Before everyone starts bagging off the team over the scoreline, I think we need to examine the performance. Overall, I thought it was an exceptionally gutsy effort against the competition favorites by a team horribly out of form. Moreover, if it weren't for some of the worst refereeing decisions that I have ever seen, then I think the scoreline might have been a bit different.
In analysing Souths' performance tonight, I'll start with the good. I would firstly like to start things off by pointing to the fact that we played, what I believe, was close to our best team. I hate to be the one who says I told you so but this was the game where Cook proved why he should be the starting hooker. In recent weeks I've criticised Cameron McInnes for his lack of direction and his inability to speed things up around the ruck area; the performance of Cook was the everything that we wanted and need - direction, control and stability. There was about a 10 minute spell in the second half where we look like the team of old and look destined to go on and possibly score a few tries - that was largely due to the clever vision of Cook. Moreover, we seemed to be making more metres down the field when we have the football with Cook's sniping runs and his ability to give the forwards the right sort of ball at the right time.
Secondly, I'd like to praise the performance of Greg Inglis. During the week I spoke about the need for his halves to provide him with ball in key areas of the field. His try in the second half confirmed that - flat ball from Keary, close to line with Inglis in an one on one situation is only going to lead to a try. Even though it was an obstruction, the ball that Inglis received for the Cook try was another example of what I am talking about - giving Inglis the ball close to the line so he can suck in defenders and use his strength. However, we need to do more of this. There were quite a few occasions when Inglis received the ball in inauspicious situations. Moreover, I'd like to see him get the ball from scrums instead of packing down at lock and just handing the ball off. Scrums are a great opportunity to work a set play where we can isolate defenders one on one with Inglis, which is what we need.
The forwards tonight also showed what they were made of when they had the footy for the most part. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that we had the right team on the paddock. Although he made a few errors, I really like Paul Carter; I like his aggression, I like his strength and I like the fact that he just doesn't want to be tackled. Under no circumstances should Kyle Turner start over him! I also think Sam Burgess had a decent game. Many will point to the fact that he gave away penalties and started a 'brawl' but it was that brawl which sparked something in us and all of a sudden we got our mongrel back. Tom Burgess is starting to look like George Burgess in 2013-2014; he was a handful all night and didn't drop the ball at all! Chris Grevsmuhl and Nathan Brown also had strong games! Many will say that statistically our forwards weren't anything special but that is because of penalties and errors which I will highlight later on. I'm judging these guys on the quality of their runs and based on that, I thought they were impressive.
Now onto the bad. I said right before this game even kicked off that in order to beat the Broncos that we needed to be disciplined in terms of penalties and maintaining possession; we did neither and it cost us. The amount of stupid ball that we dropped was unbelievable. Jason Clark had a Betty Crocker tonight in terms of his handling but to be fair to him, the whole team is dropping the football. In terms of discipline we were no better. While we did give away our fair share of stupid penalties, I do think we have a case of being hard done by by that clown Maxwell; I thought he had an absolute shocker of a night and contributed largely to much of the tension out there through some dubious penalties. For starter, some of his holding down calls were on tackles that were no different to any other tackle in the game. Secondly, how that penalty on Sam Burgess for placing a hit on James Roberts was a penalty I'll never know! The guy was lying on the ground; what is Burgess supposed to do? Touch him? Burgess didn't do anything illegal or snide; it was a hard hit on someone who was submitting voluntarily. Thirdly, Adam Blair got away with absolute murder out there tonight! How on earth did he not get sent off for that shot on Adam Reynolds is beyond me. In general, I felt that Maxwell communicated very poorly with players and failed to control the game.
While the referees may be responsible for some shocking decisions, we cannot possibly blame them for our lapses in concentration and our defensive errors. I thought the first try we conceded was unforgivable; it was such a soft try that came about due to Auva'a not breaking from the scrum quick enough. Sam Burgess may have been at fault for the second one but when a defender inside of you slides in, you have to move with him and that didn't happen. The Kahu try was a bit unfortunate but I still would have liked more players chasing and Corey Parker's effort shouldn't have happened, simple as that!
Overall, I think that this was the sort of performance that could see us turn our season around but it only will do that if we can build on it and cut out a lot of the silly errors and penalties that we continue to make. Basically, the way it works is that discipline and possession leads to good field position, which leads to repeat sets, which leads to points; that is what the players need to be thinking! I was impressed with a lot of what Adam Reynolds did and Luke Keary is at least showing some promise, although I'm still convinced that Cody Walker is a better player. Hopefully, Maguire retains the same team that he sent out here tonight because I think it is our strongest line up and works on incorporating Greg Inglis more into our attack close to the line at second receiver!
