Here’s my match report for Round 4, 2024 against the Bulldogs.
Overview
Just a really gritty win. We all said leading up to the game that we don’t really care how we get a result, just win. And win we did. It wasn’t pretty at all, it wasn’t perfect, but I guess we can’t expect it to be right now. We did enough to get the result and there were certainly signs of improvement.
The biggest takeaway from me was certainly the effort areas. While there is still a bit of work to do there, we definitely took a step in the right direction. Diving on loose balls and showing some real, genuine effort in areas of the game for the first time this year was a good sign. Our defensive resolve and resilience were pretty good and that’s something to build on for sure.
The game started solidly, then we really brought the energy, dominated and skipped ahead. It was a little disappointing how we kind of fell away for 20 minutes or so before halftime, but I do have to give credit to the side with how they fought back and recovered to wrestle it back. That’s more mental strength than we’ve shown in many games in 2024 and the back end of last year. From then on, we were able to maintain it for the most part and hold on for the first win of the year.
Attack
Not a 100% polished performance but we still showed enough. The most impressive thing was the 97% completion rate. That was absolutely insane. Surely that’s the highest a Souths side has completed in a long, long time, right? Surely. You have to somewhat take your hat off to the coaching staff and players for that. To turn it around from an abysmal number of errors last week, to only making one actual handling error is no mean feat and it’s pretty damn impressive. Credit where credit is due for that because the turnaround is amazing. That really set the platform for the win for sure.
We weren’t perfect but showed some really good signs still for sure. No issues with our yardage game at all, that was pretty strong, and we were making really decent meters pretty much all game, so everyone did well there. The Dogs did have more running meters than us, but I do think that was maybe because of the penalty count and the possession they had.
The actual attacking game was a wee bit mixed with more positives than negatives I will say. Some of the tries we scored yesterday were brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. They looked well-constructed and potent with everyone playing their roles and executing it perfectly. Some of the shifts, in particular the one for Wighton’s try were just a beauty to watch. When was the last time we saw Souths make clean breaks and cause some broken play like that? It was very impressive.
However, overall, I do think JD nailed it in his presser when he said we do look like a nervy team at the moment. There was still a number of attacking opportunities that went begging because we looked clunky or nervy. The boys were still clearly lacking in a bit of attack, and it showed in our plays.
Defence
Our work off the ball was by far the most impressive thing to take out of this Good Friday clash. I know it was against the Dogs, who aren’t exactly the most impressive attacking outfit, but you can only play what’s in front of you and I thought, for the most part, we defended our line really well. They had a lot of time on our line and a lot of possession and territory, especially in that second half but we constantly kept turning up for each other and turning them away. Either shutting down their plays or forcing them into error with some jolting defence. We haven’t seen any signs of that at all so far this year until now. I just loved the grit and resilience we showed on our line in that second half. My heart was in my mouth the whole time, but the boys held on under fatigue, no matter how tired they were.
So that part of our defence was pretty good, but I’m still not happy with our defence in general play. Line speed is still severely lacking and hasn’t changed. Especially being at the ground, it’s evident how bad it is. They seem to just take a couple of steps up, and then wait for the ball carrier to take it to them. I genuinely can’t remember the last time we pinned a side in their 30 with strong defence. It’s not good enough. We need to be far more aggressive there.
Obviously, discipline was also very poor in defence. That was probably the worst area of our game yesterday afternoon. We gave up 11 penalties I think it was which is just unacceptable. I know a lot of that was really poor reffing, and all of Sutton’s calls seemed to go against us, but after watching the replay, I actually think a lot of the penalties were fair and just poor discipline from us. My problem with the ref was that he wasn’t pulling up the Dogs for the same things. But anyway, most of that is on us and we could have lost that if we weren’t careful. We gave them so many legs up. Clean that area up a little, and I think we win by more.
Still so much work to do with defence but we took a step in the right direction.
