28st Feb 2024
Vegas via San Diego
It was another disappointing effort from our fringe squad, while the main squad was away. The main concern is that many of these players should be saying pick me for the future, instead we saw the opposite, with fitness a clear issue. But the main squad has now setup camp in San Diego as they prepare for the big game in Vegas. They arrived via a indirect flight via Fiji, as the team continues in its ongoing travels. I am concerned that the constant travelling had a effect last year and we are starting in same manner in 2024. But the team look happy, as they flew out with family, taking the opportunity for some R&R.
Jacob Gagai call up
Its been a long time coming but at 28 Jacob Gagai, brother of former Souths player Dane Gagai, has finally got his call up to play first grade in Vegas. He had a wonderful season last year at fullback in the reserve grade premiership winning team, and played very well on the wing in last years Pre-Season Challenge matches. Wishing the best as he begins his first grade career.
U17s Lose on the bell
Our U17s had a outstanding game against the Warriors and looked to have sealed the game when then lead 17-16 with less than a minute on the clock. But a outstanding run gave the opposition a opportunity, which they took with seconds on the clock.
Coote double
Georgia Coote had a outstanding game in a tough womens U19 encounter. He ran for over 200m in the game and scored 2 tries. A shining light in a tough season.
Fans Fly into Vegas
Thousands of fans have flown into Las Vegas, as the build up has been quite extrandary. Around 15,000 fans have flown over from Australia, many coming from UK, France also. While there was also a strong contingent from the around the Americas. The week leading into the Vegas game has a Grand Final week atmosphere, and has clearly become a "event" with the fans. New York Times Square having a big Snedden ball on display, and the local news jumping on as well. Now to guage the local reaction over the coming months.
Pre-Season Round 2 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a very poor game. Completions dropped to 69% from 78% last week. Errors improved to 10 from 11 last week. We gave away 4 penalties and 1 6-again calls from 8 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle was dropped to a very poor level of 40.2m from 28.7m last week. Our missed tackles dropped to a very poor level of 42 from 31 last week. Opposition offloads improved to only 2 from 8 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Te Hau-Chrsitensen-BentleyHape/Burns-Miller/Chanfoon (3-4-2-4) dropped to 13 from 6 missed tackles last week. On the right side Saldanha-Skelton-Subloo/BentleyHape-Chapman/Halalilo (2-1-4-6) dropped to 13 from 10 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence BGray/Reed-RGray/Doolan-Hodge/Maloney-Grossemy/French (2-4-2-3) improved to 11 from 15 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward dropped to 1389m from 2095m last week. With our props made a very poor 323m compared to 481m last week. Halalilo, Miller, Burns, Skelton, Te Hau and Mundine made 10+m per run. Maloney, BGray, Hahalilo, Skelton, Burns and Mundine made 100+m in the match. Defensively BGray was our best in the tackling raking up 36 tackles. No one didn't miss a tackle.
Trial Manly Gosf L 6-68 Pre01 St Geo-Ill Koga W 28-6 Pre02 Syd Rstrs Belm L 10-46
Trial Souths Gosf W 68-6 Pre01 Syd Rstrs Gosf L 22-36 Pre02 Brisbane Brok L 14-40
2021 Rd02 Brok W 26-12 3,218 G.Sutton 2021 mPF LngS W 36-16 26,294 A.Klien 2022 Rd08 Gosf W 40-22 17,248 G.Atkins 2023 Rd04 StAu W 13-12 18,379 C.Sutton 2024 Trial Gosf L 6-68 5,107
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