17th May 2017
A week off and a team reshuffle and a jersey worn with pride has done wonders. But it was the return of Gray and Hunt over the last few rounds that has allowed our backline defence to settle. This allowed our team to move forward without letting in simple tries out wide. We are two points out of the 8 but in a fight with a large number of other teams. So the equation is now 9 more wins required from 14 matches to make the finals
Our hearts go outto captain Greg Inglis who has been doing it tough off the field while he is recovering from injury and now suffering from depression. It is always tough being in rehab and for a star like Greg even more so.
Another young star Tyrell Fuimaono has made his mark and looked very good in his debut. He will be a star of the future and his ability run stronglins is a featur of his game.
Recently the clubs received a leter toprepare for a $8.3 mil salaray cap going up to $9.1 mil with allowances for 2018. This is a $2.3 mil on 2017 levels. This large increase of 25% is creating a inflated market for players not seen the Super League War of 1995. But while players off contract are seeing the advantages, players under contract are all seeking a pay rise of trying to break contracts. We saw the Tigers torn apart and now Souths are being targeted. So while the NRL fiddles Clubs and Fans are burning while this fiasco continues in a clear cash grab with no plan for the future of the game.
Round 10 - Stat Attack
Statistically a game that started poorly for 20 min and then we tightened the screws in a strong effort. Completion rates improved but were still at a poor level of 73% from 67% last week. Errors were improved to 12 from 15 last week. We gave away 4 penalities down from 5 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved into a good level of 27.7m from 49.5m last week. Our missed tackles improved to a outstanding level of 14 missed tackles from 30 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 6 from 19 last week. Best all year.
Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Goodwin-Sutton-Turner/Fuimaono (3-0-1-2) improved to 6 from 8 last week. On the right side Gray-HHunt-Reynolds-Crichton (0-1-2-0) was improved to 3 from 6 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/Clark-Farah/Cook-Rochow/Cherrington-SBurgess (2-2-0-1) improved to 5 from 14 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward this week improved to 1735m from 1036m. Best all year. Crichton and Turner made 10+m per run. Sam Burgess, Crichton, Tom Burgess, Rochow, Walker, Johnston, Goodwin and Hymel Hunt making 100+m in the match. With Sam Burgess making more than 200+m. Defensively Farah was our best in the tackling raking up 37 tackles. With Rochow, Crichton, Clark, Cherrington, Gray, Goodwin and Walker not missing a tackle.