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Round 2 - Broncos vs Rabbitohs: Friday 20th March 8:05pm @Suncorp Stadium

Travitoh

First Grade
Messages
5,156
With 10 minutes to play of the first half, i was thinking a 10 point deficit was a flattering scoreline. A 2 point lead at half time feels like robbery.

Brisbane's pack isn't that good outside of Fifita and Haas, Souths only need to break even in the forwards and they'll win.

The Croft injury was the turning point imo. Having McCullough on the field from here is a huge plus for Souths.
 

truthslayer

Juniors
Messages
331
What came out of tonight is that our best side is Johnston at fullback and Mitchell in Center . Defence was terrible and Graham and Burns not combining. Burns another poor game. Johnston comes in and scores. Bennet needs to coach and use his common sense. Far to many mistakes. Hame Sele impressed again. Nicholls did redeem himself somewhat tonight. The halves need to be more smarter . Lowe needs to lift . Sua solid. Campbell Graham a shocker.
 

NovoBunny94

Juniors
Messages
675
What came out of tonight is that our best side is Johnston at fullback and Mitchell in Center . Defence was terrible and Graham and Burns not combining. Burns another poor game. Johnston comes in and scores. Bennet needs to coach and use his common sense. Far to many mistakes. Hame Sele impressed again. Nicholls did redeem himself somewhat tonight. The halves need to be more smarter . Lowe needs to lift . Sua solid. Campbell Graham a shocker.


I think this is the year everyone hates on Souths.
I didn't watch the game, so I can't comment but my goodness the after show with slater and gallen it's like they are getting paid by the Broncos to talk them up. By all reports, the Broncos should have won by 30+ so really they weren't that great?

Apparently we weren't, we have excuses which will hopefully get filled with Jai Arrow comes and we can maybe nab a decent forward.
But excuses aren't good enough.

A couple of things, people need to lay off Latrell.. round 3, he'll score 4 tries and lay on 3 and hes the best player ever oh my god! Then they'll talk him up and forget what they said about him the week prior. Its nonsense. People need to relax. Its round 2, the comp isn't won at the start of the year.
 

Wizardman

First Grade
Messages
8,504
I think this is the year everyone hates on Souths.
I didn't watch the game, so I can't comment but my goodness the after show with slater and gallen it's like they are getting paid by the Broncos to talk them up. By all reports, the Broncos should have won by 30+ so really they weren't that great?

Apparently we weren't, we have excuses which will hopefully get filled with Jai Arrow comes and we can maybe nab a decent forward.
But excuses aren't good enough.

A couple of things, people need to lay off Latrell.. round 3, he'll score 4 tries and lay on 3 and hes the best player ever oh my god! Then they'll talk him up and forget what they said about him the week prior. Its nonsense. People need to relax. Its round 2, the comp isn't won at the start of the year.


You sound almost in denial about Latrell. I'd be quite concerned about him atm.
 

Spot On

Coach
Messages
13,897
Latrell aint playing with superstars anymore Novo. Or maybe you had an inflated view of him as a player?

He needs to lift. Have a go. Cause at the moment he is far from having a dig.

Getting fit would be a good start.
 

NovoBunny94

Juniors
Messages
675
Latrell aint playing with superstars anymore Novo. Or maybe you had an inflated view of him as a player?

He needs to lift. Have a go. Cause at the moment he is far from having a dig.

Getting fit would be a good start.

Like I said I haven't watched the game.
What I am saying is if people want to kick him when he's down and underperforming don't praise him and beat him up when he is. Latrell is a superstar. Give him time. Signing him after Xmas hasn't done his fitness any good either? But it happened?
People are expecting him to be to much like GI. Even he had quiet games early on. But if our Forwards are getting dominated, someone has to be the scapegoat right?

If we blew brisbane off the park and he scores a hattrick people would sit here and claim what a great signing he is bla bla.. but our forwards aren't winning the battle, blame them if anything.
I was the same person who said Broncos will absolutely obliterate us because it's a mis match in the forwards.
Even without pangai, lodge etc we managed to go 4 down. That's not a bad effort. Everyone needs to chill with the negativity, thank God Latrell doesn't read most of it.
 

Vic Mackey

Referee
Messages
24,496
What came out of tonight is that our best side is Johnston at fullback and Mitchell in Center . Defence was terrible and Graham and Burns not combining. Burns another poor game. Johnston comes in and scores. Bennet needs to coach and use his common sense. Far to many mistakes. Hame Sele impressed again. Nicholls did redeem himself somewhat tonight. The halves need to be more smarter . Lowe needs to lift . Sua solid. Campbell Graham a shocker.

