2021 R1 Thu - Melbourne 26-18 South Sydney @ AAMI

[Generalzod]

The early excitement of Souths winning the comp looks like premature speculation.

A bit like investing with Bernie Madoff and working out it was all a massive scam.

 

[JamesRustle]

Game day contributors have not skipped a beat in the off-season. Only constructive criticism is that I thought the Jeff Stryker reference could have been introduced a tad earlier.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Anyone know what the situation with Tom Burgess is?

Looked eerily “Widdop-esque” to me.

 

[Valheru]

Spuths have it all to prove from here.

They have had a lot of wind blown up them as premiership favourites but the reality is they finished 6th last season and got hot at the right time for a deep finals run.

Last night didn't do anything to convince me they aren't a 5-8 place team again.

 

[TheDMC]

The early excitement of Souths winning the comp looks like premature speculation.

Premature ejaculation yes. I'm not so sure about premature speculation.

 

[Saxon]

For all their skill and attacking threat, Souths lack consistency and defensive resilience. A premier does not let in 22 points in half an hour, no matter the opposition or how badly it's going error wise. And it wasn't just try line defence either. Yardage defence was abysmal with Melbourne making easy metres.

Defence is an attitude. It's not the fun part of rugby league but it's the non-negotiable standard of champion teams. Just look at Melbourne and Roosters in their winning season recently.

Everything changed for Souths when Benji came on. Take him out of the mix and they score one try tops. He got them playing with more depth and was the instigator of their first two tries