2012 - Round 1: South Sydney Rabbitohs v Sydney Roosters @ ANZ Stadium (Match thread)

[Guest]

disagree completely - Carney was sensational tonight - ran like a man possessed!

I agree, he ran well.

He always does.

But sensational?

The guy is a fuucking winger. Mose could do what he does on the wing.

He does not jump for the ball. He does not threaten in attack with footwork or speed. He does not make good defensive reads.

All the guy can do is run hard and tackle low. Which would be great if he had a bit more height on him and wore the 11 or 12 on his back. God knows we have needed hard running and strong tackling forwards over the years.

But he is a winger. Think Tuqiri and Sailor in their primes, think of Folau, of Uate, of true, dangerous wingers.

Pick outside backs to play on the flanks. Carney would be better off trying to make it as a prop.

[Guest]

[Yak]

To be honest I would have felt equally as confident about next week as I do now had we lost that game 20-12. For the most part BlindFreddy is spot on. We were very poor in some crucial areas, namely dominance in defence, attacking kicks, and discipline in the tackle. Souths were 100% more disciplined when it came to making it back the 10 metres. I was sitting up high on the 50 and they were hardly ever offside, while we were struggling to make the 10 from the 20 minute mark onwards. Sure we got some dud calls. The one where Taylor (might have been Burgess) kicked the ball from Perrett's grasp while he was on the ground about to play it only for it to be called a knock-on was pathetic and so blatent it wasn't funny. While Boyd's tackle was a cracker, to the letter of the law it was illegal.

Pearce needs to learn the art of the tactical grubber. His bombs were not accurate at all. Nearly all of them were 5-10m long. The one where Mini got penalised for getting checked was probably the closest to "well-placed" he produced all night.

Mortimer was pretty ordinary. As mentioned, he was unsighted for most of the game. Good kick for Guerra's try but other than that he was sub-standard. His passing game and general decision-making is not up to first grade standard. I'd much prefer Kheirallah there who imo has a better, more varied kicking game, is much faster, and has a superior passing game (apparently very good on the weekend). Anasta may be average when it comes to being a 6 but his absence showed just how valuable his leadership is to the team. I think if he gets back next week we'll be a vastly improved side.

On Mini, was great to see him outpace Reynolds for the match-winner, but let's be honest, other than that moment he was pretty facepalm tonight. Running across field losing metres on kick returns just like last season only slower. I realise that he adds great experience to the team and is generally pretty safe and reliable on the big plays but god I can't wait til Tuivasa-Sheck graduates from NYC to take his place. He is infinitely better returning kicks, far far quicker and can actually chime into the backline and set up tries for edge runners.

Good game by Carney. He ran hard and made great metres each time, often making our sets look respectable. His height is still a major problem though. Tonight it meant that no matter where BJ was, he was the one who had to contest the kick. And to compound that Carney is probably the worst and most overt blocker in the game. Got penalised numerous times for it last year so he just didn't bother at all for the first try.

P.S. Kane Evans will be in first grade very soon. He is where Lama Tasi was at the end of 2010. Almost single-handedly won the 20s game today. If only his team mates didn't go to the Kenny-Dowall School of Drawing and Passing.

[Guest]

I can hardly recall anyone else making an offload before the last play.

I can't recall which tackle it was when Tasi scored the opening try, but I thought the lead-up offloads by Cordner and Pearce were controlled and impressive. Interestingly, in a post-match interview on Triple M, Maguire commented that he was disappointed we got a bit of second-phase play late in the piece, as they had put a huge emphasis on stopping our off-loads, which he thought they did well for a lot of the game. They do have some formidable forwards, so maybe it was a sign that our players are finding the discernment to pick their moments to offload rather than preconceiving a mindset that is entirely conservative or entirely reckless.

[Guest]

Send Chicken pizzas to Russell Crowes address?

Not quite but I like it anyway!

The thread has already been started... its time to lol@souffs!

[Guest]

Yeh, I said it last week, we need JWH as he is an enforcer.. these players are hard to find.

SOuffs are the new North Sydney, snatching a defeat from the jaws of a win LOL

[chook 56]

Yeh, I said it last week, we need JWH as he is an enforcer.. these players are hard to find.

