Yeehaaa!! A good win tonight from the lads!! Certainly wasn't the most attractive game of Footy ever, it was slow and grinding but the boys put in a gritty performance and proved too strong. It's always good to win this style of game, always good to grind it out.
I thought the boys played well within themselves tonight as there wasn't much intensity or 'oompf' to our performance. It seemed like we went out there, knew we were the better team and just did enough to get the win. This resulted in a showing that certainly wasn't the greatest but the result was never in doubt. Playing like this at this time of year during the Origin period certainly isn't a bad thing and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of instruction from Wayne in this regard. He is the master man manager after all. I'm convinced this was the case because you look at the tries we scored, we looked a bit slow leading upto them but were suddenly able to flick the switch, up the intensity for one play and score some beautiful tries off a shift as a result. The boys knew when they needed to turn it on and they did that.
Made far too many errors in the first half and I was actually pretty unhappy at half time. However, the second half was much better and we never looked troubled in the end. Enjoyed the defence tonight, especially in that second half!! We kept them to ten points which is impressive and we were dominant in general play, the first up contact, line speed and kick chase was mega from the lads tonight and that's really pleasing as it's the main area where we've been lacking in recent Rounds.
Adding to the gritty game was the Refereeing. I thought it was atrocious tonight with Newcastle being allowed a very skinny ten all night. In fact, there were moments where they were two meters offside and the Ref did nothing about it.
Just happy to come away with an important two points in our first game during Origin. Great work lads!!
My voice is struggling a bit tonight Callmack after that. The 10 metres was short for the Knights like as our guy was getting up and hadn’t played the ball they were already 2 metres offside some of them 3 metres offside. Also the ruck speed was a crawl and they seemed to hold us down for an eternity but when we did it he gave them six again.
The Knights did turn up and we knew they’d put in a better performance. I also wasn’t that happy with the first half, coming up to half time our completion rate was something like 55 percent. To the boys credit though we tackled well and scrambled for one another.
Cody did lots of little things right tonight his kicks he did were bang on as was his kick chase and defence. I thought our best player was Keaon though he was enormous.
Trell: Made some very good defensive plays and had a couple of line breaks with kick metres. He was dodgy under the high ball a bit though and had some errors. Can’t be too hard on him though was an enormous effort to back up and in the second half we had to move him to the wing at times. At the end he looked like something was bothering him so I’m not sure he will be ok to play next week, it’d be 3 games in 8 days.
AJ: Had that error that handed the Knights their second try and as usual was shaky under the high ball. I thought he was good at the shit work carries tonight though and the tries he scored were awesome 2 of them he still had lots of work to do and lots of other wingers wouldn’t have scored those tries.
Campbell: Seemed to cop a knock early on I think to his sternum and he was in pain most of the match from what I could tell but he kept turning up in defence and made some very tough carries. I’m bloody proud of him. Hope the sternum isn’t anything too serious.
Burns: Well it was a very good game for him he was very involved and he had some runs where he came charging onto the ball with great energy and got fast play the balls away. He was hungry for work and his defence was on song. He went down a couple of times clutching something so I hope he’s ok. I’ll forgive him for his couple of errors.
Milne: He also looked sore during the game I think his ribs still aren’t right and are giving him trouble. He also was clutching his leg at times in the second half. Overall his defence was good except for the try he let in it was a bad read. He did give a penalty or two away I think but I loved his shit work carries and a couple of kick returns where he charged into the defence even with how sore he was he was still giving it his all. Certainly I think he deserves to hold the spot over Mansour.
Cody: Well I touched on him early. But his ability to create on the edges when needed is bloody good. Some might say he didn’t have a good game which ive seen a few say but I thought he was right up there as one of our best. It was a dewy field and I thought he controlled play nicely.
Reynolds: Was a very solid performance. I thought most of his kicks were very good, his defence was on song and his goal kicking was at its brilliant best.
Nicholls: Went about his work as he does. Made 38 tackles with 0 missed and had 13 hit ups for 97 metres. You don’t always realise the tough stuff he does but he needs to be commended for his consistency. He didn’t let us down.
Benji: I was a bit disappointed he had a few errors and his passes were off overall. Credit to him for his defence though he did well handling the Knights big boys and did not shirk away from tough contact.
Tatola: Was a solid game from Junior he had a couple of very strong carries. He had 37 tackles 0 missed and 10 runs for 90 metres. His metres are a bit down on last year though. I want to see him back making 120-130 metres consistently.
Koloamtangi: Well I’d love to know what he learnt coming out of origin camp. Keaon was enormous for us our best player tonight. He was in everything made 30 tackles did not miss any. He had 16 carries as well and in every one he was fighting for an extra metre with powerful leg drive. He seems to be getting every week.
Host: Was very solid did his job made some good no nonsense hit ups. He made a try saver on Clifford as well. In defence though he missed 8 tackles so this needs to improve. The rest of the team only missed 8 tackles between them all so really Hosty missing 8 tackles is not up to standard.
Sele: Had a solid first stint but a very short second stint. I didn’t notice him much but he did his job I guess.
Su’a: A better performance from Su’a had good energy in his carries and was better in defence. Loved his try where he kicked the loose ball ahead re gathered and scored.
Tom: I am gonna be brutally honest here and say that was an unacceptable performance from Tom. He had a couple of poor errors and he was the most flat footed I’ve seen he just did not run onto the ball at all. He had something like 11 runs for 62 metres, we need more than that. For a player of his quality it’s not good enough. It makes me wonder if he’s carrying an injury?
Mamozoulos: Played 33mins and did not let us down. His service from dummy half was good and he held his own in defence. He had 1 or 2 nice darts out of dummy half as well. He’s one for the future. I look forward to watching him again in round 17
So all in all a pleasing win all things considered with who we have out!
GLORY GLORY BELT IT OUT LOUD AND PROUD GO YOU GOOD THINGS SOUTH SYDNEY MARCHES ON!!!
P.S. got a photo with the great and legendary Mario Fenech as well.
