Its going to be a long year guys!!

[Brownie.Kougari]

Hopefully I'm at that game

Souths'll improve, they've got too many class players not to

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

at the moment we have the same team we had last year minus peach, mellor, cusack....

you can say our young blokes getting more experienced will compensate for that... and it will in time! but we are only 2 rounds in for gods sake. let paea and rogers get a combination! watch luke just keep getting better! and for god's sake put merrit in fullback!

we have plenty of talent. all we need is cohesion. shame on whoever started this thread

Please point out any incorrect statement that I have made? I'm sick of you guys looking to last year for inspiration. Sure in 2007 we made the finals but 2008 is a new year. Most of the other teams have stepped it up a notch but we haven't. I stand by my conviction that a top 8 side would have put 50 on the Dogs after getting to 12-0 on Friday night. Unless there are some major changes to the team in both personnel and also attitude we will run bottom 4. If JT picks the same mob that ran around on Friday, the Panthers will give us a touch up this week.

 

[MattJ]

The bulldogs put there majority of points on us at the start of the 2nd half when JT had Asotasi, Kidwell, Luke and Greenfield all on the bench at the same time. Perhaps we dont have the depth and the great bench we thought we had prior to the seasons beginning.
That 2nd half was dismal, the lack of discipline and lack of attacking structure was very ugly. Its only early days but in such a close competition, if some problems that are evident now arent corrected fast, we could be in some trouble for 08.
A win this weekend would do wonders for confidence and get us back on track.... fingers crossed.

 

[Ronnie Dobbs]

Few probs for the Bunnies.

Obviously scoring points is a hassle, but Manly & the Sharks are in that boat too.
I like Luke as stated previously, but he can over play his hand. he needs to be a smart distributor as well as a smart runner from dummy half & worry less about the big play. Having said that, he is still your best option in attack. Eddie paea is nowhere near mature enough yet to make the right decisions in attack on a consistent basis.

Could we see JT institute the next revolution in the game by having his attack structured around his Number 9?

Souths will need to rely on a grinding type, forward based game as do the Sharks and the Eagles to be anything more than just competitive this year with Wing out & a massive talent deficit in the Centres.

Good luck out at CUA this weekend Dave. How are Souths Toyota Cup lads faring so far?

 

[Aaron_sfas]

Please point out any incorrect statement that I have made? I'm sick of you guys looking to last year for inspiration. Sure in 2007 we made the finals but 2008 is a new year. Most of the other teams have stepped it up a notch but we haven't. I stand by my conviction that a top 8 side would have put 50 on the Dogs after getting to 12-0 on Friday night. Unless there are some major changes to the team in both personnel and also attitude we will run bottom 4. If JT picks the same mob that ran around on Friday, the Panthers will give us a touch up this week.

1. last year was an inspiration. the way the guys pulled together and rallied at the end of the season. that was pretty special. and you dont want that attitude this year? no wonder you've written us off already
2. my point about last year was that we had a stronger team. give our youth time and they will come good. at this point its all about patience.


i think you will find i addressed an incorrect statement in point 1. yes 2008 is a new year. but 2007 was a good year.

the souths sydney district is over flowing with talent. we will rise to the top again soon and stay there.

finally i dont think we should read into the first two rounds. we have to many class players to be kept out of the 8

 

[Rocky Rabbit]

I agree in part with DKOR to a point. Yes 2007 was fantastic and we all loved but that has passed and its now round 3 of the 2008 season. Last year we were defensively fantasic this year it looks like the desire has gone... granted its only round 2.


Im not writing this season off yet however and i believe one win and the season will be back on track.

Lets go boys......Bring home the 2 points

 

[Hanscholo]

The halves needed to attack the line more. Less kicking to Utai as well. It looked more like an inspired bulldogs comeback against a wooden conservative game plan to me on TV. JT needs to get your 9 and 7 to take the line on after 25 mins, especially against teams like the dogs.

 

[Dave Q]

The halves needed to attack the line more. Less kicking to Utai as well. It looked more like an inspired bulldogs comeback against a wooden conservative game plan to me on TV. JT needs to get your 9 and 7 to take the line on after 25 mins, especially against teams like the dogs.

Well read.

 

[Reggie Priest]

I think we are gorrrrrrne!

 

[Dave Q]

Its covenient to write a team off that hasnt won a game yet.

If I recall correctly, plenty of people wrote us before the start of last year. Some of the experts had us coming 14th by the end of the season!

Nobody expected the 200% improvement in the retained players or the inspirational defence that kept us in the hunt for the finals with a game to spare.

Nobody thought we'd beat the Tigers (no, humiliate them) and knock them out of the finals.

I think we lost 5 in a row last year and it was all supposed to end there.

