So what have we learnt

[Bondicigar]

The week of will benefit the chooks . Maybe not so much in the past but I'm way more confident in our preparation with cronk in the team. The chooks will be humming and ready for this game . I'm confident, especially watching souths last night playing panicked and impatient football. Tedesco will be the key imo. There will be opportunities around souths big men up the middle.

[ism22]

I ask you all a question. What have we learnt about souffs game, and how can we beat them.

Firstly they throw everything at you for the first 20 mins.
Part of this is the knees elbows surrender tackle to gain the quick play the ball.

Secondly is the little prick Cook. What a player. shut him down

Please add your thoughts.......................................... ............

I only watched the first half because I was buggered. My comments:
- They are one of those physical teams with a lot of big forwards all over the park. They also play a style that is not heavily penalised (rightly or wrongly - not gonna go there). This tactic always cramps our more open tactics. Long story short they won't win games with it but they will regularly stop other teams from winning, like they did to the Dragons.
- Dragons are a little more like us. Good halves and a mobile forward pack (with a couple of key big boppers). They won the game but run out of steam... I suspect next week will play out like this. Tough because we are without a key big bopper (to help us keep up with the physicality) and a key mobile back (who will get you out of gaol... and also does good distance kicks). IMO we will win regardless of the scoreboard next week, but we need to make sure we don't run out of gas and end up giving them gratuitous errors/penalties.
- Cook was a bit like McInnes (and Isaac Luke)... IMO there was nothing between the two and Cook is over-rated. Essentially what happens is that big forwards wrestle you and bash you up, then suddenly a more mobile dude will do a dummy-half run through a defensive hole. Cook is part of my above point. So long as you remain structured and don't run out of gas then Cook is a myth and you won't see him breaking any lines (he will just break defensive lines that are already broken).
- Reynolds and GI are injured as are the Burgess brothers. Whereas, we have just had a week off. They will all go under the needle before the game so that they cannot feel the pain (I swar the NRL needs to classify this as cheating but whatevz - it has been done by everybody for 30+ years). Thus, we need to work them to the point where they can no longer continue, even with a half-time top-up jab. I am not saying we should intentionally injure players, but DO NOT LET THEM REST BY CONTROLLING THE MOMENTUM AND WASTING TIME - THEY WILL IF YOU ARE LAZY/ARROGANT!!!
- Souffs played their GF against a broken St George already. If St George had Widdop and a bit more luck with the refs, Souffs would be celebrating Mad Monday tomorrow. They are tired and half-baked... make them pay, but NEVER NEVER NEVER assume this is a win. This game is do or die and Souffs will do a farking NQ on us if we let them.

Souffs to win: if we get tired/lazy/arrogant they will choke us to death and Cook will run right through the middle of us. Once they get ahead by a couple of tries, we will not catch them because they will apply the choker hold for the remaining minutes (60+ if need be).

Roosters to win: if we control the ball speed early, stay positive (early penalties will be called in Souffs favour) and take advantage of the field position created by Cronk's kicks (no, not yours Jake) then we will win the contest. I have no doubt we will win the contest, but we also need to win on the scoreboard. How? Teddy, Fergo, Manu and Toops. We have the strike power, our boys just need to hang make sure their passes and catches aren't knock-ons and intercepts.

[Kelby]

We attack the ball when the burgess bros run it up. Big hits and dropped balls.
We have to turtle that fark murray every time to stop his quick play the balls.
Play like we have been.
Hopefully Keary is up for a big win.
DONT put aubs or matto at centre.

[elo]

We play to potential we win by 13+ - Souths are running on fumes. Souths need a penalty fest, a slow game and for our completion rate to be lower than 75% to be a chance.

[Lydon]

Seibold already putting the pressure on us with the 3 recent Prelim losses,can’t wait to see his head when we beat them!

[Maxy Walker]

We should beat them but I just hope goalkicking doesn’t cost us. It’s likeky to be close, the skinny 10 metres in the finals tends to be an equaliser as we saw with both games decided by field goals this weekend.

I suppose fergo will be the kicker. Practice fergo, practice....

[TDK]

We attack the ball when the burgess bros run it up. Big hits and dropped balls.
We have to turtle that fark murray every time to stop his quick play the balls.
Play like we have been.
Hopefully Keary is up for a big win.
DONT put aubs or matto at centre.

Agree but Keary won’t be as effective without Latrell. We have to stop the five hit ups and bomb rhetoric, it’s so predictable that teams are waiting to start their next set. We have to mix our sets up and go wide more often and move the Souths defensive line around.

