Yea boys, nine straight now!! I'm not overly happy with the performance though tbh as I'm sure more Souths fans aren't. The start to the game was poor once again, I'd even go as far to say that that is probably the flattest we've looked all year. That was always my fear heading into this game, that the two byes in quick succession may have taken away our momentum and that has somewhat turned out to be the case I guess. However, to the boys credit, they really did stick at it and turned it around at about the 20 minute mark, from then on we looked pretty good, still clunky at times but it was enough to get the win. It really does feel great to get the win when you're not playing well.
In attack, as I mentioned before, we looked so flat early on. Passes weren't sticking, we lacked a bit of direction and the boys weren't running hard. It just seemed like we were only dipping our toe in and were going through the motions a bit. This is certainly an area that must be addressed as it has happened in the last few games. Thankfully, the boys were good enough to pull themselves together and sort it out which paid dividends with some really nice tries throughout the game. It still did look a little clunky at times but there were other times for a couple of Jennings' tries where we looked as slick as ever which was very pleasing.
Defensively, I actually thought we struggled a bit in this one. The lads were really struggling to get the Dogs forwards to the ground and onto their backs for much of that game which meant their ruck speed was quite high and they had more momentum than they probably should have. Their ball movement was also causing some trouble, it seemed like we were really struggling to wrap up the ball too and the Dogs were able to get a shit load of offloads away which put us on the back foot. These are all work ons for next week. However, I thought our goal line defence was really pleasing. We turned them away numerous times through some real desperation and resiliance with the edge defence in paticular being outstanding on both sides. Then there was that play from Murray and AJ to hold up Martin in the first half when he looked certain to score.
Johnston: Was pretty good. Safe at the back, looked dangerous off the back of those sweeping backline plays and his speed caused the Dogs a fair bit of trouble. Support play from AJ was top notch and it's a shame the execution wasn't there to get it to him at times. However, it was his passing game and pass selection which impressed me, in paticular when he held the ball just long enough to allow Jenko to go in for his first.
Graham: Great game in all areas. I saw some real desire in Cammy this evening. His running game was excellent, did a lot of work coming out of our own end and all the runs he had were really aggressive and hard. Then there was his defence, he came up with two great stops down that right edge where it looked like the Dogs would score but he managed to shut it down. I'm also loving the effort he puts in on the kick case.
Hunt: Was pretty good. Made that poor error early on but responded well with a nice, hard running game. Defensively, he was very dominant, holding up Hopoate in the first half through sheer despiration and then was able to shut down a fe plays throughout the rest of the game.
Gagai: Was good I thought. Backing up from Origin was always going to be tough but he was on song. A heavy involvemt in attack and he took a lot of hit ups to ease the pressure on our pack. Looked very slippery on a few of those runs too.
Jennings: A great afternoon out for Jenko! Some amazing finishes in that left corner to get a well deserved hat-trick and go to the top of the 2018 try scorers list for now. It was not only his pretty finishes though, it was everything in between that was outstanding. So many tough runs and every single one of these were done strongly with intent and desire. Was pretty safe in defence too and I thought he was one of our best overall this afternoon.
Walker: Not bad at all. Came up with some absoulutely brilliant plays, most notably for Reyno's try which was just poetry in motion and then the little stop-start for Jenko's third, it was a pretty decent game from Cody today.
Reynolds: Was decent. He looked quite falt early on but recovered to end up having quite a solid game. Fantastic support play and speed for his lovely try, his kicking game terrorised the back three once again and the goal kicking seemed to be better.
T.Burgess: Wasn't bad at all but I think the Dogs did a pretty good job at containing him in this one. They were up in his face all the time which limited his impact but it's a credit to how well Tom is going because I don't think he had a bad game as he still layed a nice platform and had some good runs, it's just that he was kept a bit more quiet than usual tonight if that makes sense.
Cook: Just outstanding. To back up from Origin and put in a performance like that three days later was all class. A massive workload in defence again and I'm sure he will be one sore lad tomorrow. His running game was also at it's best though as he made numerous line breaks and it was his break which obviously set up Reyno's try. Cookie even went close to scoreing himself a couple of times and I think he was probably our best tonight.
G.Burgess: I thought he was pretty quiet in his first stint as he only had a few runs and he looked a bit flat and was kind of going through the motions I guess. However, he turned it around in the second stint and was back to his best with his aggressive running which was awesome.
Sutton: Wasn't bad. Had a bit less involvement than we are used to seeing but it wasn't a bad game by any means as he came up with some really strong runs cutting back in off Cody's passes. I also thought he picked the times when to run and when to pass quite nicely. can't wait for his 300th next week, that's gonna be a friggin huge occasion!
Crichton: Was really good tonight backing up too. Wasted an opportunity early on with that bad pass to AJ but was vintage Angus Crichton after that with hard, direct running at different lines which always puts doubt in the oppositions mind. He made plenty of tackle breaks tonight too.
S.Burgess: It was just your classic performance from Sammy. It's actually crazy how consistent he is and he's able to do this every week. Tonight was no different as he had a great game. Hard, direct running as always and he made so many meters tonight, I think it was well over 150 for him which layed a nice platform for everyone else to work off. Sam was also one of our best.
Doueihi: Not an awful lot to say as he didn't get many minutes but did plug the dummy half role nicely once Cookie came off for a rest.
Murray: Was good to see him get extended minutes in this one and he turned out a nice game. Got through a mountain of work with his tackling and there were all absoulutely textbook from Cam. Running game was very solid also just like it always is.
Nicholls: Also not a lot to say as he had reduced minutes but he did a job when he came on and we didn't lose anything there with Clarky being suspended.
Tatola: Was good. When the team looked quite flat early, he came on and provided some great aggression which I liked and he kept it up the whole time he was on the field.
But yea, the start to this game was weird because it's hard to pick out one player, we just looked a bit deflated over all. Bu hey, you can't be up every week and we still came away with a pretty convincing win. Now that is absoulutely nothing to complain about!!
