Good Friday Entertainers
What a way to start the Easter long weekend with a win on Good Friday against the Dogs. It’s a game in which we have had the wood on them in recent years.
There was plenty of talk during the week of how depleted the Dogs were. Everything was against them. This was a game we should win and win well. These are the kind of games where you can think you just need to turn up and you will win.
Down 6-0
It didn’t start well for us. We found ourselves down 6-0 without even laying a finger on them in defence. A scrum 10 metres out from their own line. Just a routine hit up from the scrum? Surely.
Jacob Kiraz got the ball and was able to get on the outside of Milne that forced Cody Walker, who was defending the scrum on the wing, to come in. The ball went to Averillo who was away.
It wasn’t the start we wanted. Little did we know at the time that was going to be the only line break we conceded.
No Patience
It took us a while to get going in attack. There were errors. Poor passes. We just weren’t playing with patience. Something that has been familiar this season.
Sadly the Fox went down. As much as it’s a great advantage to us, it’s not good seeing players get injured. His injury was going to be the focus of our attack for the rest of the game.
We finally went over for a try to our great leader. Cam Murray running off a Cook crash ball. He ran a great line to got through the gap to score.
The Entertainers
The game was neck and neck with 10 to go in the half. Then a switch was turned on. All of a sudden we became the entertainers. Back to back long range tries to Latrell. The second try was great lead up work by Cody and Keaon.
There was still time to get another. Cook threw a beautiful long bullet pass to Murray on to Walker for Host to go over untouched. All of a sudden we found ourselves up by 20 at halftime.
Who would have thought that with 10 to go?
The second half was a bit like the first half. It took us a while to get going. Some errors again creeping into our game. Eventually the Dogs took advantage of it. The game wasn’t over just yet.
The Sin Bin
A favourable decision to us with the sin binning of Jacob Preston. It didn’t take long for Souths to take advantage of them being down a man.
First a try to Cody where it looked like Milne took the wrong option on the last. From there the flood gates opened up.
Trell & Stretch Trebles
Latrell scored his 3rd. There was some great lead up work to that try. The pass from Ilias to Cartwright was beautiful to watch. Then a hat trick of tries to Campbell Graham who had moved to the wing.
His 3rd try was probably the pick for me. The high bomb by Ilias. The Dogs fullback let it bounce for Latrell to take it. Then the long cut out pass to Campbell with players holding on to him. A pass very few players can do.
There was the intercept try to Burton in there. Cook probably should have passed a bit sooner. Latrell would have scored another there.
We were unlucky not to get another try right on fulltime. Unfortunately Stretch dropped the ball. Latrell was ready to be backing up and would have scored had he held onto it.
The Record Almost Fell
It’s a shame because we would have seen a long held club record fall. Most points in a game stands at 29. (Johnny Graves scored three tries and kicked 10 goals in a round 8 win against the Roosters at the S.C.G. in 1952.)
Latrell scored a total of 26. Over the last few years we have seen a few long time records fall.
A game in the end we comfortably won. Still not at our best. Although a great boost to our points differential.
Latrell Answers Critics
During the week leading up to the game there was plenty of criticism of Latrell and his form. Much of it justifiable in my opinion. You just knew he was going to have that sort of game.
The stand out part for me was his support play. He had been rightfully accused of not being involved enough in the big moments of games. I think in some of the line breaks we have made so far this year and we only had Tom Burgess in support.
It was refreshing to see not only Latrell but every break we made we had about 3-4 players there in support. Something that needs to continue.
Brilliant Defence
Another area of our game that I thought was brilliant was our sliding defence. The Dogs were always going to try and get us on the edges. With the players they had out they weren’t going to beat us playing in the middle.
The loss of Addo-Carr certainly helped, but outside their very first attacking play we had them covered every time. The work of Keaon and Campbell on that right side was as good as it gets. Our missed tackle count of 12 was very low as well. The dogs missed 30.
A Few Of Our Best
Campbell Graham was one of our best out there. His defence and attack. I would say so far this year our best player. Some of the runs to get us out of trouble. At times he was making 15-20 metres.
Cody Walker looked great out there. Him popping up on the right at times makes it hard to defend for opposition teams. Hopefully this is the Cody we see for the rest of the season.
Burgess, Koloamatangi and Murray were their usual selves. It’s just what we come to expect from them.
Bench Stand Outs
A stand out to me was our bench players. Hame Sele, Davvy Moale and Daniel Suluka-Fifita were all outstanding. In a time when we still have so many players out injured these players put their hands up. It will be hard to find a spot for all of them when our injured players return. Sele is an obvious choice for our 17. The other 2 have an opportunity to make it too hard for them to be dropped.
It is expected that Jai Arrow will be back this week. Although we have now lost Junior for another month. They should offset each other.
JD v Wayne
Thursday we play the Dolphins. Certainly not the easy game we would have been thinking before the season started. A game we should win though. It is also the first time that JD comes up against Wayne Bennett.
Rest In Peace Judy Smith
On a sad note on Tuesday (11th April) we lay to rest a very special supporter. Judy Smith was lost to us on Wednesday 29th March. Those that have been around at games over the years would no doubt remember Judy.
Judy was born without hearing and was non-verbal through her life. Her greatest love outside of her family was of course her Rabbitohs.
I had the pleasure of knowing Judy for over 25 years. I still remember in the late 90’s Judy getting on the bus and saving a spot right next to her for me. She wouldn’t let anyone else sit there. She would tell them to go away in her own way.
She had a cheeky way about her that made it impossible not to like her. Even days before her passing she still had those cheeky ways about her.
Several players reached out to me when they learned of Judy’s illness. It just shows how much she meant to them.
Judy will be missed by those of us in The Burrow. A place she loved to be. Surrounded by her friends. Her Rabbitohs family.
RIP Judy.
By Josh Kemp for Bunnies TV.
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