A Lot To Be Proud Of This Season

By Stephen Fenech from Tech Guide.

I’m absolutely gutted. It’s hard to believe we were leading 12-0 after 36 minutes before we crumbled and conceded 32 unanswered points. It’s a sad end to a season that had so much promise – especially as we were blasting through the semis and building momentum. But Souths still have a lot to be proud of this season and it took a team of the calibre of the Panthers to put an end to our season. That’s why they are such a great team and playing in their third Grand Final in a row.

In the first half all the luck went our way. Most of the decisions and three disallowed Panthers tries had me thinking that we were bound for the decider. We had the superior field position and our tries came off our own fine attacking efforts. Cody pounced on a pass from Nicholls for try number one and rookie Kennar crossed in the corner for try number two to take a commanding lead after just 20 minutes. The team was humming along and playing with confidence and I was already imagining what it was going to be like being able to watch Souths in a Grand Final after the Queensland COVID shut down kept us away from the 2021 Grand Final. Tonight, Penrith were up to their usual tricks being offside all game and laying all over us in the ruck. Kikau once again made a mockery of the 10 metres and was blatantly standing two metres offside – often right in front of the referee and he wasn’t penalised once.

But then what I predicted last week materialised before our eyes. We started making mistakes and Penrith punished us for every single one of them. The first Penrith try came when our markers clocked off and Koroisau scrambled over. Personally, I thought there was a hand under the ball and that the onfield decision of No Try would be upheld but the bunker saw a stray blade of grass glanced the stitching on the ball and they awarded the try. Just two minutes later the usually rock-solid Campbell Graham knocks on 10 metres from the Penrith try line into the waiting arms of To’o who runs 90m to score. Cody Walker came across in cover and if he had of tackled low instead of trying to steal the ball, he would have stopped him in his tracks and we’d still be clinging to a 12-6 lead.

When Penrith went into the sheds at half-time at 12-12, they must have felt like they won Powerball. The momentum shift was so sudden and dramatic, Souths got whiplash. That felt like the longest halftime break I can remember. And to be honest, I was really worried. For Penrith to weather all of that – the bounce of the ball and the decisions going against them, and three tries being disallowed and a strong Souths attack – was a superhuman effort. They were fresh after a week off and held some energy reserves to call on while Souths limped into this game after a physical fortnight of football.

My greatest fears were realised early in the second half when Klein gifted Penrith a penalty in the opening set of the half which put them right back down our end. We defended our line for two sets. Penrith would go on to score again in the 44th minute after Kikau charged down a kick to have the ball on our line. Referee Klein chose to give Penrith a six again at this point because he thought we were offside even though Penrith were offside most of the game – a little consistency would have been nice but that’s not possible with this idiot. That try gave them the lead for the first time and they’d never let it go. The next Penrith try came in the 55th minute and that took them to 24-12 and it was already starting to slip from our fingers. When Milne took Leniu’s head off (Leniu was falling but Milne still got him flush) it was when the game was officially out of our reach. Clearly slotted the penalty goal to put them 14 ahead and booking their spot in the Grand Final. The rest of the game was just going through the motions with the players realising this was the end of the road for 2022.

There were high expectations for Souths for this game. They way we’d charged through the finals had captured the imagination of the fans. And most of those expectations were placed on Latrell’s shoulders as well. We were expecting a monumental performance, but the Panthers were ready for him. But there were times where he could have got more involved and run the ball instead of passing. On one occasion he had no one in front of him and instead of having a crack at the line he threw a cut out pass to Kennar who was already riding the sideline like a tightrope. When he caught the ball in that position, my mother would have been able to force him into touch. That, to me, typified the last 45 minutes of the game – opportunities lost. And by now the last few weeks were catching up on us. Jai Arrow was bravely playing on one leg toward the end of the game. Cam Murray was once again the team’s work horse for 80 minutes but unfortunately his efforts couldn’t be rewarded. Not having the punch through the middle with Burgess and Havili was also costly and in the end we ran out of troops. For a team that finished seventh I think we’ve done extremely well. The players had the belief, the fans had the belief, but we just couldn’t go on with it.

Next week I’ll be cheering hard for the Eels – they’ve already beaten Penrith twice this year – hoping for third time lucky. Penrith have Kikau and Luai on report but I’m sure they’ll be able to see out their suspensions next year. We’ll wait and see how that turns out.

Souths have had a fine season and we’ve seen a lot of players mature into superstars and we’ve also been introduced to some exciting rookies. Our head coach Demetriou has also shown he’s a top shelf coach in his first year in the top job. There’s a lot to be excited about in 2023. I believe we can maintain the standards we’ve built this season and hopefully go all the way. Thanks to you all for taking the time to read my reports and analysis – the feedback has been tremendous. I look forward to doing it all again with you next year. Let’s go Rabbitohs!!!