Round 1 - Storm vs Rabbitohs: Thursday 11th March 8:05pm @AAMI Park

[callmack1]

Aggghhh! What a frustrating night! I'm not upset because it's Round 1, just really frustrated. First half was pretty poor, we came out switched off and Melbourne made us pay big time, we couldn't handle that early onslaught. Throughout that early period where we were getting dominated, the was some really poor defence going on, looked pretty soft. And after the Storm scored their third, I thought it was game over.

However, to the boys credit, we got our shit together and played some really good Footy. For a period of about twenty minutes, we looked great, super dangerous and the boys did really well to work themselves back into the game, I was quite proud of that. However, as per usual, we returned to our error-riddled ways and lost the plot, completely beat ourselves. You just can't do that in Melbourne. That game was there for the taking and with the way we were playing when we got it right, I feel we certainly could have won. But as I said, we just made far too many errors which meant we couldn't capitalise on our opportunities. It was shades of 2020. A complete contrast to the Charity Shield. Where has that ball handling gone?

Still, despite the frustration, there's a lot of positives to take out of that. After the way the game started, it's incredible the boys even got themselves in a position that they could win. So I was happy we showed some real heart and made a game of it. Tonight just proves how good we can be when we get it right, we just have to stop getting it wrong.

We just can't win in Melbourne can we? No matter what. Hate that bloody place.

This will bring us back to earth, back to the pack and it's a bit of a wake up call for th boys. Nothing to panic about, it's Round 1 and we don't want to be the full package yet. Tough to lose Round 1 but we'll go agains next week. Onwards and upwards.

Just a quick note, that this is how I'm gonna do may match reviews this year. Will do my initial thoughts straight after the game and then a full in-depth, player by player review the next day once I've watched the replay.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Looks like the wooden spoon might be heading to Redfern in 2021

Browny and Rhyno need a room.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Aggghhh! What a frustrating night! I'm not upset because it's Round 1, just really frustrated. First half was pretty poor, we came out switched off and Melbourne made us pay big time, we couldn't handle that early onslaught. Throughout that early period where we were getting dominated, the was some really poor defence going on, looked pretty soft. And after the Storm scored their third, I thought it was game over.

However, to the boys credit, we got our shit together and played some really good Footy. For a period of about twenty minutes, we looked great, super dangerous and the boys did really well to work themselves back into the game, I was quite proud of that. However, as per usual, we returned to our error-riddled ways and lost the plot, completely beat ourselves. You just can't do that in Melbourne. That game was there for the taking and with the way we were playing when we got it right, I feel we certainly could have won. But as I said, we just made far too many errors which meant we couldn't capitalise on our opportunities. It was shades of 2020. A complete contrast to the Charity Shield. Where has that ball handling gone?

Still, despite the frustration, there's a lot of positives to take out of that. After the way the game started, it's incredible the boys even got themselves in a position that they could win. So I was happy we showed some real heart and made a game of it. Tonight just proves how good we can be when we get it right, we just have to stop getting it wrong.

We just can't win in Melbourne can we? No matter what. Hate that bloody place.

This will bring us back to earth, back to the pack and it's a bit of a wake up call for th boys. Nothing to panic about, it's Round 1 and we don't want to be the full package yet. Tough to lose Round 1 but we'll go agains next week. Onwards and upwards.

Just a quick note, that this is how I'm gonna do may match reviews this year. Will do my initial thoughts straight after the game and then a full in-depth, player by player review the next day once I've watched the replay.

There was that spell there where I thought you had gained the momentum and were almost certainly going to run them down.

Then a few tough calls, errors and bad luck and the composure fell away and it all got too hard.

It’s all done and dusted, so it’s really a matter of what you take out of it.

Where did this stage fright come from?!

 

[Mr Spock!]

Cook was so poor he must've thought he was playing in a final.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Cook was so poor he must've thought he was playing in a final.

Yeah he manages to pull these games out every now and again, but to use an old saying, he wasn’t boxing in the shadows alone.

There was enough self-loathing and mistakes in your play to suggest that you can fix up most of your issues. I’m not saying you lost it more than they won it, but there’s ample lessons to take away.

If you play your best and they beat you, that’s catastrophic.

They are an absolute gun side. It was a frustrating loss as much as anything. Sometimes they are the hardest to stomach. Could have been much much worse.

 

[Rabbits20]

Cook was so poor he must've thought he was playing in a final.

I was appalled with him.

