1st April 2015
After 15 games undefeated the bubble has burst and Souths went down in a tight contest against Parramatta. We dropped crutial ball as the boys just looked tired with the 5 day turnaround. Now for the Grand Final replay against the Bulldogs.
Its two weeks in a row and Nathan Brown has been 18th man. Not long now before he gets his opportunity.
A great solo effort by John Olive in the last 10 seconds of the game resulted in a last minute try that almost stole a draw in the U20s. Australian Schoolboy Olive has speed to burn and looks to have a great future.
After a slow start our U18 boys have rallied after he bye week with two wins and have snuck back into the top 8.
Now that things have settled and we are seeing the benefits of the NRL getting a grant that matches the Salary Cap, we now need to assist the 2nd Tier by establishing a grant structure for them. It is important to provide extra funding for teams who will need to travel more than other teams. The Grant for the two 2nd Tier Leagues the NSW Cup and QLD Cup needs to be around $500K with $125K extra for regional teams.
Statistically Round 4 on a 5 day turnaround were very poor by Souths standards. Completion rates were steady at 77% this week. Errors were still in the poor range at 14 from 16 last week. We gave away once again 9 penalities this week. Souths Effective 1st tackle for the match dropped significantly at 40.2 from 30.9m last week. We missed 20 tackles which is in the good range but allowed a poor 13 opposition offloads.
Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Goodwin-Keary-McQueen (1-2-4-2) increased this week to 9 from 5 missed tackles last week. On the right side Reddy-Millard-Reynolds-Stewart (1-2-1-2) increased to 6 from 3 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward was horendous at only 996m this week. Our worst since Rd7 2012. Inglis and Johnston lead the way in making 10+m per hitup. With Tom Burgess and Luke making more that 100+m in the match. Defensively Stewart was our best in the tackling raking up 43 tackles. With Luke, Tyrrell, Grant, McInnes, Grevsmuhl, Tom Burgess and Lowe not missing a tackle.
Signing off for another week - the midweek Cyber View from the Hill