2019 - The Cyber View from the Hill

8th May 2019

The Goanna's Day Out

What a win. The game was billed as the battle of the ex-coach's but didn't take long before it became the Goanna's Night Out. After a tough opening period Souths stormed home later in the half to dominate the game by half-time. It equalled our biggest winning margin against the Broncos as our defence is starting to become rock solid. While the loss of GI has been a blow Turner is becoming a great fill in. Now for the Magic Weekend and hoping no long term injuries from a chopped up surface at Suncorp. Still 7 more wins to qualify for the semis.

Thank You GI

After the surprise announcement to retire, Souths and their fans paid tribute to the great Greg Inglis after 8 seasons with the club. The match was a tribute night to GI with his wax statue on display, a huge Burrow banner unveiled, lots a face masks, a halftime goanna race and Greg presented to the crowd for one final thank you. His feats on the field will be long remembered. Now to see how he works his magic in our coaching staff.

Hiroti piling up the points

This year Hiroti has taken over the goal kicking duties while Hawkins was injured and just like at junior level he is once again pilling on the points with his accurate goal kicking and scoring tries out wide. He is the leading point scorer across all grades. Maybe a while before Hawkins gets his goal kicking duties back.

Rodwell double act

Ky Rodwell is working hard at the moment between U20s and Reserve Grade. In his 4 games in U20s he has powered his way to 3 tries. He was rewarded on the weekend by being called up into reserve grade on the bench He is a player who should be playing in an U22s layer as the gap between Reserve Grade and U20s is significant at a forwards level.

Girls pile on the points

Our SOO five-eighth returns and we pile on the points against one of the lower placed teams. It's going to be a tough year for the girls as we rebuild but they are holding their own and staying in top 4 contention.

Competition Table without Golden Point

The rugby league fan community continues to grumble about Golden Point, it is time to view the impact is having on Season 2019 So here is the traditional competition table allowing for draws after 80 minutes after round 8.

               W D  L B Diff PT
SOUTHS         7 1  - -  +82 15 (up 1 place)
SYD RSTRS      6 1  1 -  +98 13 (down 1 place)
MELBOURNE      6 1  1 -  +59 13 (up 1 place)
CANBERRA       6 -  2 -  +71 12 (down 1 place )
PARRAMATTA     5 -  3 -  +52 10
MANLY          4 1  3 -  +30  9
WESTS-TIG      4 1  3 -  -25  9 (up 2 places)
CRONULLA       4 -  4 -   -9  8 (down 1 place)
Newcastle      3 1  4 -   -3  7 (up  1 place)
St Geo-Ill     3 1  4 -  -13  7 (down 2 places)
Nth Qld        3 -  5 -  -48  6
Warriors       2 -  6 -  -42  4
Brisbane       2 -  6 -  -43  4
Gold Coast     2 -  6 -  -59  4
Canterbury     2 -  6 -  -82  4 (up 1 place)
Penrith        1 1  6 -  -68  3 (down 1 place)

So Golden Point is already deciding the Minor Premiership, Final 8 and the Wooden Spoon. It continues to be a unfair competition where table positions are being decided after 80 minutes of football. A draw should be a draw.

Round 8 - Stat Attack

Statistically it was a good game. Completion improved to 81% from 75% last week. Errors improved to 10 from 13 last week. We gave away 3 penalties from 6 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a good level of 25.2m from 45.5m last week. Our missed tackles was at a very poor level of 36 missed tackles from 27 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 8 from 11 last week.

Looking at our left side defence - Graham-Turner-Walker-Sutton/Lowe (1-5-3-2) was dropped to 11 from 4 missed tackles last week. On the right side CAllan-Gagai-Reynolds-SBurgess/Lowe (4-7-0-2) was dropped to 13 from 10 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/GBurgess-Cook-Tatola/Nicholls-Murray/SBurgess (2-1-4-2) was improved to 9 from 10 missed tackles last week.

Our go forward improved to 1811m from 1426m last week. Tom Burgess, Tatola, Knight, Graham and Reynolds made 10+m per run. Tom Burgess, Sam Burgess, Tatola, Sutton, Murray, Johnston, Graham, Turner and Gagai making 100+m in the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 47 tackles. Reynolds and Johnston didn't miss a tackle.