31st July 2019
Get out of Gaol
What a crazy game. Souths were crusing along looking like they were going to win by a good margin. But Reynolds was having a off day with the boot and Souths were not able to seal the game. Then the Dragons got a run and scored 14 points in 10 minutes and suddenly the team was 2 points down and less than a minute to go. Then in a final desperate play we got the ball back off the kickoff and scored with 2 seconds on the clock to win the game. Some work to do, as we cannot allow teams to almost snatch the mtch away from us. Still 1 more win to qualify for the semis.
Tom Burgess returns
It was a welcome sign when the first of the Burgess brothers made his return on the weekend. Immediately you saw his size impact in the middle of the field as he took pressure off our smaller forwards and returned the team to a solid go forward.
Reserves On Top
The success of our return to Reserve GRde continues with another good come from behind win. The team did their best to stay in the game against a strong wind and then in the second half turn the match around on the back of 3 tries before Taaffe landed the winning fieldgoal. The win now takes Souths to the top of the Reserve Grade table and secured a finals appearance.
Ilias finding his feet
Ilias continues to do his job in the halves and has become a vital member of our U20s team. It was another 13 points after he scored the match sealing try. The team had a vital win on the run into the finals, moving into the Top 4 but still with a lot of work to do.
MRC Accountability Missing
At the moment the Match Review Committee decide on punishments and grading. They also decide on who gets off. They have a big say on the outcome of future games. A few years ago there was a perception that there wasn't enough football knowledge in the rulings, so they put former players in control. They currently have three ex-footballers reviewing match incidents. They can miss incidents or make judgements that are not consistent from week to week, or at times there is a feeling of players or teams being treated differently. In recent weeks there has been a huge public outcry around inconsitency. One concern is they lack of accountability and the lack of referee involvement. Its important to fix the MRC process and introduce accountability. I would like to see the following -
Within the match review
Then after the review, a manager layer accountability review of the MRC charge sheet. Finally the MRC charge sheet is made available to the fans along with lower grade charges at NSWRL and QRL level.
Round 19 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was very good game. Completion improved to 83% from 76% last week. Errors improved to 10 from 11 last week. We gave away 4 penalties from 6 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a very good level of 23.5m from 35.8m last week. Our missed tackles was steady at a very good level of 17 missed tackles again this week. Opposition offloads dropped to 8 from 7 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Graham-Burns-Walker-Sutton/Lowe (1-4-2-0) dropped to 7 from 3 missed tackles last week. On the right side Gagai-Roberts-Reynolds-Lowe/Su'A (1-2-0-1) was improved to 4 from 5 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence Tatola/Nicholls-Cook-TBurgess/Britt-Murray/Turner (1-0-2-1) improved to 4 from 9 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward improved to 1814m from 1513m last week. Tatola and Roberts made 10+m per run. Tatola, Tom Burgess, Murray, Su'A, Doueihi, Gagai, Walker, Roberts, Burns and Graham making 100+m in the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 39 tackles. Tatola, Cook, Sutton, Murray, Su'A and Reynolds didn't miss a tackle.
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