My match preview. Don’t often do them but when I do like to share it!
Well well well here we are it’s that time again where we meet a massive arch rival the Storm. As we all know they’re a bogey side for us and no one has a worse record against anyone than we do against the Storm. Good thing this week is it’s on our home turf where we have beaten them before! Being a Thursday Night will probs mean it’s only quite a small crowd but I know all the diehard Souths members will be out there! I certainly will be.
Looking at the last month
Well for Souths we’ve had a very strong last 7 weeks and quite a strong last 4 games. We defeated Brisbane 35-6, defeated West’s Tigers 18-14 in an insane nail biter, defeated Titans in a comeback win 40-30 and defeated Raiders 34-20. The last few weeks we have played teams who have been coming off big losses so we’ve been challenged in every one of those games. Our defence has been a bit off the last couple of weeks and I feel our overall contact in defence has slipped and it’s not quite where it needs to be. The great thing is our attack has been great and we are creating lots of opportunities to keep racking the points up.
Looking at the Storm the last month they have had a 52-18 win over the Dogs, 20-4 win over the Rorters, 42-20 win over the Warriors and 40-14 win over the Sharks. They’ve really found their mojo the Storm in the last month and their attack is on song. Like us though the last couple of weeks they wouldn’t be happy with some of the tries they’ve been letting in so they’ll be looking to fix that.
Last time we met
Well how could we forget… it was Round 1 of this season. We just didn’t come out of the blocks and they were up 22-0 before we could blink. We were quite lethargic and had a poor completion rate the first half making crucial errors which just invited the Storm to hammer us. They also spread the ball early several times and found space on our edges! In the second half we got it back on our terms more so as we held the ball and made plenty of metres in the middle creating opportunities for us to get right back into it. Ultimately we had too much to do and a couple of 50/50 reffing decisions went against us plus an error or 2 which just meant we couldn’t bring the W home and our hoodoo down there continued!
Team News
Well for us we’ve been hit hard with injuries/suspensions and we are likely to be without all of Trell, Mansour, Campbell, Paulo, Moga, Reyno, Ta’affe, Murray and J. Cartwright… so the injuries are starting to mount up and our depth is about to get tested. I would expect Reyno to be named but don’t expect him to play. Marsters and Burns are likely to come into the centres for us and Hawkins into halfback with Arrow to lock.
For the Storm they’re getting NAS and G. Jennings back and there is a fair chance they will have Pap back as well. So the Storm are pretty much at full strength.
Keys to the game and getting the win
For us I just wanna see us dig deep and put in a big effort. That starts with our forward pack aiming up right from the start and getting into the Storm early. We simply can’t start how we have the last few weeks. Yes Murray is a big out but we have enough there to still get the job done. The next thing is our completion rate we simply can’t afford any cheap errors like the last time we played them. We also need to be disciplined not giving any cheap penalties or 6 agains away! Having a good kicking game as well will be important so even if Reyno is out Benji and Hawkins are very capable and can’t afford to kick down the Storms backs throats or kick it dead giving them 7 tackles. Our left edge once again is where I feel we can score some points and I see a vulnerability in the Storm down their right side defence. We also need Cookie to get into the game so need to find a way to try get some fast play the balls. If that can’t happen then Cookie will have to focus on making sure he’s giving good service with every pass on the money. For our outside backs we just need them to hang in there and all we can ask the guts coming in to do a job is that they do their best and work hard to scramble for one another. Another big key is stopping the offloads. We simply
can’t let the Storm offload at will as they’ll hammer us. They have threats all over the park but we will have to try and shut down Munster somehow which never seem to be able to do and also shut down Pap and Grant. Another big key is not giving Addo Carr any space or time. Hughes is another one you have to watch like a hawk!
Our job in the crowd
CMON RABBITOHS MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS GET THE HELL OUT THERE THIS THURSDAY NIGHT!!! WE ARE GOING FOR 8 IN A ROW SO LETS GET RIGHT BEHIND THE BOYS AND MAKE PLENTY OF NOISE!!! I THINK WE WILL GET KLEIN SO LETS MAKE SURE WE COME HOME WITH NO VOICE AND DO WHATEVER WE CAN TO GET ANY EXTRA SET RESTART OR PENALTY WE CAN GET!!!
BBBOOOO GET EM ONSIDE KLEIN BBBOOOOOOOO HOW LONG CAN THEY HOLD ON FOR!!! FORWARD FFOORRWWAARRRDDD PPPAAASSSSSS
THERE IS ONLY ONE SOUTH SYDNEY
ONE SOUTH SYDNEY
WALKING ALONG SINGING A SONG SINGING GLORY GLORY ALL THE WAY
SOUTH SYDNEY CLAP CLAP CLAP
SOUTH SYDNEY CLAP CLAP CLAP
SOUTH SYDNEY CLAP CLAP CLAP
RRRAAABBBIIITTTTOOHHHSSS
RRRAAABBBIIITTTOOHHHSSS
AAYYEE OOHHHH RRRAABBBIITT PRROOOFFF
AAAYYEEE OOOHHHH RRRAAABBBIITTT PPRROOOFFFFF
Gamenight
In the words of Jez as we look down the tunnel here at Stadium Australia we can see the jerseys of the purple and white starting to make their way down the tunnel. Rabbitohs members and Rabbitohs supporters please give a warm South Sydney welcome to the Melbourne Storm!!!
AT 7:53PM OK RABBITOHS MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS ITS NOW TIME TO GET ON YOUR FEET CLAP YOUR HANDS SHOW THE COLOURS SCREAM YOUR LUNGS OUT!!! HERE THEY COME ONTO HOME TURF YYOOUUURRR SOUTH SYDNEY RRRAABBIIITTOOHHHHSS!!!
LLEETTTSSSS GGGOOOO RRAAABBBIIITTTOOOHHSSS!!!
Final prediction
Souths to take it right up to the Storm but who we have out will be a bridge too far Storm by 8