Team V Rabbitohs

Wayne is the X factor.
The old bugger comes into his own at finals time and has a great record in finals.
He'll have some tricks up his sleeve.
On the other hand, Wayne has a terrible record against teams he has coached in the past, because they know all his tricks and want to get one over him.

So the Wayne factor could work for us or against us.

He’s literally had every possible advantage and leg up going back to the ridiculous decision of the Souths being allowed to have two players in Inglis and Burgess wiped off their books and even the more laughable notion of Burgess considering a comeback.

It’s Gasnier 2010 all over again lol

If he doesn’t win this matchup he should just retire
 
Us at our best > Souths at their best, from what I’ve seen in games this year.

It'd be pretty close I reckon. At our best, we look like quite a tough physical team but as has been brought up recently, perhaps a bit too conservative. Souths at their best have a very exciting style of play with the likes of Cook, Walker & throw Mitchell in the mix but lack that forward pack they used to have. Two opposing styles.
 
Imo it's pretty simple ..We show up and we win , We dont show up we lose . Were quite capable of beating Souths if we show up ready to go .
 
It'd be pretty close I reckon. At our best, we look like quite a tough physical team but as has been brought up recently, perhaps a bit too conservative. Souths at their best have a very exciting style of play with the likes of Cook, Walker & throw Mitchell in the mix but lack that forward pack they used to have. Two opposing styles.
I agree. One team plays hard structured footy (at best) that is starting to cause issues, the other a heads up exciting brand with flair players who when on form can take most teams down. I can’t see such a change in fortunes for the two teams in one week. Again, hope I’m wrong and will be screaming us home.
 
We need to belt them up the middle and punish them with physical defence, when we have done that we have dominated teams.

We also need to pressure Reynolds and Walker and actually hit them and put them down when they kick rather than cuddle them.

This is the game we need to fire up and play a tough brand of footy and rattle them, if we sit back they win.

Usually we can tell in the first few sets if we are on or not.
 
The only positive from the weekends results is that at least we go in to this not expected to win. That is when we have played our best this year.
Fingers crossed that the right team gets off the bus.
 
There are some similarities to our last final series. Kind of just limping in. We have to win the ruck, plain and simple. I have a feeling Lino will be chopped. Mann back to 6. Randal starting and Crossland on the bench.
 
There are some similarities to our last final series. Kind of just limping in. We have to win the ruck, plain and simple. I have a feeling Lino will be chopped. Mann back to 6. Randal starting and Crossland on the bench.
If he goes that way I see us losing by plenty.
 
Also Mann is a better 14. His always been that utility throughout his whole career. If Mann had the skill of say K gids then sure I'd let him have the 6 role but for me his just not there yet.
 
Would i be right in thinking that since Lino has been playing this season that we have scored more try's from his kicking game than anyone else's .
 
No doubt, he's a better long kick that Pearce too.
Watch the nines, he was having clearing kicks from inside our half pull up in the opposition in goal.
 
I’d keep Lino and Pearce in the halves and swap Mann and Randall.

It's proving a weakness for O'Brien at the moment. It's understandable why he doesn't want to demote Mann, he's been close to our best player all year & probably takes out the player of the year, it would be a kick in the guts to him & maybe his teammates too if they see the coach put him on the bench. But as we've learned this year, Mann's style of play puts too much pressure on Pearce in the halves & he's not a natural hooker. O'Brien knows this, proven by him using other halves & also deciding to keep Randall in the team the last few weeks. It's a problem at the moment, but I believe in O'Brien enough that he'll try to fix this in pre-season. It sounds like he's gonna go all in on developing Hoy & probably Crossland too into the five-eighth we need. It'll also be interesting to see what happens with Mann & Watson, they can't both be in the team.
 
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