THE American who said "Nice guys finish last" was misquoted.

What New York Giants manager Leo Durocher really said was: "The nice guys over there are in seventh place."

In the NRL, seventh place can be a nice place. It's good enough to make the play-offs, and in the short history of the NRL, the seventh-placed team has beaten the second-placed team in the first weekend of the play-offs and sixth has triumphed over third, as many times as the reverse has occurred.

The Cowboys reasoned seventh would be a nice place for the Dogs.

Coach Graham Murray considered resting a number of players from his final-round match against the Bulldogs, including dynamic duo Johnathan Thurston and Matt Bowen, because a loss could not affect his team's third-place finish.

Murray was concerned, however, that a defeat with a depleted team could turn into a nightmare. Apart from the damage to morale, unfocused players run a greater risk of injury, and the Cowboys couldn't afford any more players on the sideline.

The dilemma was solved when Thurston stood up at a team meeting and insisted he play.

"Myself and the coaching staff were adamant he not play but when he said, 'I want to play, I'm the captain and it's my mate's [centre Paul Bowman's] 200th,' it was settled," Murray said.

Some of Murray's assistants were relieved, reasoning that a victory over the Bulldogs would push the Sydney club to seventh where they would meet Manly in the play-offs.

The Cowboys believed the Bulldogs would beat Manly, handing them a week's rest and a home grand final qualifier, also in Townsville, provided they overcame the sixth-placed team.

Murray admitted the Bulldogs beating Manly was a major factor in the Cowboys' thinking.

"The Bulldogs have the talent to make it hard for anyone," he said.

Thurston and his men delivered on the plan by beating the Bulldogs but everything went pear-shaped when Wests Tigers were beaten by Newcastle on Friday night.

Suddenly, Souths were guaranteed a place in the top eight.

The Rabbitohs took this "mission accomplished" attitude into the Roosters match on Saturday night and were beaten.

Souths, expected to finish sixth, were now seventh and the Bulldogs, whom the Cowboys calculated would be seventh, were sixth.

The Cowboys' hopes of a second play-off match in Townsville now depend on Souths beating Manly, or on Brisbane, who finished eighth, beating minor premiers Melbourne.

Last month, Storm coach Craig Bellamy predicted his team would play Brisbane in the first play-off weekend. This prophecy came after a close contest between last year's grand finalists at Olympic Park.

By last Friday, however, Bellamy had changed his mind and calculated Wests Tigers would finish eighth.

"I spent five hours' work on Wests Tigers on Friday afternoon," he lamented. "It ended up being wasted."

Roosters coach Brad Fittler was similarly duped. Early last week, when asked how he thought his team would fare against Souths, he was uncertain.

"The Rabbitohs have too much to play for," he said, referring to their possible return to the play-offs after years of futility.

But the Wests Tigers' loss guaranteed them that place, and the Roosters gave their new coach an unexpected victory.

Souths demonstrated two weeks ago they could beat Manly when they won a Monday night match at Telstra Stadium.

Saturday night's match is at Brookvale Oval, but the Sea Eagles could be without their best defensive forward, Brent Kite.

The Storm should account for a dispirited Broncos team likely to be missing their most dangerous player, Justin Hodges.

But the margins in the past six matches between these two clubs have been very close.

The Bulldogs would have learnt from their loss to the Cowboys and will be desperate to redeem themselves.

Fifth-placed Parramatta must fly across the Tasman and play the fourth-placed Warriors on Friday night, only five days after a riot against Brisbane. Fifth place may turn out to be not as nice a place as sixth, seventh or eighth.

Of the bottom three teams, only the Broncos, with an 11 win and 13 loss record, could be called losers.

Murray doesn't believe the Bulldogs are losers, saying, "We're in combat again after a week with a team which has Origin players all over the park."

No one has ever described the Bulldogs as nice but they could be in a nice position.