On another note if anyone had doubts re Arrow they shouldn’t have after tonight. On a night with not too many positives Arrow showed exactly why we bought him. Stand and applaud stuff it was! He’s a tough player fights for every inch!

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I was appalled with him.

On another note if anyone had doubts re Arrow they shouldn’t have after tonight. On a night with not too many positives Arrow showed exactly why we bought him. Stand and applaud stuff it was! He’s a tough player fights for every inch!

Yeah I agree. I’ve never doubted Arrow.

 

[callmack1]

Storm take the points down in Melbourne: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2021/03/11/storm-take-the-points-down-in-melbourne/

Press Conference - Round 1: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2021/03/11/press-conference-storm-v-rabbitohs---round-1-2021/

'No hype next week' - Bennett questions Rabbitohs' attitude: https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/03/11/no-hype-next-week-bennett-questions-rabbitohs-attitude/

Bennett positive despite Burgess being stretchered off against Storm: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...m/news-story/d3f369d59672aa587ee5eacb1d52f161

 

[truthslayer]

What a disappointing start. Jai Arrow great debut and must start, Latrell Mitchell come on down! Excellent. What a terrible game by the cook! His passing is sus at the best of times. How can we keep Marshall who played ok, Cook, Walker, Reynolds all on the field at the same time. It's not going to work! If Josh Mansour is the sauce he had a strawberry topping debut. Very average. Bring back the young bloke.Host played better in the second half, but out of position at times in defence. Walker needs to stand up in these big games! The fwds very tame in the first half even Murray was only just! If we are going to be a threat our experienced players need to stand up in these matches. There can be no going missing against good teams. Ball retention poor and needs to be better than last year and this game going fwd!
Jaydn Sua? What was that game all about? Melbourne are professional and that really shows! Souths lackluster . I hope the coach and the players have learned lots from this outing and improve for the better next week!

 

[Travitoh]

The slow start cost Souths against a very good side and they were chasing the game from there. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.

 

[big hit!]

This is going to sound naff given how it looked when Melbourne got out to the early lead, and won the game, but......

Souths were actually the better team for most of the match once both sides settled into the grind of playing footy.

The first 30 mins killed them. Too many errors, lack of completions, and really bad defence both in yardage and goodball in the opening qtr killed them. Melbourne turned up to play from the opening whistle. Souths just thought it was going to happen for them again like it did against St George in Mudgee.

Being the better side on the night doesn't matter though when you're so bad you give up 22 points in half an hour against the defending premier.

 

[Souths Till I Die]

This is going to sound naff given how it looked when Melbourne got out to the early lead, and won the game, but......

Souths were actually the better team for most of the match once both sides settled into the grind of playing footy.

The first 30 mins killed them. Too many errors, lack of completions, and really bad defence both in yardage and goodball in the opening qtr killed them. Melbourne turned up to play from the opening whistle. Souths just thought it was going to happen for them again like it did against St George in Mudgee.

Being the better side on the night doesn't matter though when you're so bad you give up 22 points in half an hour against the defending premier.

Yeah I agree with this sentiment. If we're gonna play trash footy id rather we play it at the start of the season instead of the business end of the season.

Latrell said it best at the end game interview "we're still perfecting our combinations but we're only just getting started".

 

[BotanyBorn&Bred]

This is going to sound naff given how it looked when Melbourne got out to the early lead, and won the game, but......

Souths were actually the better team for most of the match once both sides settled into the grind of playing footy.

The first 30 mins killed them. Too many errors, lack of completions, and really bad defence both in yardage and goodball in the opening qtr killed them. Melbourne turned up to play from the opening whistle. Souths just thought it was going to happen for them again like it did against St George in Mudgee.

Being the better side on the night doesn't matter though when you're so bad you give up 22 points in half an hour against the defending premier.

Melbourne had made more errors than Souths at the 22-0 mark, just saying, set completions were similar at that stage too but Melbourne had more set because they kept scoring tries leading to more possessions

 

[BotanyBorn&Bred]

What a disappointing start. Jai Arrow great debut and must start, Latrell Mitchell come on down! Excellent. What a terrible game by the cook! His passing is sus at the best of times. How can we keep Marshall who played ok, Cook, Walker, Reynolds all on the field at the same time. It's not going to work! If Josh Mansour is the sauce he had a strawberry topping debut. Very average. Bring back the young bloke.Host played better in the second half, but out of position at times in defence. Walker needs to stand up in these big games! The fwds very tame in the first half even Murray was only just! If we are going to be a threat our experienced players need to stand up in these matches. There can be no going missing against good teams. Ball retention poor and needs to be better than last year and this game going fwd!
Jaydn Sua? What was that game all about? Melbourne are professional and that really shows! Souths lackluster . I hope the coach and the players have learned lots from this outing and improve for the better next week!

