22nd August 2018
We headed up to Brisbane with a spare parts backline and it didn't take long for master coach Wayne Bennett to expose our backline weakness. That was our 7th loss on the trot against Brisbane and it will important for us to reverse this trent,and stop Oates. It was simple ploy of drawing a few across the field and then spinning the ball back wide caused Souths backline huge issues We are still a shot for the Top 2 but also in danger of missing the Top 4 after the last two losses. We still need 1 more win for a Top 4 finish.
Welcome back GI, AJ and Graham
There was a huge sigh of releive when the team list was read out ths week with the return of 3 of our 4 backline players who have on the sidelines. It is great to see GI, AJ and Graham mending, lets just hope they aren't being rushed back as a reaction to last week.
Bears miss another Top 8 opportunity
Bears had a perfect opportunity to move into the Top 8 and but were beaten convincingly. Its now the last round round where they need a few results to go their way and win their last game to sneak into 8th. So its now do or die and hope for the best.
Hawkins and Tracey a shinning light
The young Hawkins and Tracey have formed a good combination. Hawkins continues to impress in his step up from U20s, while Tracey has been a standout in his first year back from a few bad knee injuries. It will be interesting to see how they progress across the off season. They will be then ready to start challenging for a first grade position.
Contract Deadline needs to apply to Coaches too
Nov 1 deadline has caused quite a stir this year. On Nov 1 2018 clubs can starting signing players for season 2020. What this has done is caised a issue as clubs like Brisbane, Souths, Penrith and Wests-Tigers, Manly and St George all not having coaches locked in yet for 2020, starting a coaching nehotiation frenzy s far out from the 2020 season, as players want to know who their coach will be. You need to either align coaching appointments with the Nov 1 deadline or fix the Nov 1 2018 deadline by moving back to something like August 1 2019.
Round 23 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a poor game as dropped ball s and missed tackles took their toll. Completion dropped to 74% from 78% last week. Errors were steady again at 10 this week. We gave away 6 penalties down from 7 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle dropped to a average level of 33.4m from 28.7m last week. Our missed tackles dropped and still in a very poor level of 39 missed tackles from 36 last week. Opposition offloads increased to 9 from 7 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Hunt-Burns-Walker-Sutton (1-2-3-3) was dropped to 9 from 3 missed tackles last week. On the right side Kennar/Hiroti-Fuimaono-Reynolds-Crichton (0-5-5-2) was was steady at 12 missed tackles again this week week. Ruck defence TBurgess/Tatola-Cook-GBurgess/Clark-SBurgess/Murray (5-3-2-5) was was steady at 15 missed tackles again this week.
Our go forward dropped to 1489m from 1651m last week. George Burgess, Tom Burgess, Sam Burgess and Burns made 10+m per run. George Burgess, Crichton, Sam Burgess, Clark, Gagai, Burns and Kennar making 100+m in the match. With Gagai topping 200+m. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 40 tackles. Clark, Kennar and Hiroti didn't miss a tackle.