Player by Player
Mitchell: he wasn’t extremely outstanding like we know he can be, but I’d still say it was a pretty good afternoon for Trell. He was nice and solid. I was pretty happy with his effort and involvement for most of the game as he seemed very willing to get his hands on the ball and take some tough carries. His work rate there was good, and all his carries were very strong, he constantly asked questions. Relatively limited in his opportunities in attack but he did have a hand in Jack’s second try and almost set him or AJ up a couple more times with some nice cut out passes. I loved his effort areas as he was constantly diving on loose balls. Great offload which started the break before Wighton’s first try. Defensively he was pretty good too! The tackle on Burton when he took that tap in the second half was simply outstanding. It was one-on-one and had to be made. That changed the game in our favour. The only negative of Trell’s game in this one was Tracey’s first try. I don’t think he tracked across hard enough, it was kind of lazy and he just jogged. Had he tried hard to get across there, he could have been in a position to stop the try. But anyways, it was a pretty good performance from our man.
Johnston: Very good arvo for AJ. No tries, but he did everything else. His kick returns and hit ups were pretty solid and he cracked the 100-meter mark so you can’t ask for much more there. The other day was also the first time we’ve really seen him in space for a while. That break he made in the lead up to Jack’s first try was amazing! Who says he’s slowing down? He used speed to completely burn a couple of defenders before breaking through and then selling the dummy to Taaffe. That was brilliant. His work in setting up Wighton’s second was also fantastic. Again, he showed a clean pair of heals to just get on the outside of his man, and he completely burned past them, before getting the ball back to Wighton on the inside. God that was good. AJ defused all kicks that came his way well and didn’t put a foot wrong in defence all afternoon. A shame to see him get injured, I hope he’s okay.
Wighton: Man of the match for us easily!! What a game from Jackie, how good was he?! In just his second game, he’s already shown us the impact he can, and will, have. He started the game very well as his first two touches looked ominous. He then backed that up a few minutes later with his first try in the Red and Green. It was brilliant. He got early ball from Cody and still had a lot of work to do as the Dogs had numbered up well. However, such is Wighton’s class, that he somehow managed to just flick the switch and slip straight through both of them! There was no stopping him. We’ve really missed genuine strike like that. His second try after halftime was just as good, if not better. Jack held a pass up just long enough to allow AJ to get on the outside of his man, and then backed him up through the middle to score his second with ease. So good. Aside from the flashy stuff, Jack did the tough stuff well too. 13 runs for 140 meters is great for an outside back. Defended pretty well too, although I was disappointed in him on Tracey’s first try. He rushed up on Taaffe and completely missed him. If he’d got him, the play breaks down, but it was a clean miss and resulted in a try. He also made our only handling error and bombed a possible try as a result, but I’ll forgive him for that. Our best player out there for sure.
Tass: Much better from Tassy and certainly his best game of the Season so far. I’ve been very critical of him to start the year as he kind of looked weak, but he was much better against the Dogs. His carries out of trouble were back to the level they should be, and this saw him not get driven back as much. He cracked the 100-meter mark which is great. No real opportunities in good ball attack. Defence was pretty solid, he came up with a very good try saver on Addo-Carr, however, Burton’s try was his error. Tassy was standing too close to Hawko here and didn’t slide quick enough which meant Kikau could easily get on his outside and Taane had to stay in for us, that created the overlap, so I was a bit disappointed in Tassy for that. But otherwise, a solid arvo.
Milne: Another pretty solid game from Taane where he gave it his all and you can’t fault his effort. Nothing really to note but his carries were really strong. I love him coming out of our end. Defensively, he did well for most of the game, but I was disappointed in him on the Burton try. There wasn’t much he could do initially as he had to respond accordingly to what Tassy was doing, but one the ball had gone past him, his turn and chase was poor and he kind of gave up which sucked. I still feel he could have stopped that or at least made a last-ditch effort to. Still, not a bad game for him.
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