NRL Round 9 - Souths Vs Knights - 3:00pm Saturday 3 May - Suncorp Stadium

[nunnsy]

I'm not getting too excited, we didn't win the statistics battle against a pretty average team.

We made more errors than them and lost the possesion battle which is a little concerning but we smahed them in most other metrics in defence and attack.

We made 11 line breaks to there 2. We hade to make 48 more tackles than them and they missed 20 more tackles than us. A lot of our errors come in once it started to bucket down . I think our completions were close perfect the first 20 mins or so.

Considering there outs we cant get to carried away but definately layed a good platform to work on.

 

[waynesworld]

The statistics in this game are a bit skewed by the fact it was over after 15 minutes.

 

[sherpa]

The statistics in this game are a bit skewed by the fact it was over after 15 minutes.

That is probably one of my biggest concerns.

 

[Grandpa Joe]

Pretty confident the Knights won't be making a play for Lewis Dodd.

Was just asking hadn't seen him lol, hopefully we take some confidence from this and build, Hetherington due back next week so we literally have a full squad available which is unheard of for us.

 

[Seano]

Was just asking hadn't seen him lol

I was basing that comment on the game. I think it was Dodd's first run on the starting side, and I can't see him making it in the NRL based on that performance.

 

[bremsstrahlung]

Watching it properly now due to work.

Try one lead up. Safs with a strong carry, quick ptb. Shifted quickly right to KPP who was close to an offload and then it’s 2 v 1. Schiller unlucky not to barge over.
Thought we shifted it left quickly with good shape and had them scrambling. They covered well to stop Marzhew.

The play the ball was great to watch. Ponga had set himself closer, and almost at the last minute drifts out, calls safs to run decoy, gets the ball and places the kick. I’d love to know if he saw something or if it was predetermined. Impressive if Ponga saw something and good signs if he’s playing with that confidence and got his eye in.


Next try was a good break by Schiller. In the lead up, I noticed Crossland seemed to be getting frustrated at dummy half, presumably because he’s not getting any calls and there was no “plays”. I don’t think he was appealing to ref for ruck interference in this case. Looks to be appealing to his team to give him something. And they seemingly get set, and sharpe works his magic.

Next was a good break by KPP. I thought Cogger did well here. He spread it wide which was the play, and then they ran into a dead end. Thought Lucas was going to take the hit up, but Cogger stayed alive and ran a great line to give Lucas the option and rewarded.
(I mentioned the other week, Paps work rate and determination to stay involved in plays - it was good work ethic from Cogger to put himself in that situation. He could have easily let Lucas die with it and get set for the next play - his job was done, he spread it quickly but he put in the effort to make the run.)

 

[Kurriboy]

Cogger really can’t catch break from wannabes who never made jersey flegg let alone NRL

Is Cogger a good halfback? No clearly but he has out done Gamble, Hastings, Crossland in doing the one thing AOB wants, not overplaying his hand and just pass it in good space.

That is all he has to do now Gamble and Hastings has shown they while they can do that, their mind wanders and they do something else, Cogger doesn’t have this attention problem.

He threw that bad pass to Elliot instead of the back where KP was waiting but that was the only bad thing he did, he put the ball in space, made sure the ball got to KP and the others and let them take over, in our game plan he executed it perfectly and even showed heart getting his try, I was not expecting a halfback to come charging into the middle and actually win.

He also bagged himself two line breaks and he defended well against grays speed plays which I was scared of the most before the game as I thought Jye would burn him on the out side

Again I’m not saying he is a great player by any means but a lot of people here struggle with giving credit where it’s due and Cogger deserves a pat on the back even if it was only his second ever good game for us since returning ironically I think his first good game for us was against the same team.

I thought Cogger defended well this game.

But come on, I won't be giving Cogger a pat on the back for, from your own words, managing to pass the ball in good space. That's an extremely low bar to set for an NRL halfback. You don't need to do anything but pass the ball safely.

And coach has already dropped Cogger, only reason Cogger got back to NRL now was Gamble nose injury. Start of season Cogger wasn't preferred half and Gamble again injured letting Cogger inherit the 7.

Next week if Gamble is fit, Cogger will be gone again. Coach isn't that stupid he can't see Cogger is a boat anchor.

 

[frankLauda]

I don’t think the coach will drop Cogger this week. From what I saw he made one bad error, forward pass to Elliot when he should have passed to Ponga. Other than that I think he did his job. The try he scored was good too.

 

[Chaister]

Yeah. Gamble is a much better player than Cogger but it doesn’t make sense for Cogger to get dropped this week.