2026 - The Cyber View from the Hill

16th Sep 2026

Season Ends

After a emotional for the final two rounds, South Sydney struggled to lift in the elimination final of the season. After a strong defensive display, injury crueled our season again with the loss of Cody Walker to the dreaded calf injury, when we needed him most. While there was a battle royale between the centres all game on both sides of the field, it was the injury to Johnston that proved the difference, when the opposition scored two qucik tries to seal the game down his wing. 2026 has been a vast improvement on 2025, with a better approach to injury management. But the lack in a quality spine was a contributer to our final demise. Now for the long off season.

Koloamatangi Farewell

The game saw the farewell of Keaon Koloamatangi our international prop who gave his all for the club. He started as a local junior from Mascot along with Cameron Murray, and progressed all the way to the top. He will be missed after performing a successful transition from second row to prop.

Johnston Top Tryscorer

The amazing Alex Johnston finished the season with 30 first grade tries in a season, equalling his prior 30 tries in a season record. He had one of his best ever seasons, and playing many games with a knee injury. Overall he has now scored 240 first grade tries and 250 career 3 grade tries for South Sydney. All hail Alex the great.

Mitchell Top Point Scorer

Even though Latrell Mitchell had another injury impacted season, he finihsed as the clubs Top Point Scorer, with 134 points from 12 tries, 42 goals and 1 two point fieldgoal. His lower back injury in a aging body is now impacting his ability to stay on the field for longer periods. But when he is on the field he is still one of the best in the game.

Women go bang bang and out

After a strong season it was disappointing to see our womens team miss out on the grand final after. They had had two attempts to make the it and lost both of them at the final hurdle. X was our top try scorer with Y tries. McGregor was our top point scorer with Z points. 2026 was a ongoing improvement for our womens team and they will be better for it in 2027.

Possible 22 teams

Expansion seems to be the big off season topic. We already have the Perth Bears to join in 2027 and the PNG Chiefs the following year. PVL continues to look for ways to grow the game with a 20th team set to be announced by Xmas. Now we are starting to hear talk of further expansion in the next TV deal with possibly 22 teams. Christchurch New Zealand and Ipswich are two teams being discussed. It will be important to also setup strong development structures below this, to keep developing the expanded player pool. We are in a unique period of rugby league.

Preliminary Semi-Final - Stat Attack

Statistically it was average game. Completions dropped to 83% from 85% last week. Errors dropped to 11 from 8 last week week. We gave away 7 penalties and 4 6-again calls from 5 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle dropped to a average level of 34.7m from 21.6m last week. Our missed tackles dropped to a poor level of 39 from 23 last week. Opposition offloads dropped to 11 from 6 last week.

Looking at our left side defence - Johnston/Gray-Mitchell-Walker/Humphreys-Duncan (2-1-2-3) dropped to 8 from 6 last week. On the right side Graham-Wighton-Sullivan-Fifita (2-2-4-6) dropped to 14 from 9 last week. Ruck defence Tatola/Hubner/Keppie-BSmith/Gray-Koloamatangi-Murray (6-3-4-3) dropped to 16 from 7 missed tackles last week.

Our go forward dropped to 1531m from 1890m last week. With our props go forward dropped to a poor level of 383m compared to 474m last week. Keppie and Gray made 10+m per run. Koloamatangi, Murray, Fifita, Hubner, Dufty, Wighton and Graham made 100+m in the match. Koloamatangi and Dufty made 200+m for the match. Defensively Murray was our best in the tackling raking up 41 tackles. Humphreys didn't miss a tackle.

News