2024 - The Cyber View from the Hill

13th Mar 2024

Defence Let Us Down

Well after a huge amount of travel in 2023, we kicked off the season with one of the biggest travels as we went to Vegas. Match fitness was a concern leading into the game also. Everyone enjoyed the hype around Vegas, even the players. It was a tough game and we surged ahead after halftime. But the lack of match fitness signs were there as the team faded at the 50 minute mark as we let in 4 tries. Scoring 24 points should be enough to win a match, but our defence let us down. Now for a flight home and then another flight up to Brisbane.

Kennar double

Richie Kennar continues to find the try line. He scored another double over in Vegas to maintain his impressive try scoring strike rate in first grade.

U21s hang on

It was a touch outing for our U21 Jersey Flegg team over at Brookvale as they hung on for a well earned first up victory. Toby Sullivan had a impressive debut making ground when he came on.

Kuscu and Wright double

It was a dominate display as our U19 boys finally broke through for their first win of the season. The backline dominated the game scoring 6 tries with fullback Yasin Kuscu and winger Daniel Wright both scoring doubles.

Gioiello double

Our U17 Matts team had another strong win on the weekend. Feltham scored again and MAx Gioiello this time was on the end of a double. The win has allowed us to just stay in contention.

Ritchie double

Abbie Ritchie has a dominate display at lock this week. she is a big strong runner who using her power scored 2 tries and kick 3 goals to lead the U19 girls to ther first victory of the season.

Vegas ratings success

Australian TV ratings were the big winner in the Vegas experiment as the weekend saw record viewer back home, that resembled Grand Final style of results. Locally we saw one of the biggest no traditional US sports crowd and viewership. The NRL will look to grow the event going forward, but as we have seen with the 9s and 7s once the novelty wears off crowds drop. So it will be interesting to see how the event goes in future years.

Round 1 - Stat Attack

Statistically it was a poor game. Completions improved to 80% from 69% last week. Errors dropped to 11 from 10 last week. We gave away 5 penalties and 1 6-again calls from 5 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle was improved to a poor level of 37.4m from 40.2m last week. Our missed tackles improved to a average level of 31 from 42 last week. Opposition offloads dropped to 8 from 2 last week.

Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Kennar-Walker-Koloamatangi (0-4-5-1) improved to 10 from 13 missed tackles last week. On the right side Gagai-Tass-Ilias-Arrow/Host (3-2-4-3) improved to 12 from 13 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence Tatola/Burgess-Cook-Keppie/Moale-Murray/Havili (3-4-0-2) improved to 9 from 11 missed tackles last week.

Our go forward improved to 1643m from 1389m last week. With our props made a good 441m compared to 323m last week. Gagai made 10+m per run. Murray, Koloamatangi, Keppie, Burgess, Tatola, Kennar, LMitchell and Gagai made 100+m in the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 42 tackles. Tatola, Keppie, Moale, Havili, Johnston and L.Mitchell didn't miss a tackle.

News This Week

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Pre01 Nth Qld    Mcky W 46-20
Pre02 Manly      Brok W 40-14
Rd01  Syd Rstrs  LVgs L 10-20

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2021 Rd15  LngS W 46-0  19,713 A.Gee
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2022 Rd09  StAu L 12-32  9,242 G.Atkins
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2023 Rd21  SunS L 20-36  8,931 A.Klein