2020 - The Cyber View from the Hill

1st Jul 2020

Dropped ball killing us

In 2020 post-covid possession has become a bigger issue that ever before. So to see our team continue to struggle in the handling area is a cause for concern with another game lost on the back of errors. The new fatigue factor is having a impact and this is further compounded when we give away a 6 again. Reynolds not kicking out off a penalty quickly followed by the Roberts sin bin for a lazy professional foul put paid to any comeback chance. But the poor pass by Johnston that bommbed a try before halftime meant we didn't stay in the match at a vital time. Its important we take these opportunities, we have lost touch with the Top 4 and we are now in a position where we need to fight tooth and nail to make the top 8. 8 more wins to make the finals.

Knight improving

After a slow start to season 2020, Liam Knight is starting to find form again with his best game so far this season. He looked to be hampered by a injury and concussion early on and this was the firt game he was back to what we know he can achieve. Looking forward to more improvement over the coming weeks.

Johnston surpases Cleary

Congratulations to Alex Johnston who became the South Sydney 6th greatest try scorer on the weekend when he scored his 89th first grade premiership try. He has now passed Mike Cleary on the all time Souths try scorers list. No surprise he also leads our 2020 try scoring tally.

Bankwest Returfed

With the heavy use of the grounds we have seen a steady deterioating of the playing surface first at Campbelltown and now at Bankwest In parrallel we have had return to full match fitness by players. So combining these two factors we have seen a steady increase in leg injuries creaping into the games. Last week our game was relocated from Kogarah, this week was have seen Bankwest move forward a proposed full surface returf by a week. While we are assurred this won't cause further issues it is a concern to player welfare as changing the grass like this is done during breaks.

Round 7 - Stat Attack

Statistically it was a poor game. Completion improved to 77% from 69% last week. Errors improved to 12 from 17 last week. We gave away 8 penalties and 2 6-again calls from 7 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle dropped to a poor level of 38.6m from 32.5m last week. Our missed tackles dropped and still at a good level of 26 from 16 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 7 from 9 last week.

Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Burns-Walker-Lowe (2-2-2-1) was dropped at 7 from 1 missed tackles last week. On the right side DGagai/Graham-Graham/Roberts-Reynolds-Su'A/Murray (1-3-2-2) dropped to 8 from 5 missed tackles last week week. Ruck defence Tatola/Sironen-Cook-Burgess/Knight-Murray/Sele (2-4-4-1) was dropped to 11 from 9 missed tackles last week.

Our go forward was improved at 1613m from 1573m last week. Knight, Murray, Sele, Su'A, Burgess, Tatola, Johnston, Graham, Burns and Mitchell made 10+m per run. Murray, Burgess, Tatola, Graham, Johnston and Roberts making 100+m in the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 60 tackles. Sele and Mkitchell didn't miss a tackle.