2025 - The Cyber View from the Hill

19th Feb 2025

Juniors Best start in 44 years

What a start to our Junior Representatives for 2025. We are 3 from 3 in both U19s SG Ball Cup and U17s Matthews Cup. Its is our best start to a season in 44 years, when in 1981 we started our season with 4 from 4 in the junior grades. There is a lot to like about these squads. They are only a third of the way through their season proper and a lot of hard work still to be done.

First Hit Out

Up in Gosford it was our first hit out of the year. Our fringe players got a chance to dust off some cob webs. With so many new faces, cohesion as a team was always going to be a issue, as Bennett watched on as Hornby ran the show. The game still had a 2024 feel before a late flurry of 3 tries made the scoreline respectable. It was a signifcant improvement on the same game last year, but we still have a long way to go. Now off to Mudgee for the annual Charity Shield, where most of main squad will return for their first hit out of the year.

Shaq captaincy honour

What a honour for big Shaq Mitchell as he led out the Australian Indigenous team. A very proud indigenous man, he had one of his best games, leading by example, and scored a try to through his power up the middle. Looking forward to him bringing that energy into the NRL.

Ward great Debut

A late inclusion, it was Ashton Ward who was a stand out player for South Sydney in the first trial. He was dangerous everytime he got the ball in his hands as five-eighth, either through his running game or his short kicking game. One of his try saving cover tackles was a highlight of the match too. He has a bright future and will most likely start in U21s this year.

Cody Hill hatrick

In a tough contest out wide, it was the Cody Hill show up the middle, as he scored a hatrick of tries. Two from dummy half eyes up football and a third backing up from a break behind the ruck. His defence is also a feature of his game. Another player with a big future.

Bateup double

In another very tough game down in Camden in the U17s it was Charlie Bateup who helped turn the match with his energy off the bench. First he scored a eyes up dummy half try. Then a great chargedown effort saw him run 50 metres to score. Another notable performance is a strong team effort, as they move into the competition lead.

Medical Gameday Coverage Needs to Improve

It was 30 miutes before kickoff when patron, suffered a medical emergency. Firstly everyone hopes the patron has a full recovery. It seems that the game day medical staff were called in to treat urgent situation and had to leave with the patron to the nearby hospital. What this did however is leave no mediacl team or ambulance at the ground for the players, and as such the game was delayed for 1 hour and 40 minutes. With please for someone in the crowd with a medical background to come forward after a replacement ambulance team were not able to be called in. We may need to review medical protocols for gameday events, not just having to deal with game day requirements but also patron requirements going forward. This isn't a unique situation, but there will be some backup planning lessons to be learnt out of this.

Pre-Season Round 1 - Stat Attack

Statistically it was a poor game. Completions dropped to 75% from 77% last year Errors dropped to 12 from 7 last year We gave away 5 penalties and 5 6-again call from 13 last year Souths Effective 1st tackle was dropped to a poor level of 37.1m from 34.4m last year. Our missed tackles improved to a good level of 29 from 35 last year Opposition offloads improved to 9 from 13 last year.

Looking at our left side defence - Penitani/Lehmann-Casey/Lehmann-Ward/Dodd-McCarthy/Webley (3-2-1-2) improved to 8 from 10 missed tackles last year. On the right side Myers/BentleyHape/Kaho-Tass/BentleyHape-Dodd/Humphries-Fletcher/Taua/LeBlanc (2-5-3-1) was steady at 11 missed tackles this week. Ruck defence Keppie/LeBlanc/Stuckey-Mamouzelos/RGray-Moale/Ataata-Hubner/Havili/LeBlanc (2-2-1-4) improved to 9 from 14 missed tackles last year.

Our go forward dropped to 1353m from 1453m last year With our props made a good 436m compared to 340m last year Webley, Stuckey and Casey made 10+m per run. Keppie, Moale and JGray made 100+m in the match. Defensively Mamouzelos was our best in the tackling raking up 36 tackles. Moale, Fletcher, R.Gray, Dodd, Taua, Stuckey and Myers didn't miss a tackle.

News This Week