12th Mar 2025
Finally a win
It been a long 230 days but our first grade squad finally recorded a win. And in the first round of the competition. There was a new attitude in defence as the squad stopped leaking points on the edges. The attitude that Graham and Arrow brought to the team, shows how much we missed them in 2024. The hastially relocated match gave us a rare season opener in Sydney, which we took to full advantage. It is still a long way to go but 2 competition points in the bag at this stage of year is vital as we await the return of our troops. Now off to Wollongong to take on the Dragons. It will be a different look South Sydney compared to a few weeks ago.
Munro 2 tries then tragedy
It was great to see Tyrone Munro back on the paddock and it didn't take long for his to score two tries. Making it now 8 tries from 8 NRL games. But then tragedy, as it was confirmed that he once again fractured his colar bone. That is 4 breaks in 2.5 years for the young man. It will be a long way back from here as better men than him have been forced into retirement over similar issues. Everyone is hoping for a full recovery, but it will take time as he was rushed in for surgery during the week.
Welcome back Stretch and Arrow
What a difference having a quality centre makes in defence. Graham along with Arrow formed a monster combination in defence. Add the strong running of over 200m in his first game back and you can see how much we missed him. It is still early stages as he return from long term injury but the early signs are good.
Bentley-Hape stars and gets rewarded
In our first reserve grade game of the season, it was a extremely tough match as the team impact by having 12 of the Top 30 on the bench, took on a Manly side full of first grade experiance. But one player to stand out in a strong team performance was Bentley-Hape, who scored a try of season to date down the left touch line. He followed that up a second chiming at fullback and running for 270m. After that performance he has been called into the NRL to make his first grade debut this weekend.
Ballard 4 tries
What a afternoon for Josh Ballard. After showing us his speed recently, he was on the end of a backline that caused havoc Scoring a rare 4 tries in a game he worked a great combination with Poynton who also scored 2 tries down the right side. When given a chance he is showing us the class that he has. There is so much to like about this U19 squad in 2025.
U17 Girls bow out
After three disasterous results against the competition front runners and our U17 girls have bowed of the race for 2025. There will be a lot to rebuild here, with a review of the gap below U17s required.
NRL Considers Buying ESL
As finances go from bad to worse in England, the NRL saw the success of bring in English teams into Las Vegas. So its no surprise to see the NRL exploring taking over the English Super League, to help maintain the International game. With the NRL already becoming the defactor Asia-PAcific confederation and shutting down that area, a takeover of the ESL wuld have a similar effect on Euro-RL and the IRL. How it progresses from here is going to be interesting as the ESL is struggling with Salford now running into financial issues. A NRL takeover of the ESL, will basically mean the NRL becomes the defacto IRL. The other things that could change are things like branding of the name Rugby League into NRL across the world eg like NFL has replaced the word Gridiron. Rather than trying to follow a FIFA soccer style model at international level. Would the nRL consider undoing the final part of the Super League war and revert the English competion back to a winter competition? Only time will tell.
Round 1 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a average game. Completions dropped to 85% from 90% last week. Errors improved to 6 from 9 last week. We gave away 5 penalties and 2 6-again calls from 6 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a average level of 33.4m from 39.9m last week. Our missed tackles dropped to a poor level of 36 from 34 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 8 from 9 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Munro/Tass-Wighton-Walker-Koloamatangi (0-2-5-2) improved to 9 from 10 missed tackles last week. On the right side Tass/Graham-Graham/Sullivan-Humphreys-Arrow (2-6-0-0) improved to 8 from 11 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence Keppie/Havili-Mamouzelos/Havili-Moale/Tatola-Hubner/Duncan (2-4-5-7) dropped to 18 from 9 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward improved to 1691m from 1423m last week. With our props dropped to a very poor 253m compared to 332m last week. Koloamatangi and JGray made 10+m per run. Koloamatangi, Duncan, J.Gray, Graham, Wighton and Tass made 100+m in the match. With J.Gray and Graham making 200+m for the match. Defensively Mamouzelos was our best in the tackling raking up 45 tackles. Arrow, Havili, Humphreys, Tass and Munro didn't miss a tackle.
none
Pre01 Manly Gosf L 24-34 Pre02 St Geo-Ill Mudg L 26-46 Rd01 Dolphins WSS W 16-14
Pre01 Syd Rstrs Koga W 26-8 Pre02 Souths Mudg W 46-26 Rd01 Canterbury Koga L 20-28
2022 Rd05 StAu W 24-12 11,332 B.Cummins 2022 Rd15 Woll L 12-32 11,257 G.Atkins 2023 Rd15 Koga L 30-36 17,357 B.Cummins 2023 Rd24 Crns W 26-14 8,378 B.Cummins 2024 Rd10 Koga L 14-28 7,517 B.Sharpe
First Grade Pe 6A SB OR SO
2024 Rd01 Manly LVgs L 24-36 40,746 Referee 1-5 3-1 - - - :
2024 Rd03 Syd Rstrs SFS2 L 6-48 37,594 Referee 5-5 5-1 1 - - :
2024 Rd06 Cronulla StAu L 22-34 12,207 Referee 6-2 5-2 - 1 - :
M W D L : PeW PeD PeL PeF PeA : 6AW 6AD 6AL 6AF 6AA : SB OR SO
v St Geo-Ill 4 3 1 - 75% : 2 - 2 25 22 53% : 1 - - 3 2 60% : - 1 -
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