Souths and Roosters

[susan]

Must admit neither impressed me today.The last couple of weeks have me changing my opinion of Souths a little given the bulldogs weak performance against us and todays effort in NZ .I have a sneaking suspicion the bunnies rely on Inglis way too much and their outside backs are very average outside of Merrit.They got over the line today via two intercepts with the Warriors being clearly the better side.Are they flat track bullies?Maybe next week we find out.

Unlike a lot of others I am not totally sold on Reynolds.He does a lot of his stuff on the back of their giant forward pack rolling forward which will happen every week against the weaker sides but when faced with a big hitting pack like ours and the warriors I am not so sure about him. He was terrible in the indigineous game.As a maroon I hope like hell they pick him for origin.

The roosters have the capacity to surprise but when you look at them closely they are still very undisciplined(13th most penalties) and have a lot of players who have made a habit of losing over a long period.Jennings is a prime example and he just fades in and out of games too much.Pearce disappeared as usual tonight when the whips started to crack and old SKD can always be relied on for a match losing play like his forward pass tonight.SBW will always be a danger but tonights game said a bit about their underbelly when under pressure. Have faced one decent side and got flogged in week 1.

It may be obvious but Manly and Storm are the clear standouts.I expect us to beat the seaside westies and souths at home over the next two weeks reasonably comfortably,something I wouldn't have said two weeks ago.

ps nice work from O'sullivan bringing Odonnell back and giving us Symonds.How bad was he tonight! The bouncers at the cross will be on the lookout for him again tonight after that rubbish he tossed up.

 

[BOZO]

Words of wisdom , well said

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

It's a long season, and both those teams have good reason to believe they can get a lot better yet. As of course can Manly. All 3 teams will be thereabouts when the whips are cracking towards the end.

 

[Terry-Randal]

its way too early . the team that may still come out on top may be all outside the 8. Only rnd 5. My money this year is on the Cowboys.

 

[Hamster Huey]

Souths have been cruising through games against lesser clubs and are hard to judge their form. Too many points leaked to this point, but plenty of points to cover them. I'll reserve my opinion on them until this weekends match-up against a disciplined Storm side. I want to see how they deal with sustained pressure.

The coaching staff will hate the references to '71 that are popping up at the moment. This club is not the same class of that era.

Roosters are still a good side pulling together their combinations and look a solid top 8, despite the Canberra loss.

 

[bones]

Souths are five from five and only one of those games was a home game. They're the real deal.

 

[susan]

The dogs home game was at their home ground and they had 3 supporters to 1 against the roosters at Alianz so Im not sure that is too relevant. Im not writing them off by any means but they when you concede scores of 32 and 22 against the lower ranked sides,have a propensity to knock off early in a lot of games and you have a young unproven half in big games then the premiership odds they are at are prohibitive in my opinion..

 

[Crusher_Cleal]

Souths are the real deal (and have been building for 3 yeasrs), but I'm not convinced the Roosters are, far too early to proclaim them challengers I feel. Top 8 for sure, but not the quality/depth across the park as the likes of us, Storm, Souths, Cowboys, or even Dogs (when all forwards are back).
Tier 1: Manly, Souths, Cowboys, Storm, Rabbits, Dogs
Tier 2: Broncos, Roosters, Titans,
Tier 3: Sharks, Knights
Tier 4: The rest

 

[Chip and Chase]

Warriors are the kind of side that can put 30 on a team if things bounce their way. I wouldn't read too much into the result.

 

[BOZO]

Souths are five from five and only one of those games was a home game. They're the real deal.

The real deal is Manly and the storm.The match against the Storm this week will show if they are the real deal . The 3 teams that they beat are the 3 teams that have won only one game from five and to me that is not a big deal .Team 4 that they beat was the sharks that were embarrassed last week by the eels 13 points to 6 .

