7th Jun 2023
Strong Second Half
After a sluggish start the team found their mojo when they came out after halftime scoring 30 unanswered points. Our leftside was in full swing as we dominated the game, moving back into the Top 3. As the SOO period and injuries start to bite, players will get opportunities. It will be interesting to see who can step when needed. Still 5 more wins to qualify for the finals. We are now off to Kogarah to play the last placed Dragons who are in a coaching turmoil, but have a habit of giving us a difficult game.
AJ another hattrick
AJ scored one of the easiest tries he will ever score as he scored another hattrick of tries. He has now scored 7 tries in 3 games, and raced up into 4th place on the first grade premiership try scoring tally with 178 tries. There are plenty more tries where those 3 came from.
Chan-Foon unsung heroMaila Chan-Foon has been a late developer and showing significant improvement as he settles into the vacant reserve grade second row role. He started out as a centre, but his good defence and line speed has made him one of the most consistent players on the edge.
Ferguson debut
Ethan Ferguson has just come down from Taree via Newcastle, and made his debut in Rabbitoh colours in our Flegg team. He immediately put everyone on notice as LAtrell's and Shaq's cousin, chip and chased to score a spectacular try and later kicked goal from the sideline. He has size and plays out wide in the centre, and it won't take long before he gets his chance up in reserve grade.
Hip-Drop Judo must stop
With clamp down on high tackles and the removal of shoulder chargers, has seen a new judo move creep in to the game as players try to make 1 on 1 tackles against bigger opponents. This move known as the hip-drop tackle, uses your weight to make the tackle as players game the hip and then basically coming off the ground, they use their weight to bring down a opponents. But in principal this sounds ok, but with the players momentum what is happenning as the tackler lifts himself into the air he is swung to the rear of the ball runner, and as he pulls the ball-runner down, he is landing on players ankles. Souths have had 5 players taken out in this manner this season for a total of 28 weeks, while the offendor barely gets penalised. The NRL need to come down harder on players who use this tackling style due to injuries they are causing.
Round 14 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a average game. Completions dropped to 80% from 89% last week. Errors dropped to 9 from 3 last week. We gave away 4 penalties and no 6-again calls from 6 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle was steady at a average level of 27.2m from 27.4m last week. On the back of a very good second half. Our missed tackles improved to a good level of 22 from 31 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 4 from 7 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Tass-Walker-Host (1-2-3-3) dropped to 9 from 6 last week. On the right side Kennar-Graham-Ilias-Koloamatangi/CheeKam (1-1-0-2) improved to 4 from 11 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence Tatola/SMitchell-DCook-HSele/SulukaFifita-Arrow/Murray/Koloamatangi (3-1-2-1) improved to 7 from 12 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward improved to 1780m from 1514m last week. Tatola, Host, CkeeKam, SMitchell, Suluka-Fifita and Kennar made 10+m per run. Tatola, Kolomatangi, H.Sele, Host, Kennar, Walker, Ilias, Tass and Taaffe made 100+m in the match. Defensively D.Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 38 tackles. Ilias, Murray, Ckee-Kam and Suluka-Fifita didn't miss a tackle.
Rd12 Parramatta SFS2 L 16-36 Rd13 Canberra StAu L 26-33 Rd14 Gold Coast Robi W 46-28
Rd12 Syd Rstrs Koga W 24-22 Rd13 Dolphins Redc L 12-26 Rd14 Penrith Penr L 18-26
2020 Rd12 Koga W 32-24 2,719 A.Klein 2021 Rd20 LngS W 50-14 0 C.Butler 2021 Rd25 SunS W 20-16 3,295 M.Cecchin 2022 Rd05 StAu W 24-12 11,332 B.Cummins 2022 Rd15 Woll L 12-32 11,257 G.Atkins
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