Just my input on a couple of points here.
SuA was terrible, Bennett was right to take him off, and if Tom didn't get injured, he should never have come back.
Host was good, made good meters, looked agile, defense was ok. I'd continue with him, and bring up Arrow and put SuA on the bench. If Tom is out next week, put Arrow in the front row and Koloa starting at second row
Cooke was terrible, the invisible man. The middle and right edge defense cost us last night.
Mansour made a couple of errors but he was ok, making yards on the hard runs into the teeth of those monster fowards.

Souths got done in the middle and the right edge. This needs to be fixed. Bench SuA.

I'm surprised nobody is talking much about Papenhuyzen's try in the corner. That should have gone upstairs, there was a lot of doubt he grounded that. I've seen those not given many times. That and the ridiculous penalty on Gagai tackling Hughes, we get the calls on those two and its a tied game and completely different ball game.

And having Benji on the field replacing SuA made us a lot more dangerous without comprimising our defense. It just needs more work and time on the field to gel.Benji's defense was good.

 

[Jim Rockford]

Agree with pretty much all you've said there Botany.

 

[BotanyBorn&Bred]

With Latrell, he was great. Last season I was pointing out that he needed to run at the line himself, be a bit more "selfish", not be so quick to pass off to another runner. He definitely improved that aspect. I would just say a very slight criticism, on left edge shifts inside the opposition 20, he needs to back himself and engage the line. He is so big and strong, they are not going to stop him, like the try he scored. There were two left shifts where I thought he passed to Johnstone a fraction early and the sefense had AJ covered. Back yourself brother! You can stampede over the top of them!

 

[big hit!]

Melbourne had made more errors than Souths at the 22-0 mark, just saying, set completions were similar at that stage too but Melbourne had more set because they kept scoring tries leading to more possessions

Yardage defence was shocking. Easy metres and line breaks put Melbourne in positions to score.

Which brings up this squad's achilles heal - defence resilience. It's not the fun part of rugby league, but it's the non-negotiable standard of premiership teams. 22pts shouldn't be given up by any intending premier, no matter how badly it's going with errors.

As I mentioned before, Souths were the better team on the night after the mayhem of the first 30 mins. Storm didn't look like scoring again. However, resilient Defence is an attitude. For all skill and attacking threat they posses, the group need to adopt a fortress mindset to earn the right to be mentioned with premiership favourites. Last night showed they don't quite yet have it.

 

[BotanyBorn&Bred]

Yardage defence was shocking. Easy metres and line breaks put Melbourne in positions to score.

Which brings up this squad's achilles heal - defence resilience. It's not the fun part of rugby league, but it's the non-negotiable standard of premiership teams. 22pts shouldn't be given up by any intending premier, no matter how badly it's going with errors.

As I mentioned before, Souths were the better team on the night after the mayhem of the first 30 mins. Storm didn't look like scoring again. However, resilient Defence is an attitude. For all skill and attacking threat they posses, the group need to adopt a fortress mindset to earn the right to be mentioned with premiership favourites. Last night showed they don't quite yet have it.

Agreed.
Melbourne is always going to be a problem unless we can tame their fowards. We need someone in the pack who is going to be the enforcer like a Sam Burgess or a Ben Te'o, someone who relishes the contact. Maybe Jai Arrow will grow into that role because Su'A has been disappointing in all the games he's played against Melbourne

 

[callmack1]

Rehab Report Round 1 Update: https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2021/03/12/rehab-report-round-1-update/

Really good news about Tom, thank god he's okay.

Benji Marshall was 'the difference' in the Rabbitohs' spirited fightback, says Johnathan Thurston: https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/nrl-ne...ferguson/49612c21-1fee-48a7-9789-69bd3b678e37

Marshall magic nearly sparks remarkable comeback win for Rabbitohs: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/spo...arly-sparks-remarkable-comeback-win-rabbitohs

 

[Souths Till I Die]

Looks like the wooden spoon might be heading to Redfern in 2021

Rhyno mate it looks like the broncos are handing you their wooden spoon in 2021.