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Round 9 - Rabbitohs vs Broncos: Thursday 5th May 7:50pm @Accor Stadium

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15,386
Your boys will be back, they are missing Latrell, he is going to make a difference when he returns. Hopefully we both make the finals and can have round 3.

It’s a nice gesture and I’m sure the lads here appreciate the honour bestowed, but the reality is that when it comes to impact, Renno is about a 8 to Latrells 4.

I would like to think that Ilias and Taafe came into the equation when Renno was farewelled in the hope that they could settle in and re-sign as more prominent players after their contracts expire end of next year.

These are gifted kids and all manner of clubs will be on the hunt for them after they serve their apprenticeship.

So if they can learn the Souths ways and then sign for unders for their best years ahead, that might be some kind of happy offset.

So potential Cameron Murrays, a million dollar player, just about, is on closer to half that, allowing for some extra cash.

But once again, Latrell equals a Munster plus a solid grinder factory, and that’s a deal too hard to refuse.

They way things are going, I think the Souths range is mid tier at 12th to 8th. I had them doing better earlier in the year.

The “ tweaks” and small changes JD has been speaking about, that’s looking too timid for life right now.

But the future it’s generally looking Ok, provided the plan starts working properly. Growing pains.

Brisbane had their absolute best game since I can remember. Most reasonable people were surprised, still look a bit fragile m.
 
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callmack1

Moderator
Staff member
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11,609

handyman2190

Bench
Messages
3,386
We only had 3 genuine front rowers in rotation and they did a combined 73 minutes. Payne Haas when he is playing does that on his own. If we are going to win the arm wrestle we need front rowers on the field getting over the advantage line.
Moale was ineffective,he is young i think he needs more time and he definately needs to grow a set and become more mongrel,he is too meek
 

lynx000

Juniors
Messages
1,320
It’s a nice gesture and I’m sure the lads here appreciate the honour bestowed, but the reality is that when it comes to impact, Renno is about a 8 to Latrells 4.

I would like to think that Ilias and Taafe came into the equation when Renno was farewelled in the hope that they could settle in and re-sign as more prominent players after their contracts expire end of next year.

These are gifted kids and all manner of clubs will be on the hunt for them after they serve their apprenticeship.

So if they can learn the Souths ways and then sign for unders for their best years ahead, that might be some kind of happy offset.

So potential Cameron Murrays, a million dollar player, just about, is on closer to half that, allowing for some extra cash.

But once again, Latrell equals a Munster plus a solid grinder factory, and that’s a deal too hard to refuse.

They way things are going, I think the Souths range is mid tier at 12th to 8th. I had them doing better earlier in the year.

The “ tweaks” and small changes JD has been speaking about, that’s looking too timid for life right now.

But the future it’s generally looking Ok, provided the plan starts working properly. Growing pains.

Brisbane had their absolute best game since I can remember. Most reasonable people were surprised, still look a bit fragile m.
At best I would place us if we are lucky getting 5-8 and the way things are shaping up for the Bunnies I would suggest the same for them.
 

Steenson123

Juniors
Messages
486
Walker is one of the most over rated players in the comp. His form has nothing to do with him haveing the C next to his name. Truth is Reyno has made him look good over the last 6 or 7 years. Walker would be easy to replace. It might be a couple decades or longer to find reynos replacement.
I beg to differ.
Empirical evidence and your eyes suggest Walker has been outstanding the past 3 seasons. And remember that includes with backrowers e.g Turner, Lowe having to play in 3 and 4 by Bennett due to having no one else available. And with having crocks like Burns there too. In many contests, the squad has gone as Walker goes.
 

Steenson123

Juniors
Messages
486
Well as I’ve said his kicking game must improve dramatically and he has to bark at the team and direct the team around that’s the job of a 7. Need massive work in this area. Need to improve on the timing of his passes and when to run, play short and when to throw the long pass he’s all muddled in regards to this currently. I’m not convinced he’s our long term 7.

I thought he didn’t have a good game last night.
Agree 101%. The problem for Ilias, in addition to not playing much in 2021 is his ROLE is NOT clearly defined. That's on the Coach. Plus Demetriou has had a full offseason to ready Ilias for his role. Watch how many times sweeping plays are called and the chaos surrounding them. You can sense it coming all the time. Walker himself seems unsure where to play and run. Its chaotic and rough. Either Demetriou puts 100% faith in Ilais to do the business or get someone else. I believe Ilias can make it, but he needs smart coaching and at this stage of his innings that translates to brevity and relevance in terms of instructions. Improvisation and off the cuff stuff will only happen once he gains confidence at A Grade level.
 

