2025 - The Cyber View from the Hill

18th Jun 2025

Lightning Halts Game

In a first for South Sydney, play was suspended for 29 minutes due to lightning over the venue. After a horror start, the rain came down heavy before then game was suspended, when lightning came across the ground. It allowed South Sydney time to regroup. After a horror start 18 nil down, Bennett allowed the team to manage themselves out of their predicament. The silent treatment is a habit he has after he is not happy with their performance. The tactic worked as the team came out after the break and fought their way back into the game. In the end we lost on goal kicking at 4 tries a piece. But once again the team needs to learn to play for 80 minutes to compete with the top teams. We now play the Storm at home in another Top 4 team clash. Bellamy the current STorm coach has the wood over Bennett winning his last 14 games. Still 8 more wins to make the finals.

Ryan Gray gets his chance

After a year and a half and a injury cisis Ryan Gray got his chance. No relation to Jye Gray or brothers Aaron and Brock Gray, he is the current resrve grade captain and is a tall hooker who plays half of his game at lock. He has a good kicking game, including a goal line short kicking game. A late bloomer he gets his chance during our injry crisis. Best of luck.

O'Kane double

Henry O'Kane our Scotish international, had a impressive game on the weekend scoring a double. He is a versitile forward who can fill in centre and normally a second rower had a very strong game at lock on the weekend. While it has taken a while for him to get going in South Sydney colours, he has been steadily improving over the last few months. He may have finally found his spot.

Alvarez, Samuel, Logan and Mathews senior debuts

A number of our U19 squad stepped up on the wekedn to make their senior debuts. Alvarez a fleet footed five-eighth stamped his mark on the game with some quality play. Samuel a right side second rower also stepped up. A strong running and tackler withe good size will be one to watch. Our big U19s prop Johannes Logan also got a sniff of senior grade from bench. And our other U19s second rower Karangi Mathews got his chance. Throw in other U19s players Poynton who scored a double, Fong, Lua, Tovio and Humphries and we had the neuclus of Flegg team going into 2026.

Ring my Bell

The club will launch this week a new tradition, the ringing of the timekeepers bell. It is a way to honour a past player and at some atmosphere to the start of the match. In 2002 the original timekeepers bell was rung, when we returned. It was rung again when we entered the field for the 2014 and 2021 grand finals. Looking forward to seeing the new bell it in action on the weekend, with hundreds of replica bells also ringing.

Round 15 - Stat Attack

Statistically it was a average game. Completions improved to 88% from 72% last week. Errors improved to 7 from 11 last week. We gave away 4 penalties and 2 6-again calls from 7 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle dropped to a average level of 33.8m from 30.8m last week. Our missed tackles improved to a average level of 32 from 37 last week. Opposition offloads dropped to 16 from 5 last week.

Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Wighton-Humphreys-Duncan (1-2-2-1) was steady at 6 missed tackles again this week. On the right side Munro-Tass-Sullivan-Aitken (4-1-4-2) improved to 11 from 14 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence Arrow/Tatola-Havili/RGray-Koloamatangi/Moale-Hubner/Koloamatangi/LeBlanc (3-2-4-6) dropped to 15 from 14 missed tackles last week.

Our go forward dropped to 1248m from 1468m last week. Our worst all season. With our props go forward dropped to a poor level of 384m compared to 457m last week. Le Blanc made 10+m per run. Koloamatangi, Duncan, Munro, JGray, Johnston and Wighton made 100+m in the match. Defensively Arrow was our best in the tackling raking up 44 tackles. JGray didn't miss a tackle.

News This Week

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Round 16 Preview

Recent 2025 Form - South Sydney (14th)

Rd13  Warriors   StAu L 30-36
Rd14  Canberra   Bruc L 12-36
Rd15  Canterbury StAu L 18-24

Recent 2025 Form - Melbourne (4th)

Rd13  Gold Coast Robi W 28-16
Rd14  Nth Qld    MRSt W 38-14
Rd15  BYE

Recent South Sydney v Melbourne Results

2023 Rd05  StAu L 10-18 11,239 T.Smith
2023 Rd10  LngS W 28-12 50,183 A.Gee
2024 Rd08  MRSt L 20-54 25,149 T.Smith
2024 Rd23  StAu L 16-28  8,973 T.Smith
2025 Rd08  MRSt L 16-24 26,010 P.Gough

Recent Referee Performance - Peter Gough

First Grade                                            Pe    6A   SB OR SO
2025 Pre01 Manly      Gosf L 24-34  5,679 Referee      4-5   5-5   -  -  - :
2025 Rd08  Melbourne  MRSt L 16-24 26,010 Referee      6-4   5-7   1  1  - :
2025 Rd10  Brisbane   StAu W 22-14 13,747 Referee      6-7   3-4   -  -  - :

              M   W  D   L      : PeW PeD PeL PeF PeA      : 6AW 6AD 6AL 6AF 6AA      : SB OR SO
v Melbourne   1   -  -   1   0% :   1   -   -   6   4  60% :   -   -   1   5   7  42% :  1  1  -

Selected Round 16 teams

Signing off for another week - the midweek Cyber View from the Hill


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