Weve had a difficult start in 2008, weve got massive injuries, but barring a total catastrophe, we have more great players to come on line than any other club.

Ive been to 2 matches this year, Ive seen enough spark to know that sooner rather than later, the engine will turn over.

Let the knockers and those with darkness in their hearts keep trying to pull us down.

Because its us who will get the last laugh.

Stand your ground Souths L.U, dont blink now!!

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Surely you guys are starting to come around to my point of view by now? Was I right or not? If we can't chalk one up this week, its going to be a looooonnng year!

 

[Ike E Bear]

The Tigers are ripe for picking this weekend. If the Bunnies don't beat them, then it will be hard to maintain any kind of positivity about the rest of the season.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

I think the time has come to bite the bullet and clean out the playing stocks yet again. Some of these "high profile" players that we have need to have contracts torn up. David Kidwell, Nigel Vagana, Dean Widders, Jeremy Smith, Ben Rogers all need to go IMO. Sack the lot of them, pay them out or p1ss them off to superleague or whatever has to be done. You can probably add Eddie Paea to that list as well. I have put a lot of faith in the kid but after watching him get run over a couple of times yesterday, my opinion has changed. A year or two ago I would have put him in the same boat as Mitchell Pearce but I have watched both, closely this year and Mitchell Pearce tackles his nuts off every game. Eddie doesn't even slow them down. It is time to focus on retaining the good players that we have at the club, Wing, Ndaira, Luke, Asotasi and cut the over rated hacks that had their best seasons 5 years ago. We need to buy some guys who are hungry to win. We need to rid the club of this "oh no, we are behind again, I guess we are going to lose now attitude." If we don't get a new attitude into the club then the current attitude will filter its way down into the juniors and we will be up the creek for years to come.

 

[thehattrickrabbit]

I think the time has come to bite the bullet and clean out the playing stocks yet again. Some of these "high profile" players that we have need to have contracts torn up. David Kidwell, Nigel Vagana, Dean Widders, Jeremy Smith, Ben Rogers all need to go IMO. Sack the lot of them, pay them out or p1ss them off to superleague or whatever has to be done. You can probably add Eddie Paea to that list as well. I have put a lot of faith in the kid but after watching him get run over a couple of times yesterday, my opinion has changed. A year or two ago I would have put him in the same boat as Mitchell Pearce but I have watched both, closely this year and Mitchell Pearce tackles his nuts off every game. Eddie doesn't even slow them down. It is time to focus on retaining the good players that we have at the club, Wing, Ndaira, Luke, Asotasi and cut the over rated hacks that had their best seasons 5 years ago. We need to buy some guys who are hungry to win. We need to rid the club of this "oh no, we are behind again, I guess we are going to lose now attitude." If we don't get a new attitude into the club then the current attitude will filter its way down into the juniors and we will be up the creek for years to come.

Vagana is retiriring, and we have already got a replacement in Luke Lewis coming.

So if we let Kidwell,Widders, Rogers & Jeremy Smith go, then that provided a fair bit of cap room to purchase some FORM players.

now I believe we dont need to fill those four spots that will be vacant from those players.

we might need two players out of those four, which increases our chance to sign two in-form players.

UFG- Up for grabs

Talanoa, Merritt, UFG, Lewis, Huihahau, Wing, UFG/Sandow, Greenfield, Luke, Asotasi, Faalogo, UFG, Sutton

I still cant say i rate Champion, so cementing his spot is far from likely atm, I think Sandow will probably get the gig in 09, but anything can happen..so at this stage, the no 7 spot is vacant. Sandow needs to show more of what he has provided for the rabbitohs for the rest of the year and hopefully improve his defence, Luke Capewell is an option at fullback, but we will have to see how he goes for the remainder of the season.

Kidwell's spot is vacant too, so id like someone like Simon Mannering to come to us, who is also a decent player in the backline, he is still got another year at the warriors at least.

So hopefully he can have a look at one of Luck, Johnson or Tupou to join our ranks next season.

 

[2 True Blues]

Widders went well for North Sydney last weekend apparently.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Widders went well for North Sydney last weekend apparently.

There is no question the guy has some talent. Trick is that he has dished up nothing but sh!t since the start of the year. He has looked slow and lethargic whenever I have seen him play this year and that is definitely not a good quality for an impact player to have. Perhaps he just needs to play for the Bears for a few weeks where he can lift his involvement level and get some confidence back. He would need to show SIGNIFICANT form reversal before I would pick him in my team though.

 

[2 True Blues]

Couple of weeks with the Bears would get no arguement from them I reckon after last week. LOL.... Think he is in the bears side to take on the Tig's this upcoming weekend. The Tig's are coming off a NSWRL cup loss to Wests so will be full of pump. But the Mighty Bears are still undefeated. Should be a good game.