21st June 2017
After a very poor start once again, sound produced a much higher quality second half. Winning the second half 26 nil. A mix of experiance and youth was the key factor in turning the game around. Sutton, Goodwin and Farah stepped up and guided the team while the new boys did the rest. A setp in right direction but its 8 more wins required from 10 matches to make the finals.
The rugby league world stood back and watched in wonder at the emrgance of a new champion in Angus Crichton. His hatrick of tries from side step to tackle beaks and speed off the mark helped lift Souths back into the game. Already the media is speculating on himbeing a future SOO player.
Congratulations to Alex Johnston who has notched up his 10th try for the season. Thats is the 4th year in succession he has acheved that feat, since his first grade debut.
It was a critical 4 point game against 8th place Gold Coast who were 4 points ahead of us. But the boys came from behind to nail thier 5 win win a row and are now just 2 points out of teh 8, after thier slow start to the season.
There has been so much talk of players and clubs in the funding breakup, but we need to keep focus on what matters long term, and that is grassroots. Not State Cups but the layers below this. In Victoria there ahs been a good move in to increase funding for the Victorian RL with state teams playing in the U16 and U18 in the QRL junior system. We need to invest similar moneys in the other states South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory so they too can play in NSW or Queensland junior systems at U16, U18 and U20 levels. Supported by state based structures. Tasmania however will require a complete rebuild.
Round 15 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a ambismal first 20 minutes followed by a good performance for the rest of the match. Completion rates improved but were still to a poor level of 73% from 80% last week. Errors were dropped to 13 from 10 last week. We gave away 6 penalities again this week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved into a average level of 33.6m from 35.0m last week. But the first half performance of 43.6m was the third worst for the season on the back of a abissmal 71.3m for the first 20 minutes. Our missed tackles improved to a good level of 21 missed tackles from 26 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 8 from 17 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Goodwin-Sutton-TFuimaono (1-0-0-1) improved to 2 from 7 last week. On the right side Burns-HHunt-Reynolds-Crichton (0-1-0-2) was improved to 3 from 9 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence GBurgess/Musgrove-Farah/Cook-TBurgess/Cherrington-Turner/Clark (3-2-5-3) dropped to 13 from 9 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward this week improved to 1644m from 1379m. Second best all year. Crichton, Musgrove, Tyrell Fuimaono, Cherrington, Cook, Farah, George Burgess made 10+m per run. Crichton, Musgrove, Tyrell Fuimaono, Burns, Johnston, Sutton and Walker making 100+m in the match. With Crichton making 200+m for the match. Defensively Tyrell Fuimaono was our best in the tackling raking up 30 tackles. Cook, George Burgess, Sutton, Reynolds, Goodwin and Burns not missing a tackle.