2nd August 2017
Errors continue to be our issue all season. We are not able to build pessure on the opposition and then allow easy tries in when our heads drop. But the reality is that we are now out of the running for the finals after that loss.
After spending second fiddle for most of the year to SOO hooker Robbie Farah, NSW Country hooker Damien Cook is getting is chance again at hooker. While a good dummy half runner, he needs to work on his passing game.
In what must be a first Campbell Graham has been selected in all 3 grades this week. He will be a busy boy this week as he prepares for his HSC trials.
Rewiti has been a shining light since he stepped up from U18s. He has now notched up 10 tries in 10 games. He is good under the high ball, fast and strong leg drive. He is still very young and one to watch.
We are 5 weeks from the end of the season and we still have not confirmed the 2018 Salary Cap, but some detail is emerging. Clubs received letters to work with a $9.2 million salary cap. But we are firming up on some of the other detail, $100k minimum wage for players for the Top26 players. And a second tier minimum wage of $70k for players 27-30. With the remaining "development list" 6 players being on a $60k minimum wage. There is also a proposed requirement that clubs must contract 21 players by November 1 and 29 players by March 1.
Round 21 - Stat Attack
Statistically another poor effort on the back of poor completions. Completion rates dropped to a poor level of 70% from 82% last week. Errors were increased to 14 from 8 last week. Second worst for the 4th time this season. We gave away 9 penalities again this week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a very poor level of 40.8m from 46.8m last week. With the first half being our worst all year. Our missed tackles dropped to a very poor level of 36 missed tackles from 29 last week. Opposition offloads increased to 12 from 9 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Goodwin-TFuimaono-Walker-Sutton (1-1-3-3) dropped to 8 from 3 missed tackles last week. On the right side Jennings-HHunt-Reynolds-Crichton (5-4-2-0) was dropped to 11 from 4 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/GBurgess-Cook/Farah-Tyrrell/Turner-SBurgess/Murray (2-5-5-2) was improved to 14 from 21 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward this week improved to 1499m from 1278m. Sam Burgess, George Burgess, Tyrrell, Goodwin and Jennings made 10+m per run. Crichton, George Burgess, Sam Burgess, Tom Burgess, Goodwin, Johnston and Fuimaono making 100+m in the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 35 tackles. Only Crichton not missing a tackle.