We’re not going to risk rep players. The players who have played in the Four Nations, just through sheer lack of time, won’t be playing.’ Which is exactly what the NRL don’t want in their season-opening spectacular, of course. You can see what we mean about the effect that will have on the NRL odds for the Panthers if their key players are on ice for the tournament – are they worth $9.00 in that case?

But Cleary could be worrying about nothing, of course. The Turf Manager at Eden Park, Blair Christiansen, thinks he’s got nothing to fear: ‘we had the ODI last weekend and there’s a two-week gap between cricket and the Nines and that’s an ample time to turn it around from one code to another. We’ll bring the grass height up to double what it is for the cricket, so there is no way it’s going to resemble a cricket ground, people will be surprised that there was cricket here two weeks ago. In terms of surface firmness, it’s going to be comparable with what people would see at an early season Super Rugby game.’