Everyone knows that finals are a different kettle of fish. The argument that Souths have "beaten no-one" on the way to getting there is ridiculous. If we had won 50% or less of our games you could say that but we are sittin in 2nd place with the 2nd best winning percentage in the comp. To get there, you can only beat whats in front of you and with the exception of maybe two or three of our wins, they have all been fairly convincing. The last couple of games have been without arguably two of our best attacking weapons. Take Barba and Ennis out of the Dogs side and we see how they go, even against weaker opposition. Souths have barely skipped a beat. 2 years ago, if we were missing Asotasi, we fell apart. This year we've barely noticed him missing.
The game against the Titans was fairly lack lustre but we had 45% of the ball, only a hand full of tackles in the opposition 20 and were playing a "form" team at home and still managed to win. Ok, you can argue that some calls went in our favour, but some certainly didn't as well. The Titans had a try gifted to a bloke who was a metre offside and another try off a pass that I have seen called forward before. Plus they won the penalty count so its hard to argue that we had the rub of the green.
These are the sort of games that last year / two years ago, we'd have lost convincingly. This year we stuck it out for a win. The type of win you'd expect from the Dragons two years ago or Manly at the backend of last year. If we'd have had 50% of the ball yesterday we'd have won by plenty and the only reason the Titans got a sniff at the end was because we'd made 50 odd more tackles than them at that stage.
As I said though, the finals are a different animal. We have players with the composure and proven finals experience to pull it off and a few young blokes who will shit bricks for sure. In that regard though, I don't think we are far different to many of the other teams. The Doggies aren't exactly proven finals performers either when it gets down to it. They would have to have just as many question marks over them as us imo.
One thing is for sure... I can't wait to find out.