WepnutV

Juniors
Messages
285
I beg to differ.
Empirical evidence and your eyes suggest Walker has been outstanding the past 3 seasons. And remember that includes with backrowers e.g Turner, Lowe having to play in 3 and 4 by Bennett due to having no one else available. And with having crocks like Burns there too. In many contests, the squad has gone as Walker goes.
Well your as delusional as the person at souths who low balled reyno.. walker will never ever again find the time and space that reyno would create. Hes now playing in a souths team with no direction that he can obviously not provide.. reyno on the outher hand has the baby broncos flying high.
 

big hit!

Bench
Messages
3,452
Well your as delusional as the person at souths who low balled reyno.. walker will never ever again find the time and space that reyno would create. Hes now playing in a souths team with no direction that he can obviously not provide.. reyno on the outher hand has the baby broncos flying high.

Souths need to be able to build pressure, and then Walker and co might be able to do something off the back of that. They're in the bottom quarter of the comp for completions. And I'm not referring to just drop balls in goodball which I admit has been happening. I mean the type of handling errors that Tatola provided on Thursday. It's been frequent. Even Penrith would be struggling if they consistently gave the opposition the ball back in those areas. The Penrith's and Melbourne's of the world don't.
 
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callmack1

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11,609
After watching the replay, here's my full report,

Taaffe: Wasn't that great to be fair and this is the second time in three weeks he's had a poor game. Provided two lovely final passes for Taane, one resulted in a try and the other was disallowed. He also took a few nice catches under the high ball, made that break early in the first half off Cam's offload, and his goal kicking was great. But aside from those things, I thought he was really quite poor. Apart from those two passes to Taane, he was largely ineffective attacking the line as he struggled to chime in. A few of his passes hit the ground, went into touch or he came up with the wrong option at times. He was also swamped on just about every kick return. Dropped a bomb which resulted directly in a try. Taffey's last line of defence was terrible, just about non-existent as he came up with two really weak tackle attempts on Reynolds and Farnworth. I was really disappointed on both occasions. I know he's only a rookie so we should cut him some slack but we need more from him.

Johnston: Largely ineffective sadly. To be fair, a lot of that isn't his fault because Cody and Tass failed to give him any sort of good ball but AJ didn't really do much all game. A few nice hit ups but that was about it. Only had 8 runs for 55 meters which ain't good. Poor tackle attempt on Cobbo at the end two which sent him away for that runaway try.

Tass: Tassy wasn't great either. His running game coming out of our end was pretty strong and I thought his defence was solid but struggled to make any real dent in the defensive line. Had a few opportunities in space but largely failed to do anything with it. Don't think he passed to AJ even once and there was one moment in the first half where if he did, there was a real opportunity for us there about 30 meters out. Thankfully he cut out the errors from last week though. Not a great game from him but I'm willing to persist. There's a player there I believe, a good left center, He certainly looks the most likely of anyone else who has played there this year.

Graham: In a side where almost everyone else around him was poor, his effort and class shone through and individually, he had a great game. Certainly one of our best. Lots and lots of quality hit ups on his way to 104 meters as he didn't stop going in this area. Constantly put his hand up to put the effort in and take the tough carry. Looked pretty dangerous in good-ball attack as well with his footwork as he threatened a number of times. Stretch was pretty good defensively, saved our asses a few times with the only real negative of his night being the poor miss on Farnworth off that scrum where he scored. Still, if everyone put in the effort that Campbell did on Thursday night, we would have been okay.

Milne: Wasn't bad. His runs out of the backfield were enormous, and I don't think he's been given enough credit for this. Made a massive 156 meters off 17 runs which was more than anyone else in the side was able to do so hats off to Taane there. He obviously scored those two tries, a great finish for both but especially the second as he still had some work to do but made it look easy by cutting inside. His defence was pretty good, got caught out once but it didn't cost us. Apart from that he was fine and actually made some really good reads to shut down the play at times. Thought he could have done a bit more to help Taffey out when Oates scored though.

Walker: I don't even really know what to say because it's starting to become a real worry how poor he is in 2022. Went okay last week but took another huge step back the other night. Had two good plays on both our tries but that was it. He set up both those tries, the first off the scrum was brilliant as he held the ball just long enough to draw Farnworth in to create the space and then again for Taane later as he did well to beat the tackle of Oates and then slip it off to his winger for our second try. But aside from that, and one other line break assist, he did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Made simple errors, failed to pass when it was on, when he did pass it was off the mark and clunky or he took the wrong option. failed to demand the ball on the left after the Taaffe break in the first half which was a crucial moment. I also can't believe his stupidity in kicking that ball away on the turn over which later lead to a Broncos try. You're meant to be a senior player so lead FFS. His kicking game was so poor again, lollipop bombs that do nothing and no threatening kicks into the in-goal. His attitude this year just stinks and honestly, I'm starting to get a bit over it, it's hurting us big time!! Hurts to say that because I love Cody, just saying it how it is. I don't know what's going on but I hope he's okay because he's just clearly not in the right headspace. Hoping and praying he snaps back into form too because he is our most important player and we need him playing well. BADLY. I'm laying down the challenge to Cody as I'm sure many fans are. This is your team..... step up and own it, you can do it!!