SOuffs are the new North Sydney, snatching a defeat from the jaws of a win LOL

Maybe taking the title of "chokers" for 2012???

[Spanner in the works]

Good thing it was the first game of the season. Very scrappy. If we dished that up later in the season we would be getting thumped. Thought we went sideways a bit last night at times. It was almost like we got into this mindset that instead of getting past the advantage line, we went back to old habits looking for second phase play and a try every time we touched the ball. That's shit football. It's never won a team any grand finals and it isn't going to win us one here. Get over the advantage line first and win the battle in the middle.

[Guest]

When Mini scored that try, I screamed so loudly that my cleaner nearly had a heart attack!

Who the hell said Mini had no pace and Mini was past it and Mini should be fukked off??????????????? EAT IT... eat it like you mean it!

That was me...and I stand by my comment. For 79mins and 30 secs Minichello was crap.

Sensational win but don't get carried away peeps, we were ordinary for most of that game. We got dominated in the forwards, we got dominated in the backs and our halves were directionless for most of the game.

The most pleasing thing was that we never gave up. Even though our pigs got bashed, they never got bashed into submission. They kept turning up and turning up and that is a very good sign that they are playing for each other.

Chook.

[Guest]

That was me...and I stand by my comment. For 79mins and 30 secs Minichello was crap.

Sensational win but don't get carried away peeps, we were ordinary for most of that game. We got dominated in the forwards, we got dominated in the backs and our halves were directionless for most of the game.

The most pleasing thing was that we never gave up. Even though our pigs got bashed, they never got bashed into submission. They kept turning up and turning up and that is a very good sign that they are playing for each other.

Chook.

I didnt think he was that bad. Everyone was rusty. But he shook off the rust when it was needed, showed a lot of pace and skill combined with determination and won us the game. Well done to you Chook for standing up but you cant bash him on tonights effort.

The thing with tonight is that lol@souffs played out of their skin on the back of PLENTY of help from the poofs in pink. We played well below par and still won. We can go a lot better than that but I cant see lol@souffs going much better.

lol@souffs were gifted that game but we mugged Santa and stole the presents!

[Guest]

I didnt think he was that bad. Everyone was rusty. But he shook off the rust when it was needed, showed a lot of pace and skill combined with determination and won us the game. Well done to you Chook for standing up but you cant bash him on tonights effort.

The thing with tonight is that lol@souffs played out of their skin on the back of PLENTY of help from the poofs in pink. We played well below par and still won. We can go a lot better than that but I cant see lol@souffs going much better.

lol@souffs were gifted that game but we mugged Santa and stole the presents!

Yeah the poofs in pink certainly tried to hand it to Souffs. Some of those decisions were atrocious. The King knock on. The Taylor kick strip. The Burgess strip. The Coydner tackle. Blind pricks the lot of them.

Chook.

[Guest]

Yeah the poofs in pink certainly tried to hand it to Souffs. Some of those decisions were atrocious. The King knock on. The Taylor kick strip. The Burgess strip. The Coydner tackle. Blind pricks the lot of them.

Chook.

How about Suttons dirty little trip on Mini? Every was saying how much of a good game Sutton had. well its been a LONG time coming and it sure as hell will be a LONG time until you see another one. I dont rate him one bit.

[Guest]

Clearly the better team lost on the night. Apart from the first 20-30 mins we were awful all over the park. As soon as our forward tired, they really couldn't handle the Souths pack. Well doner to the boys for hanging in, because you need a few of those results throughout the season.

The few attacking sets we got in the second half, we had nothing. A nearly through the remote at the TV when Maubs and Boyd were kicking late in the game. Gee I hope Sids and Moga are fit soon, because that attck will not win us many games.

[Andrew Walker]

Defence wins matches

[supermario]

With out reading the 20 or so pages that have passed, for a round 1 game, we showed a hell of alot of grit, determination and most of all Composure to pull off that win.

For a team where most of the players are under 23, you would expect them to crumble and submit, we were put under the pump, souffs were giving it too us, but we did what we had to do to stay in the game and went the next step to win it.

It is round 1, the boys were always going to be a bit rusty, like brian smith said in the press confrence, there is alot they can take from the game and learn from. Thats the important thing, learn from the mistakes and this year can be ANYTHING !