Once again Souths failed to perform after a 5 day turnaround. In a tough contest in the wet the Manly forwards dominated our pack. Our pack seemed small against last years premiers.

Issac returned from suspension this week but did not have impact in a tough battle up the middle.

The Bears qualified for teh semifinals this week after playing out a wet weather draw at NSO. Asotasi getting a second run with the Bears.

As we look forward with the new ARLC we need to revist the competition structure. We should expand to 18 teams with 25 rounds this will allow two conference of 9 teams where there would be a Sydney based conference and a Regional based conference. Teams within their conference would play twice and opposite conference once. This allowing all teams to play home and away over two years.

Souths was without Inglis again tonight. This was our first Top 4 match in ten weeks on a 5 day turnaround. Souths forwards did not have enough go forward today recording their 2nd lowest meters gained for the season. Also out completition rate was not up to standard with a low 69%. Manly scoring 3 tries from set plays just like the Dragons did a few weeks ago is a worry. As is teh lack of penitration in attack. Effective 1st tackles was steady again at 31.1m this week.

Looking at our left side defence - Hunt-King-Sutton-McQueen (1-6-2-0) dropped to 9 from 4 missed tackles last week with Lyons showing up King many times. On the right side Everingham-Farrell-Reynolds-Taylor (4-3-0-2) also dropped to 9 from 7 last week. With Manly scoring 3 tries from the same set play around Tony Williams but spinning the ball out wide.

On the positive side our defense up the middle was much better this week. But our go forward was poor with Sam Burgess and Taylor cracking the 100+m. Defensively Sam Burgess was our best in the tackling raking up 32 tackles. With Luke & Sam Burgess, McQueen, Pettybourne and Reynolds not missing a tackle.