 

[bones]

The dogs home game was at their home ground and they had 3 supporters to 1 against the roosters at Alianz so Im not sure that is too relevant. Im not writing them off by any means but they when you concede scores of 32 and 22 against the lower ranked sides,have a propensity to knock off early in a lot of games and you have a young unproven half in big games then the premiership odds they are at are prohibitive in my opinion..

Of course its relevant. It means they have more home games to finish the year.

Manly conceded 40 points against Souths in 2008.

 

[bob dylan]

The dogs home game was at their home ground and they had 3 supporters to 1 against the roosters at Alianz so Im not sure that is too relevant. Im not writing them off by any means but they when you concede scores of 32 and 22 against the lower ranked sides,have a propensity to knock off early in a lot of games and you have a young unproven half in big games then the premiership odds they are at are prohibitive in my opinion..

Of course its relevant. It means they have more home games to finish the year.

Manly conceded 40 points against Souths in 2008.

And the Roosters run up a 34 against us in round 20

btw Souths scored 40 in round 23

 

[Andrew..]

I hate to say it but apart from us, the only two other clubs that I see as genuine contenders once again are the storm and the dogs.

I don't think souths have a good enough distribution of player talent across the field, still have a question mark over their five eight and centres.

Kind of the same deal for the roosters, good team their forwards have plenty of talent (slightly less than the bunnies) talented backs....I don't think Mitchell Pearce is a natural half...and the team is still a year away from it's premiership potential.

 

[Brissie Kid]

We haven't got to Anzac Day yet. The season doesn't start until Origin series is over. If any team wins half their games until the end of Origin and then strikes consistent winning form they will get in the 8. A team like Canterbury finishing in the Top 8 from 5 to 8 would get a "home" game in finals anyway.

 

[Bradza]

ANZ stadium does not constitute a real home ground advantage. We have beaten the dogs in 6 of the last 8 games there.

 

[susan]

And what relevance does us getting beaten by 40 in 08 have

A far more relevant point is the game late last year when they had basically the same side and everyone wanted to be on the Souths bandwagon and we dominated them entirely. Im not sure they know how to win big games yet but I sure as hell know we do!- and unlike last year we aren't limping from one game to the next with injuries and suspension(yet!)

Also ANZ has no where near the same effect as Brooky, WIN, Dairyfarmers, Hunter stadium etc.

 

[bones]

And what relevance does us getting beaten by 40 in 08 have

You're the one who raised the point about Souths conceding high scores and used it to back your argument. I simply pointed out Manly had big scores scored against them and still won the comp in 2008.
The game last year has no relevance whatsoever. Two Different years. Look at the 07 and 08 Grand Finals.
IMo, it's not difficult to see that Souths have improved a lot this year.

 

[Cliffymagic]

not convinced by souths, they have a great forwards thx to george burgess. but thier backline is very ordanary apart from inglis. not sure bout roosters yet, jury's still out.

 

[susan]

Manlys defence over their period of dominance since 07 has been great with the odd exception which you pointed out. It is only when we were decimated by injury/stewart case that this was not the case.

The one thing that has consistently stood out with this Souths side is that they clock off in many games for a period and concede a lot of points. This is not an odd occurrence like Manly and Storm who have always had extremely good defensive records-It happened many times last year and is happening again this year against some weak sides. I think they have improved as well but nothing suggests in the games so far that they have fixed up this area of their game and until they do I wont be convinced totally about their claims.

They play us and Melbourne over the next 2 weeks and this will tell us a lot. One thing I do know is that take Inglis out and it is sayanora bunnies while we have the capacity to absorb star player losses

 

[sean1976]

I feel the same way as Susan - players like Reynolds and Sutton were found out in the bigger games last year. The forward pack is solid, but Manly dominated a similiar pack last year. If they can be held in the forwards I'm not sure they have enough flair out wide - inglis aside. They have leaked a lot of points this year - including to lowly teams like Penrith. If they can do well in the coming two weeks, I change my opinion.