10th Apr 2024
Another week another 30 point loss
It is so sad to see how a team only 12 months ago was leading the competition has fallen so far. Defence continues to be our achilles heal, as we let in another 30 points on the back of a poor ruck defense in the period just before and after half time. The frustration is very evident in a number of players. The lack of effort at times, either from fatigue or attitude from some players is evident when a break is made, and needs to be addressed. Now for the Top 4 Sharks at home, who are coming off a bye, before we head into a week off ourselves.
Jye Gray opportunity
In a week of doom and gloom, one shinning light was the promotion of Jye Gray to first grade to replace suspended Latrell MItchell. Jye Gray has been playing very well in reserve grade, as a fast dynamic playmaker. While I had him cementing a spot in U21s this year, he has proven me wrong in how well he has handled the step up to reserve grade. He now gets his chance at the top level.
Ilias terrible luck
What terrible luck for Lachie. In the last minute of the game he suffered a broken leg from a chargedown gone wrong. He will now be out for a extended period. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Humphries opportunity
Matthew Humphries on the back of 3 tries in the U19s gets his first opportunity in the senior grade this week. Good luck to both for a long career, he has been a standout in the SG Ball squad this year.
Coaching Fiasco
What a disaster on and off the field this week has been. The media has been in a frenzy around coaching speculation as a supposed D-Day is about to arrive in the coaching career of James Demetriou. Demetriou took over the reigns of defensive coaching role after the departure of his assistants late last year and little has changed. We are seeing a lot of noise continuing to grow with each poor performance. It won't be long before something will have to change, be it experianced players or the rookie coach.
Round 5 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was another very poor game. Completions dropped to 60% from 94% last week. Errors dropped to 16 from 5 last week. Our worst all year. We gave away 6 penalties and 1 6-again calls from 14 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle was dropped to a very poor level of 40.3m from 38.6m last week. Our missed tackles dropped to a average level of 30 from 29 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 5 from 8 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Thompson-Wighton-Walker-Host (1-0-4-3) improved to 8 from 10 missed tackles last week. On the right side Milne-Tass-Hawkins-Koloamatangi/CheeKam (0-0-4-4) was steady at 8 again this week. Ruck defence Tatola/Koloamatangi-Cook/Mamouzelos-Burgess/Keppie-Murray/Duncan (2-2-4-3) improved to 11 from 12 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward improved to 1570m from 1564m last week. With our props made a poor 354m compared to 331m last week. Koloamatangi, Tatola, Burgess, Duncan and Thompson made 10+m per run. Milne, Koloamtangi, Tatola, Thompson and Wighton made 100+m in the match. Milne made 200+m for the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 45 tackles. Wighton, Tass and Milne didn't miss a tackle.
Rd03 Syd Rstrs SFS2 L 6-48 Rd04 Canterbury StAu W 20-16 Rd05 Warriors StAu L 4-34
Rd03 Wests-Tig Leic L 6-32 Rd04 Caberra Ende W 36-22 Rd05 Bye
2021 Rd10 LngS W 32-22 45,155 C.Sutton 2022 Rd20 Ende L 20-21 11,492 G.Sutton 2022 MSF SFS2 W 38-12 39,733 G.Atkins 2023 Rd01 Ende W 27-18 12,757 T.Smith 2023 Rd23 Prth L 16-26 45,814 T.Smith
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