6th June 2018
Souths made it 5 wins on the trot, after a powerful display against Top 4 rival Cronulla. What made it even more pleasing was we did it without 4 of our origin stars. Souths didn't miss a beat, as we powered through the middle in a dominate forwads display. We are still 2 points off the competition lead now in 3rd place. We still need 4 more wins to make the finals. And on track for Top 4 finish.
Inglis the Beast of Origin
Firstly congratulations to Greg Inglis who became Souths first ever Queensland State of Origin captain. Greg Inglis put in a powerful performance to do everything he could get Queensland home, such was the power in his defence that it stunned NSW, so much so they decided to avoid his side of the field.
Damien Cook great Origin debut
Damien Cook has been a revelation in our team in 2018. His go forward and dummy half running are the best in the league. He bidded his time in Origin and in his first dummy half run broke the line and setup the Blues first try. His defence was first rate also rattling up 55 tackles.
Bears U20s good win
The Bears are not having a happy season in the lower grades in gneral, but a good win by the U20s squad, has kept them in touch with the Top 8.
Western Sydney Stadium progressing well
With all of Stadia debate going, we continue to see quality progress in rebuild of Parramatta Stadium. The $300 mil stadium is coming along nicely and will be a quality venure to watch rugby league. It is taking shape and has steep side views that are close to action. Looking forward to attending a match there in a next year.
Round 13 - Stat Attack
Statistically another powerful display against a top 4 team. Completion rates dropped to 84% from 86% last week. Errors inceased to 7 from 5 last week. We gave away 8 penalties down from 15 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a average level of 32.6m from 36.7m last week. Our missed tackles dropped to average level of 31 from 26 missed tackles last week. Opposition offloads increased to 14 from 6 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Jennings-Hunt-Walker-Sutton (0-0-3-3) was dropped to 6 from 4 missed tackles last week. On the right side Graham-Burns/Fuimaono-Reynolds-SBurgess (2-0-3-3) was dropped to 8 from 7 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/Tatola-Farah-GBurgess/Nicholls-Murray/Clark (1-5-5-3) was steady at 14 again this week.
Our go forward this week dropped to 1478m from 1539m last week. George Burgess, Sutton, Jennings and Burns made 10+m per run. Sutton, Tom Burgess, George Burgess, Sam Burgess, Murray, Doueihi and Hunt making 100+m in the match. Defensively Farah was our best in the tackling raking up 62 tackles. Fuimaono, Nicholls, Tatola, Jennings, Hunt and Burns didn't miss a tackle.