Ilias: Wasn't bad without being great. I want to start by praising his defence as he was brilliant in this area! Not much got past him and he came up with some really important tackles on much bigger men so well done there. He also played his role beautifully in our two tries and the disallowed try. However, aside from that, he didn't really do anything of note. I agree he did fail to take control of the side at times and struggled to make in impact. Barely took on any kicking. So not his finest game but he wasn't bad.
 

callmack1

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11,609
Tatola: His first stint was really, really good. I thought he was our best forward in this period in fact. He constantly carted it forward well, got through a lot of work and was making big meters, especially post-contact. He still hit the 100 meter mark for the game and much of this was done in a big first stint. However, his second was just a car crash, he was beyond poor, beyond disappointing. He obviously had those two massive and unbelievable errors. Both were unforced, both were through a lack of attention and focus. I don't want to blame the loss on Junior because the team put ourselves in that position but there's no doubt those two errors were crucial, you can't deny that. We'd just got ourselves back into the game but those two errors cost us 8 points and killed off any chance of victory. It's simply not good enough and Junior needs to pull his socks up and put in, he's been average all year for the most part.

Cook: Has copped a bit online for how he played against the Broncos but I actually don't think he was bad at all. He did what he could to help us win. Good service from dummy half, made plenty of tackles as always with 43 made and only 1 missed, and I thought his running game was actually allgood. He didn't get many opportunities too run and they didn't lead to anything major when he did but he took the opportunities and made effective darts when they were on offer. However, I am a bit angry with him about the amount of crash balls he did, it's okay every so often but not all the time. Get the ball to our stars Cookie!! I was especially angry when he went to cam for a crash play after the Taaffe break early in the game, that ball should have gone to the left. He also made a poor error in the second half. But yea, I think he went mostly okay.

Moale: Not great. He only played 16 minutes which is an absolute joke from our coaching staff. So strange. Davvy struggled to make an impact last night and I'm starting to wonder if he's not quite ready yet. Will no doubt be a star of the future but maybe not just yet.

Koloamatangi: He's copping a spray from me because his game was simply not good enough on Thursday night. Apart from one, yes just one, very good carry and a few other solid hit ups. He was nowhere to be seen for 80 minutes. That is just so poor for a guy who is pushing for Origin selection. Not good enough Keaon.

Arrow: Our back row has been really strong this year but Jai added to the pathetic effort the other night as he also had a quiet game by his standards. Nowhere near as involved as usual and made just 77 meters.

Murray: The skipper also had an off game which is very rare for him. Had a nice line break assist early on with that special offload but then made the error the very next play to undo his good work. As the game wore on, he had a few good carries but otherwise struggled to make an impact if I'm being fair. Just 83 meters off 14 runs for him. A massive 41 tackles though!! His ball playing was also not as sharp and crisp as usual I thought. Gotta say, I did sort of feel sorry for him because he was one of the only guys out there putting in a real effort and trying hard. He battered his body but no one really followed.

Havili: Liva was great!!! One of our best no doubt! came on and provided some really really good impact and go-forward. Was super busy and in every carry he had he just kept fighting for every meter. Made a big 139 meters, was good defensively through the middle and tried hard. Showed some pride in his jersey and put in an effort which can't be said for a lot of the rest of the side.

Knight: Not a lot to talk about really, he wasn't great. A couple of decent carries but that was it. Gave away a really dumb penalty early in the second half which kind of set the tone. Needs to lift or he'll find himself out of the side.

Paulo: Didn't play again so nothing to talk about. Such a stupid bench strategy from our coach.

Peoples: A shining light in a very lackluster night. Well done to the young bloke, he was fantastic!! Played 64 minutes (which is huge for a debutant), ran hard and had a good work rate on his way to 111 meters, tackled everything that came his way and made an awesome line break off Cody! Could have had a try assist if the support play from Johnston and Tass was better. Well done Trent, great debut and congrats. I'd even make a case for him staying in the side after a game like that! not many other forwards are putting their hand up.

So as you can tell, I'm still very angry and upset with the performance on Thursday night. Like all of you, I waited all week to be dished up that shit and it's ruined my weekend. Still fuming.

