12th August 2026
Tale of Two Halves
South Sydney opened the indigenous round on fire, with breaks being made down the right and down the left. The way Dufty was able to set up room down the right for his wiger was great to watch. Then as we swung back to the left the gaps were there. But to lose our playmaker in Ward after 30 minutes had a impact, as well as did a number of factors from complaincy, to game management and finally fatigue errors. Suddeleny what was a heathy lead had been wittled down after South Sydney let 24 in unanswered points. But we hung on through a steady head in Walker, to win the vital 2 competition points. We still need 2 more wins to make the finals. Now for a big game that is looming a semi-final position playoff against the Dogs, who sit just outside of the 8.
Johnston hattrick
Alex Johnston scored, and scored and scored again to record his 19th career hattrick. He has the ability to be in the right place at the right time, and with the great work down the right side, he was able to use that room to finish off 3 great backline line movements. He has 25 tries for the season and sits in second place.
Siegwalt big game at the back
Siegwalt was back at his normal position of fullback in the reserve grade clash, and his speed and skill as a running fullback we evidet everytime he chimed into the backline. He scored a try, made a few line breaks and setup another. But the loss saw the reserve grade team drop out of the Top 5 with only 3 weeks to go.
Taj Alvarez double
Taj Alvarez continues to be someone special, coming up through the ranks. His ability sniff out a try behind the ruck is very evident. He has a turn of acceleration that allows him to make a early break and then use his speed to score the try. He scored two more tries on the weekend. That is 8 tries in U21's on top of his 14 tries in U19s all up 22 tries so far this season. Our U21s hold onto a Top 5 spot for another week.
Yaranamua steals the game
Louisa Yaranamua returned back this week and he powerful running and kicking game was a big factor as South Sydney fought back from being 10 points behind to win a semi-final standard clash. It was Yaranamua who scored the winning try as she took on the line and used her power to score the match winning try. The women remain in the Top 4 as we head into the final rounds.
Game Management
As a fan watching the game, we see more and more referees focused on game management and their penalty counts, rather than refereeing the game at hand. Its uncanny how 50-50 calls suddenly go in favour of a team behind on the score board, or in the late in the half we see a few penalties called that even up the penalty counts. These calls effect the flow of the game. You have to wonder what is discussed behind closed doors.
Round 23 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was poor game. Completions improved to 80% from 74% last week. Errors were steady at 11 again this week. We gave away 4 penalties and 4 6-again calls from 10 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a poor level of 37.5m from 45.1m last week. The second half was our worst all season at 55.3m. Our missed tackles improved to a good level of 24 from 51 last week. Opposition offloads improved to 12 from 17 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Johnston-Duncan-Walker-Elliott/Koloamatangi (0-0-3-2) improved to 5 from 20 last week. On the right side Gray-Wighton-Ward/Sullivan-Fifita (0-1-2-1) improved to 4 from 10 last week. Ruck defence Tatola/Hubner-BSmith/Humphreys-Koloamatangi/Keppie-Murray/Hubner (2-3-7-4) improved to 16 from 21 missed tackles last week.
Our go forward improved to 1707m from 1460m last week. With our props go forward dropped to a average level of 440m compared to 300m last week. Koloamatangi, Dufty, Johnston, Wighton, Gray and Walker made 10+m per run. Koloamatangi, Fifita, Gray, Dufty, Johnston and Duncan made 100+m in the match. Gray and Dufty made 200+m for the match. Defensively Murray was our best in the tackling raking up 46 tackles. Tatola, Elliott, Duncan, Johnston and Gray didn't miss a tackle.
Rd21 Melbourne StAu W 28-26 Rd22 Cronulla Ende L 16-32 Rd23 Parramatta SFS2 W 28-24
Rd21 Warriors StAu W 18-6 Rd22 Melbourne MRSt W 36-22 Rd23 Syd Rstrs SFS2 L 18-20
2024 Rd04 StAu W 20-16 35,275 G.Sutton 2025 Rd07 StAu L 0-32 65,305 G.Atkins 2025 Rd15 StAu L 18-24 23,871 A.Gee 2026 Rd05 StAu W 32-24 49,813 T.Smith
First Grade Pe 6A SB OR SO
2025 Rd02 St Geo-Ill Woll W 25-24 16,111 Referee 4-3 5-1 - - - :
2025 Rd04 Penrith StAu W 28-18 10,029 Referee 6-2 2-6 1 - - :
2026 Rd21 Melbourne StAu W 28-26 10,009 Referee 3-3 5-4 - - - :
M W D L : PeW PeD PeL PeF PeA : 6AW 6AD 6AL 6AF 6AA : SB OR SO
v Canterbury 4 1 - 3 25% : 4 - - 26 15 63% : 1 - - 7 3 75% : 1 3 -
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