Can I just say I never get the Johnston hate from Souths fans. Ok hate isn’t the right word but none seem to rate him. I think he’s a very good player and fullback. Certainly a better option then Latrell atm, and I also think he’s a better 1 then Douiehi. In the last 25 mins he looked the Souths player most likely to score, and then obviously did. He is also a significantly better winger then Graham, who has been terrible for a year yet no one seems to notice.
 

Spot On

Coach
Messages
13,897
You better watch the game before commenting then Novo.

He's a pro footballer.

He put himself in this position ie being extremely unfit due to screwing around with contract talks. He could have kept himself fit but didn't.

If he is a superstar then why was he dropped from Origin last season?

He ain't no GI mate. I would be surprised if many thought that. A flick pass here and there is not 'superstar' material.

Showing up and playing at a high level, each and every week is a start. He hasn't done that... ever.

No Luke Keary making him look a star anymore.



You do realise Brisbane lost their halfback, no Lodge, no Pangai, no Glenn, no Jack Bird, no Joe O. Throw Kahu in as well.

Souths should have given it to them.
 

Spot On

Coach
Messages
13,897
Can I just say I never get the Johnston hate from Souths fans. Ok hate isn’t the right word but none seem to rate him. I think he’s a very good player and fullback. Certainly a better option then Latrell atm, and I also think he’s a better 1 then Douiehi. In the last 25 mins he looked the Souths player most likely to score, and then obviously did. He is also a significantly better winger then Graham, who has been terrible for a year yet no one seems to notice.

He was brilliant when he came on tonight.

Or maybe the bar was just set very low?
 

BotanyBorn&Bred

Juniors
Messages
1,896
Man our left side D is atrocious tonight
This is the problem.
Murray was switched there because Bennett knew it would be bad.
Burns has been terrible, and is not the long term solution to left centre.

I don't agree with the criticism of Jimmy, I thought he was fair, and his weakest facet, defense, is better than last year

Su'A offered nothing in either defense or attack.

Cook is not doing anywhere near enough during games.

Bennett has some hard decisions to make. I want him to persist with Latrell at fullback, but I can't deny that right now, a much better balanced line up is Latrell to left C, AJ to FB, Burns out.

Also, Murray needs to be back at lock. Without his go-foward and quick play the balls in the middle, Cook has nothing to work with. This means one of Tom, Tatola, or Knight has to start from the bench.

I'd give Sironen a shot a second row, I don't think Su'A is up to the job, to me, he is a bench prospect at best.
 

callmack1

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,609
A very frustrating loss that one. Frustrating because I really feel like we could have won even when we were down. The energy was there, the effort was there but we just lacked execution and didn't take our opportunities. Like I say, I feel like we could have won but didn't which is so frustrating.

Attack was a bit of a mixed bag tonight. With the ball in the first half, we looked brilliant. We able to roll up field quite nicely, come out of our end pretty well and some of the plays (although a couple didin't come off) we put on looked pretty classy. I was happy with our completion rate in the first 40 too. It was fantastic fightback to lead at halftime. But once again, the second half looked a bit different, and not in a good way. We seemed to fall away on the offensive and the errors started creeping in. I think we were down to below 60% for completion rates which just isn't good enough and it gives you no chance to get any rhythm. And I think that's what meant we couldn't get over that line, because of the errors, the rhythm was gone and it turned a bit clunky. First half attack = great, second half = not so great.

Defence was the big one. It's what really let us down tonight and what ultimately lead to the loss. I'll start with defensive dicipline. We gave away too many silly penalties and a lot of them were piggy back penalties that lead to a try. It's a big sin in Rugby League to do that and that's two weeks in a row now that we've done it often. Moving onto the actual defence itself, we were poor. So many missed tackles which just shouldn't be happening and a lot of them were arm grabs with some of the boys seemingly not wanting to put their body on the line at times. You look at most of their tries and they were all down to poor defence. As I say, this is the area that let us down big time. That left edge in paticular is massively shakey at the moment and it's a worry.

Mitchell: Latrell was better than last week. He had some really nice touches in attack to put players into holes and he created a fair few opportunities. There was also a few good runs there. However, being better than last week is not good enough and we need more. For some reason, Latrell doesn't seem to want to get involved enough. He should be pushing up around the ball but instead waits out the back for someone else to put on a big play. That's my biggest concern is that he doesn't seem to want to put in the effort areas. Whether that's because of fitness of attitude, I'm not sure. Not having a go at Latrell, just a bit of constructive feedback. I hope we play the long game with him and persisit. It's Round 2 and it's a long Season. Latrell can develop into a superstar number 1.

