{"id":790641,"date":"2026-07-10T04:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790641\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T04:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:27:16","slug":"nrl-tips-round-19-2026-expert-footy-predictions-andrew-johns-brad-fittler-and-nine-experts-pick-their-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790641\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL Tips Round 19 2026 Expert Footy Predictions: Andrew Johns, Brad Fittler and Nine experts pick their winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brought to you by<\/p>\n

A season of promise for the Wests Tigers<\/a> hasn\u2019t just fallen off a cliff, the club is in freefall as though it\u2019s \u201cfallen out of a plane\u201d, says Andrew Johns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Wide World of Sports\u2019 NRL Tips<\/a> before Thursday afternoon\u2019s bombshell Jahrome Luai news dropped<\/a>, Johns expressed dismay at how poorly the Tigers have been playing in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Jarome<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai will leave the TIgers at the end of the season.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He said he expected the Warriors<\/a> to add insult to injury to kick off round 19 on Friday night<\/a>, while Brad Fittler<\/a> was horrified by the new season low he saw from Benji Marshall\u2019s side against the Dragons<\/a> on Saturday, when they lost 24-10 to a team anchored to the bottom of the ladder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alarmingly Fittler suggested the Tigers only escaped a thrashing because of the performances of just two players.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir loss last week, oooft,\u201d Fittler said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for Adam Doueihi and Jahream (Bula) it would have been a bad score.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five days after the devastating loss it emerged that Luai would not be hanging around to see out the remainder of his contract next season, with the classy playmaker back on the market for a one-year deal for 2027 before joining the PNG Chiefs<\/a> for their inaugural season in 2028.<\/p>\n

Many believe Luai\u2019s decision to trigger an exit clause so he could join the Chiefs was the catalyst for a downward spiral at the Tigers. They have gone from being a genuine top four chance when their star half jumped on a plane to Port Moresby to being well out of the eight and going backwards nine weeks later.<\/p>\n

Their record since Luai signed with the Chiefs is 2-6. It\u2019s hard to see the latest twist in the $1.2 million a season star\u2019s future being a morale boost, so things could be about to get nasty.<\/p>\n

Despite the gathering storm clouds, star fullback Bula, who recommitted to the club long-term in May, said they just needed one confidence boosting victory to turn things around.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you lose a few, you probably lose a bit of confidence, but in my opinion, confidence comes from doing the hard parts of the game well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we can do it because we\u2019ve seen it (earlier in the season), so that\u2019s where you get the belief from.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes one game to find confidence; it takes one play to find confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jahream Bula.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Scroll below for round 19 tips by all Nine\u2019s expert tipsters!<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns: Warriors, \u00a0Sharks, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Cowboys, Storm\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brad Fittler: Warriors, Dolphins, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Sea Eagles, Storm<\/p>\n

David Middleton: Warriors, Dolphins, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Sea Eagles, Storm<\/p>\n

Paul Gallen: Warriors, Sharks, Bulldogs, Roosters, Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles, Storm<\/p>\n

Ruan Sims: Warriors, Sharks, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Sea Eagles, Storm<\/p>\n

Mat Thompson: Warriors, Sharks, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Sea Eagles, Storm\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peter Psaltis: Warriors, Dolphins, Bulldogs, Roosters, Rabbitohs, Cowboys, Storm<\/p>\n

Billy Slater: Warriors, Dolphins, Raiders, Roosters, Rabbitohs, Cowboys, Storm<\/p>\n

Johnathan Thurston: Warriors, Dolphins, Bulldogs, Knights, Cowboys, Storm<\/p>\n

The Mole: Warriors, Dolphins, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Sea Eagles, Storm<\/p>\n

Ben Glover: Warriors, Dolphins, Bulldogs, Roosters, Knights, Sea Eagles, Storm<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brought to you by A season of promise for the Wests Tigers hasn\u2019t just fallen off a cliff,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-790641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}