26th April 2017
I could not beleive what I was witnessing. The refreeing and Bunker display was bording on incomptance. In a match that could have been 36-10 win they way we were playing, ended up in a one point loss after decision after decision went against us. From 4 bewildering bunker try decisions, to a solid tackle and a final kmock-on field goal. If the crowd had been bigger there could have been a riot, was how much it infuriated fans and Souths officials, let alone the players. What was a very strong 3 Burgess power display turned into display. But George Burgess has let the team down and will more weeks on the sideline. But in the end its another 2 points we have missed out on and its now still 10 more wins required from 16 matches.
Siosifa Talakai is turing into one of the best power runners in our club. But he is also having issues in our defensive line causing our left wing to be exposed often.
Congrtaulations to Cam Murray who made his first grade debut. As a strong tackling machine whoplays back row, he is a player of the future.
The NRL has invested millions of dollars on a state of the art Bunker system to make decisions better and more accurate. But as seen on the weekend it will have it usual human factor influence. Rather than waiting for minutes to just decisions wrong, I would rather see a return back to in-goal touch judges. Add 4 linesmen only covering 50 metres each and we have a much better and timely decision making system. Bunker is only adding value for line decisions or foul-play. One positive out of the weekend was the post match discussion that focused on the events that occurred in the game. Maybe assuming referees are human allows for post match discussions that are not focused on off field incidents or next season player transfers.
Round 8 - Stat Attack
Statistically a strong game. Completion rates were improved to a average level of 76% from 70% last week. Errors were dropped at 10 from 8 last week. We gave away 9 penalities down from 12 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved into a average level of 31.4m from 38.6m last week. Our missed tackles improved into a good level of 22 missed tackles from 32 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 7 from 11 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Goodwin-Jennings-Walker-Turner/Murray (1-3-2-1) dropped to 7 from 5 last week. On the right side HHunt-Talakai-Sutton-Crichton (1-5-1-2) was dropped to 9 from 6 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/Musgrove-Cook/Farah-G.Burgess/Clark-SBurgess (1-3-1-0) improved to 4 from 14 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward this week improved to 1609m from 1305m. Sam Burgess, Tom Burgess, George Burgess, Musgrove and Cook made 10+m per run. Sam Burgess, Tom Burgess, George burgess, Crichton, Sutton, Goodwin, Talakai and Walker making 100+m in the match. Defensively Crichton was our best in the tackling raking up 39 tackles. With Sam Burgess, Tom Burgess, Clark, Musgrove and Murray not missing a tackle.