Gagai: Pretty solid tonight. Didn't do anything spectacular but he did his job well. His runs coming out of trouble were strong and his defence was solid too.

Roberts, Wasn't too bad. Some strong running of the ball and did a pretty good job in defence on that right edge I thought. He was aggressive in defence and it paid off. We also saw what he can do with some early ball and that run for Cody's try was spectacular!

Burns: Burns wasn't great tonight and it's mainly down to his 'D.' That is a big worry for us I reckon. He looked shakey in Round 1 and even worse tonight. Will be interesting to see his stats as I feel he missed so many tackles. Fundamental errors too as he let Staggs get on his outside a couple of times. It's not good enough from Burnsy and he has a lot to work on.

Graham: Campbell wasn't too flash tonight either. His hit ups were strong and he did finish well in the corner but apart from that, he was poor. When he came in when Latrell threw that brilliant [ass to where he should've been I was fuming. Our whole left side has work to do.

Walker: Cody was pretty good tonight. He looked close to being back to his dangerous self on attack tonight as he had a hand in some of those beautiful backline shifts and he put on some brilliant passes. Challenged the line on occasion and looked dangerous too. I just wasn't massively pleased with some of defensive efforts, there was a lot of arm grabbing there. Kicking game was solid.

Reynolds: Mixed game from Reyno too as he looked lovely on some bacline moves at times but then on others, his timing was way out or he'd make an error. I also think he took a few bad options towards then end of the game and that could bre managed better. His kicking game was mixed too. Long was good but his short kicking game looked almost non-exsistant.

Tatola: Now, Junior didn't have a bad game tonight at all but I did expect more from him after last week. He has much quieter tonight. Still got through some good runs but he needs to work on being consistant week in week out. He was not as involved tonight.

Cook: Much improved!! To the point where to my eyes, he was one of our better players tonight. He seemed to go back to playing direct and taking those quick few paces out of dummy half before passing which was good to see. This brought the forwards onto the ball really nicely which makes us look far better in attack, just more direct. He simplified his game tonight, didn't try to do anything fancy and it worked. Well done Cookie.

Burgess: Tom was really good in that game. Played decent minutes and just went all out when he was on. Ran hard and was involved regularly which saw him pick up some big meters. He especially lifted towards the end of the game where he started to have some absolutley huge runs. Plus, he made no errors which is a big plus.

Su'a: Nice and solid tonight. Played big minutes (might have even been 80) and had some barnstorming runs out there as well as a few where he really tested the Brisbane line. He held his own defensively up against Fifita which was good to see aswell. If anything, he could have been more involved.

Murray: A little bit quiet and for prehaps the first time in his career I fell there's not much to say about him. he did do a job but we still need more involvement on that edge. Obviously, he's adjusting so we need to give him time.

Knight: Even Knight was a bit more quiet in that game too. Still got through some really good work at a high intensity level but I just feel his impact on the game wasn't as great as last week.

Nicholls: Mark was really good tonight and he's redeemed himself in a big way. He didn't just get stopped right in his tracks or dragged back because he ran pretty hard and got those legs pumpeing post contact. Hopefully he can keep that up.

Lowe: Apart from the soft defence on Staggs' second try, Lowe had a good night. He seemed to play a lot more minutes and he was in the thich of everything which was good to see.

Sele: A great game from Sele, he's already proven what a pick up he was. ran really hard, got pretty busy and just gave it his all throughout his stint. He was powerful and created a lot of go forward.

Johnston: Not a lot to talk about apart from that try which was clever skill. Of course a bit of luch was involved too!

So yea, a frustrating loss that could have been a win if we had got some basic stuff right. But that's okay, it's Round 2 and we are doing a lot right. But in saying that, we do still have plenty to work on.
 

callmack1

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,609
Broncos too good for Rabbitohs at Suncorp: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2020/03/20/broncos-too-good-for-rabbitohs-at-suncorp/

Round 2 Press Conference: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2020/03/20/coaches-press-conference-round-2/

Bennett may end Latrell Mitchell fullback experiment: https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/03/21/bennett-may-end-latrell-mitchell-fullback-experiment/

Round 2 Gallery - Broncos vs Rabbitohs: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2020/03/20/round-two-gallery-vs-broncos/

By The Numbers Round 2: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2020/03/20/by-the-numbers-round-two/

Four runs, 39 metres - Latrell Mitchell the fullback is ‘so far away at the moment it’s not funny’: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...t/news-story/cfd7b09f64497d8e0bba83f2721097ac

‘He is of no value to this team’ - Bennett admits Latrell may not be fullback next week: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...k/news-story/39b7a61e6aa7ed58da7451742f3c7b29
 

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