[chopstiks]

- Cook was a bit like McInnes (and Isaac Luke)... IMO there was nothing between the two and Cook is over-rated. Essentially what happens is that big forwards wrestle you and bash you up, then suddenly a more mobile dude will do a dummy-half run through a defensive hole. Cook is part of my above point. So long as you remain structured and don't run out of gas then Cook is a myth and you won't see him breaking any lines (he will just break defensive lines that are already broken).

Roosters to win: if we control the ball speed early, stay positive (early penalties will be called in Souffs favour) and take advantage of the field position created by Cronk's kicks (no, not yours Jake) then we will win the contest. I have no doubt we will win the contest, but we also need to win on the scoreboard. How? Teddy, Fergo, Manu and Toops. We have the strike power, our boys just need to hang make sure their passes and catches aren't knock-ons and intercepts.

yep, Cook broke us at least 5 times earlier in the season, more than any other team.

if Toops and Teddy could introduce themselves to each other this week that would be good.

Seeing Ben Hunt kicking into players close to the line is Jake on the 4th. Please don't.

If we're on - none of the typical dumb stuff making life easier for them and gifting all their points - we're home. They're knackered.

[QWERTY]

I learned that Souths have got nothing in attack. Weather he openin 20 when all their fat **** forwards tire out and the rest of their game falls to pieces.

If we play like we have all year, we’ll win comfortably

Their fat forwards must be gassed after two close, tough, exhausting performances. Something has got to give

[roosterchook]

I ask you all a question. What have we learnt about souffs game, and how can we beat them.

Firstly they throw everything at you for the first 20 mins.
Part of this is the knees elbows surrender tackle to gain the quick play the ball.

Secondly is the little prick Cook. What a player. shut him down

Please add your thoughts.......................................... ............

We just can’t match them up the middle so we’ll likely play it out wide but without Mitchell we won’t be as effective. Friend is no answer for cook and our guys don’t handle offloads well. We will be totally relying on Cronk to get us out of our half as our forwards are nowhere near their strength. I honestly don’t know where our points will come from in this one. Also no goal kicker. Can’t see us advancing without naps and Mitchell. A huge blow. Courtesy of the corrupt judiciary’s match fixing agenda, a Slater fairytale.

[The Brain]

Too much crying about Latrell missing for this.
First of farken all we have the defence to squeeze the life out of them.
Secondly we have weapons..Fergo, Manu, Keary, Toups , Tedesco.
Halves a multi premiership players and winners Cronk and Friend.
JWH will pump forward , Radley will be in everything ,Taki will make yards ,Liu will be on the Fringe ..
Souffs are playing shit barely won 2 or last 6 games were lucky an inexperience Saints didnt have the metal to close the game .
We will be fresh.They are hurting
We stick to the game plan we give them a lesson.
ref well thats another story .
We invented the anti souffs game plan and teams have followed us since.
i expect souffs to try a backline blitz early in the game and surprise us.Easts have to be aware of this ...They aint got that much in the tank for an arm wrestle and will try to pile points on early.
Combat that with patience .

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Too much crying about Latrell missing for this.
First of farken all we have the defence to squeeze the life out of them.
Secondly we have weapons..Fergo, Manu, Keary, Toups , Tedesco.
Halves a multi premiership players and winners Cronk and Friend.
JWH will pump forward , Radley will be in everything ,Taki will make yards ,Liu will be on the Fringe ..
Souffs are playing shit barely won 2 or last 6 games were lucky an inexperience Saints didnt have the metal to close the game .
We will be fresh.They are hurting
We stick to the game plan we give them a lesson.
ref well thats another story .
We invented the anti souffs game plan and teams have followed us since.
i expect souffs to try a backline blitz early in the game and surprise us.Easts have to be aware of this ...They aint got that much in the tank for an arm wrestle and will try to pile points on early.
Combat that with patience .

Completely agree mate...Latrell out is no excuse. They have a few guys playing wounded and despite denials this off field stuff would be messing with a few of them

You could tell Seibold is soiling his pants with his comments post game about our roster and depth and all the pressure blah blah blah.

[Easts75]

Tetevano has been outstanding lately ( always has been good for us ) . Just from the outside it looks as though he has self belief now and has gone to another level. Would love to see him snap those Burgess boys in half , they can be rattled

[The Brain]

Completely agree mate...Latrell out is no excuse. They have a few guys playing wounded and despite denials this off field stuff would be messing with a few of them

You could tell Seibold is soiling his pants with his comments post game about our roster and depth and all the pressure blah blah blah.

They will not be able to outlast us if they want an arm wrestle..I see this game similar to the Manly GF...Control th early points and we should win.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

They will not be able to outlast us if they want an arm wrestle..I see this game similar to the Manly GF...Control th early points and we should win.

Two finals appearances this series for them and two one point games...they're gonna need a bit more than that.

Bye Bye wascally wabbits...