Still just cannot believe the stupidity of that performance and the lack of effort shown. No desire, no focus. In all of our losses so far this Season, I've been proud to say at least we never gave up and the effort was there. Well, that wasn't the case this Round.

ALL of the tries we conceded we off the back of stupid shit from us, often they'd score that next set. Whether it was an error or a dumb penalty, we turned it over and basically let them in. The Broncos should never have even been in some of the positions they were in.

We have some real issues but the thing is, they're issues that have been apparent for a while. We get talk during the week about how it needs to be fixed yet nothing changes!! Every week I sit here and wait for the team to click but it's not. Thursday night was a big example of that. I'm over it. I've had enough of the excuses, it's now time for action or we will find our Season slipping away.
 

Nafedogg

Juniors
Messages
276
Great report as always Callmack. I’ll be really suprised if we actually win many more this season. I knew it was going to be a struggle without a few players but not this bad. Is JD too soft on the boys after a loss? Imagine a Maguire spray to give them a reality check.

Of course losing sucks, but one team has to lose. It’s the pathetic attitude of some players, the mistakes I’d expect from an under 8’s side and the continual lack of improvement in these mistake areas of our game. Our coaching staff have a lot to answer for, but it’s not them week in week out doing this stupid shit.
 

Hellray

Juniors
Messages
463
They made Moale back up and play Reggie’s today. Like I get it he is young and give him better game fitness but just give him the minutes in a grade or don’t play him at all.
I struggle to understand the thought process in his development
 

handyman2190

Bench
Messages
3,386
They made Moale back up and play Reggie’s today. Like I get it he is young and give him better game fitness but just give him the minutes in a grade or don’t play him at all.
I struggle to understand the thought process in his development
Moale is not ready!! Theyve let the goat go,there looking like they will let thomas go and we have noone to replace them,moale is 19, and had very limited development the last 2 years,he hasnt played a season of nsw cup,he is overwelmed. Thats why they need to flog him,he needs to show mongrel and id say he isnt fit enough.
 

Steenson123

Juniors
Messages
486
Well your as delusional as the person at souths who low balled reyno.. walker will never ever again find the time and space that reyno would create. Hes now playing in a souths team with no direction that he can obviously not provide.. reyno on the outher hand has the baby broncos flying high.
Yet let us see how far Reyno takes the "babies" and how much longer he lasts. Its like a new toy: it looks great in the short term but over time it fades. On verra.
Personally I believe if the squad were focused last Thursday they would have put a number on Reyno's lot. Even Gould et al noted that the squad could run at will against Brisbane BUT it first required steady ball control and good handling especially when in scoring positions. Look, we can say this and that: in any code of football, its on THE COACH and his staff to get a squad to control posession, to run smooth plays and for all to understand schemes and to motivate the squad. Thus far Demetriou barely gets a pass. Demetriou was a mates appointment via Bennett. That was his calling card to assume control at an historical, emotional NRL club. Brisbane at the time did NOT want Demetriou when struggling. I cannot recall any other A Grade interest in Demetriou, a total no-name. So we have a novice no-name inexperienced head coach not high on charisma or palmares. It shows in the games every week they trail, fumble constantly and most times, fall behind.
 

Steenson123

Juniors
Messages
486
If you are a novice coach as Demetriou is, what would you focus on to improve a football squad? Turnovers and ball control. Completions for NFL footy. Well Demetriou has had about 12 games thus far [include a few trail games and standing in for WB when absent] and he has proven to be ordinary. He has outright failed to achieve the requisite percentages required in these areas. I mean does he have a presence in the locker room, or do they simply take him as one of the gang?
 

big hit!

Bench
Messages
3,452
Looked at the rotations and minutes. A surprising use of the interchange.

Paulo 0 mins
Moale 16 mins
Knight 21 mins
Tatola 36 mins (hooked for his errors)
Havili 48 mins
Arrow 59 mins
Peoples 64 mins
Murray 76 mins

Peoples played on an edge so fair enough.

Don't understand why there is an OB on interchange. This is rare in club footy but Souths seemed to have included one several times this season. Surely Shaq Mitchell could have been this spot? Was there an injury cloud with one of the starting OB's?

Moale and Knight small mins put plenty of work onto Murray and Arrow. Include Havili in that, it's a very small middle that played the bulk of the match, hence my suggestion re Shaq Mitchell before.

Need established big bodies like TomB and Nicho back ASAP.
 

Eric the great

Juniors
Messages
239
The coach is propably thinking like most of the supporters which outside back is gunna have a shocker this week so better have one on the bench to throw on
 
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