Tactically... what went wrong last night?

[King Salvo]

Too many youngsters, not enough experience and match fitness..

Sitili is not an 80min player unless we have the momentum the majority. Watching the game back, he gave numerous set restarts in defence purely due to fatigue.. being to farked to bother to let go and get square.

Lam is a passenger, no more than Flanagan was.. he's purely a short term plan until Walker is blooded. Even in our 2 big wins to start the year.. Lam did zero to impress or even leave a lasting impression. Hopefully not a long term plan if keary proves to be damaged goods.

I'm normally never one to blame the refs, but we played with too much emotion, and the ref officiated the game with too much emotion.

penalties 6 - 1 and ours not received until the final 5mins of play.. on which we scored.. seems legit.

Worst highlight of the game for mine was the ease in which Latrell put Manu on show.

All their tries were on the back of Manu rushing out of the line trying to shut down latrell, who has very silky hands and left Manu clutching, and Morris stranded.

Latrell - 1
Manu - 0

Plans from here?
Is widdop or Hastings an option.
Or do we shake up the spine and blood Walker & Suaalii

Looking forward to having Rads back, his ball playing out the back will relieve the pressure on teddy.. we're far too predictable in our 'Throw it to teddy and let him do something' mentality since Coops retired.

Meh... too baked for this rant to keep going.

Bring on next week!¡

Lam played the role he was required to play in those games- did the job the Coaching staff wanted from him. - Walker better aim up though as he will surely be one of the growing number of whippings boys on your Statler and Waldorf's hit list if he doesn't - But then again the Statler and Waldorf mob have raised the white flag saying the season is over.

[FREEMAN89]

Lam played the role he was required to play in those games- did the job the Coaching staff wanted from him. - Walker better aim up though as he will surely be one of the growing number of whippings boys on your Statler and Waldorf's hit list if he doesn't - But then again the Statler and Waldorf mob have raised the white flag saying the season is over.

Our season is far from over, still plenty of quality footy left in this team.

But why run a half as a basic option back up..

Don't Get me wrong.. i know there is a dominant half and non dominant half...

But we have been at most successful when both halves play an equal role, both sides of the field.

Pearce & Jimmy 2013
Keary and Cronk 2018/19

To highlight the success.

Keary cannot do this on his own.. Nor can we keep relying on teddy to give us a hail Mary.. it's becoming far too telegraphed.

With radley back we have a great extra attacking option, but is it truly too little too late?

What's your ideal 13 from here on?

[Random Rooster]

The owners of the Team's NRL licence is the Eastern Suburbs Rugby League Football Club so there is still the Eastern Suburbs presence and historical connection.

The club has registered the same name with the NSWRFL/ARL/NRL every year since 1908" Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club". Everything else - tricolours, Sydney City, Sydney Roosters etc are just marketing nicknames. Souths have registered the same name since-oh hang on where were they 2000/2001?

My favourite Souths premiership....sums them up

In 1909 semi-finals were played amongst the four highest placed teams. Top two finishers South Sydney and Balmain were able to win their respective semi-finals.

However, after the New South Wales Rugby League had planned a match between the Australian rugby union and rugby league teams that would upstage the premiership final, both South Sydney and Balmain unofficially agreed to not play out a final.

But unknown to Balmain, South Sydney turned up ready to play & kicked off to no one. The final was deemed to be a forfeit as a result, with South Sydney claiming their second premiership in as many years. Requests from Balmain for the match to be played at a later date were refused by the League.

[Thirteen]

Is it time we looked to merge with someone like the Sharks and become a super club? Souffs consistently belt us, have more premierships, supporters, history and passion. We barely have an identity and have changed our name so many times before so why would one more change matter? Love the chookies but we'll never get out of their shadow unless we do something radical.

You’re an absolute disgrace. I hope you never come on here again. Go away!

[The Brain]

Bring on joshua paul and Walker might as well teach the kiddies this season even that young kiwi kid..whats his name?

[Jacks Fur Coat]

You’re an absolute disgrace. I hope you never come on here again. Go away!

Just another Souths troll having a go....it was inevitable after Friday.

[zac]

Is it time we looked to merge with someone like the Sharks and become a super club? Souffs consistently belt us, have more premierships, supporters, history and passion. We barely have an identity and have changed our name so many times before so why would one more change matter? Love the chookies but we'll never get out of their shadow unless we do something radical.

how many comps you won won lately, pal?

[ROC181]

Its been said here for a while, and I hate to believe it that Bennett has got he wood on Robbo which up to last Fridays game it now stands to 11 to 9 in Bennetts favour. Not that much difference, but from another POV, Bennett's is 6/2 since 2018...Plus that win on Friday was their B2B shellacking on us

This match was important to us, if not to win a trophy, it was to restore some pride to us and to send a message not only to Souths but to the whole comp that we are not easy beats or a dads army team. And I'm not going to be all that happy about the fact that we scored 16 points at the end. Yes the players kept on playing, but maybe their players just put the cue back in the rack too. That Tedesco try was basically good luck that Johnson dropped it and luckily the ball went to Tedesco to use his magic to get through a one line of defence that was asleep not contemplating that such mistake would happen and that we were going to score from it.

They ambushed us from the get go. I am surprised that in attack from our own half we look sedentary and they were on top of us like a bad rash...I'm not going to blame a ref saying that they were offside because I can't see that on my TV so I'm expecting that Bennett had motivated his team to attack us at every opportunity.

For me, Tedesco and Keary have been overworked. I understand that we don't have Friend who does get involved in creating opportunity and even Sam Verrills, does but not as much. Also Radley the same situation. Our lack of a creative 5/8 whether by decision or by lack of ability, wasn't going to work as it was 'my concern' prior to this match. Since losing Cronk, we have not found a suitable replacement and we are waiting for a player that has been touted as a prodigy by the media, that is Sam Walker. If we can get some combination working with Walker and whoever his partner will be plus Radley, Tedesco should just stick to being fullback and keep his energy to his role.

Not having a kicker has also, IMO affected Siosua with his workload. He has to play longer minutes in case we need him to kick goals. It reminds me when we lost BBQ.

JWH has been a problem for a while with his penalties, but now is just taking out our players. He either needs to tone it down or go to Specsavers because he's hitting the wrong players...but realistically, he's trying way too hard and not hitting the mark. Maybe he should be taught to tackle around the solar plexus instead of the cranium. I don't see him breaking through the line like he used and his post contact meters are not that great...As much as I hate to say it and even though he comes from a family of misfits, Tom Burgess is playing better. He hits the line and with his bulk just keeps pushing defence and does it quietly & cleanly and without any fanfare.

In a nutshell, Bennett has outsmarted Trent again. I can't understand it because we can play the Storm much better than we have played those nuffies from Souths. As much as I always dreamed of having a Grand Final between the Roosters and Souths, right now, NOT A CHANCE! I don't want it to end in a nightmare. Robbo will need to get Cronk to work overtime with our halves for us to get into the top 4.

And get Suaalii ready!!!

[Schooner]

Souths still play same slide defence Bennett has always used. We ran wide without an inside runner threatening their inner defenders to make them stand still long enough to give outside backs room so souths whole line came across. In defence it was the opposite. On Souths wide sweeps Walker made Keary and co hang in leaving an overlap for Manu and Morris. We should have taken them on more on the edges. We amde their forwards look good. The same problems happened late last year. Good defences look for Teddy coming into the line or slide on the outside backs and arent worried about the rest of the team