Souths had a strong effort against reigning premiers Melbourne but were not good enough in the end. souths started with a poor firts 30 min where we gave away too many early penalties and placed ourselves under pressure. The poor 1st Effective Tackle carried on from the second half last week into our first half this week and was compunded by the error late in the first half by Merritt which resulted in a try just on the break. Souths to their credit played much better in the second half. Now for a week off during the rep weekend.
Bears up to Second
Bears continues their impressive start to the season with another hard fought win over Wyong. They now sit in second place.
U20 off to a slow start
Souths U20 team is off to a slow start to the year winning only 1 out of 5 games. Team will need to start improving else they run the risk of missing out on the finals.
Mixed start to our Junior finals
It was a mised start for our Juniors in teh first week of the finals our U18 team had a big loss in their 2 v 3 hit out while our minor premier U16 had a good win.
ASADA Interview Delays
After completing a legal clarification on the ASADA Interview process, ASADA has delayed the player interviews. The NRL Integrity Unit and CEO David Smith has told ASADA and the Federal Politicians that this is unacceptable and to get the process moving. The way things are progressing the who ASADA process will continue for most of the year.
Round 6 - Stat Attack
In a battle of who would crack first, Souths gifted the Storm early field position on the back of 4 penalties in the first 30 min. Melbourne then pinned us in goal 5 times in this same period. but to Souths credit they only allowed one try in. Completion rates was very good at 85% Effective 1st tackle for the match was poor at 34.8m on the back of a horrid 43.5m in the first half but improved greatly in the second half to 25.6m. 6 errors, 17 missed tackles, 9 opposition offloads indicated we matched it with the Storm and were a improvement on last year. Melbourne attacked us around the ruck.
Looking at our left side defence - Merritt-Goodwin-Sutton-McQueen (0-1-1-1) was great at 3 from to 12 missed tackles. On the right side Everingham-Champion-Reynolds-Teo (2-2-3-1) dropped to 8 from 6 missed tackles.
Our go forward was great this week dropped again to 1327m for the match and our two starting props Tyrrell and Asotasi did not provide enough go forward. George Burgess lead the way in the forwards was the best making 9+m per hitup. With Sam Burgess, Lima and George Burgess making more that 100+m in the match. Defensively Luke was our best in the tackling raking up 38 tackles. With Tyrrell, Asotasi, Lowe and George Burgess not missing a tackle.