26th Jul 2023
Out of the Top 8
Our first game on the road and we matched it with the high flying Broncos for 50 minutes, but then we lost the match in the space of 11 minutes when we let in 3 tries through some poor ruck defence. Playing a small mobile pack in this period backfired as the bigger Broncos pack dominated us as we scrambled to cover offloads and missed tackles. The result has seen us drop out of the Top 8, with still 4 more wins in a very tight finish for the final 8. Now off to Tamworth to play last placed Wests-Tigers.
Johnston outright 3rd
Alex Johnston continues to dominate the try scorers, with another try on the weekend. His 181st try, which means he has now moved into outright 3rd on the NRL premiership try scorers list. Well done again. Looking forward to plenty more tries in the weeks ahead.
Dean Hawkins dominates"Footy Dean" as he is called, has clearly shaken off a injury that has hampered him last year, and is now playing as one of the most consistant reserve grade players, as he leads the team towards the finals. He scored a try, setup two tries and setup three line breaks. Add to this his classy kicky game and he is now goal kicking from all over the park. His organisation halfback skills are there for people to see.
Vailalo on the improve
Its taken a while but Isaiah Vailalo looks to have over come injury and is now part of the U21s starting pack. His power running will come in handy, as his fitness at this level is improving every week.
Country Venues too small
Its our first week on the road and we played against a heavy weight Broncos outfit. The match could have easily got 20,000 in Sydney or 30,000 in Brisbane. But instead we played at a sold out Sunshine Coast in front of 8,000 fans. While there is a need to take matches on the road, the NRL needs to be seriously playing at venues that have 10,000 plus capacity. We should be encouraging local councils to improve facilities, with 5,000 seated grandstands, with 4 changerooms and hills that can hold 7,500. That means the NRL leaves behind a legacy for the local community, and future State Cup competitions.
Round 21 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a poor game. Completions dropped to 66% from 71% last week. Our second worst all season. Errors dropped to 15 from 12 last week. Our worst all season. We gave away 3 penalties and 5 6-again calls from 8 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle was improved to a poor level of 37.7m from 40.5m last week. Our missed tackles improved to a very poor level of 35 from 40 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 11 from 17 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Tass-Walker-Arrow/Host (2-5-5-4) dropped to 16 from 13 last week. On the right side Milne-Graham-Ilias-Koloamatangi (1-1-1-1) was improved to 4 from 12 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence Burgess/Havili/Arrow-DCook/Havili-HSele/Moale/Duncan-Murray (3-3-2-2) improved to 10 from 15 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward dropped to 1412m from 1622m last week. Arrow, Graham and Johnston made 10+m per run. Arrow, Graham, Johnston, Milne and Tass made 100+m in the match. Defensively Murray was our best in the tackling raking up 48 tackles. H.Sele and Havili didn't miss a tackle.
Rd19 Canterbury StAu L 32-36 Rd20 BYE Rd21 Brisbane SunS L 20-36
Rd19 Cronulla WSS L 12-36 Rd20 Newcastle NISC L 18-34 Rd21 St Geo-Ill Woll L 14-18
2021 Rd06 StAu W 18-14 16,134 G.Sutton (GP) 2021 Rd16 Leic W 38-22 0 G.Atkins 2022 Rd07 WSS L 22-23 14,251 Z.Przeklasa-Adamski 2022 Rd12 StAu W 44-18 13,585 C.Sutton 2023 Rd11 StAu W 20-0 21,013 L.Kennedy
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