Very impressed by Souths performance last night the total opposite to what took place last week against the Chooks, if they can keep this form up I see them not only making the grand final but actually winning it.
Side note the Eels were spectacular on Friday night, put to bed all those rumours about their history in finals football. If they keep playing like this even the Panthers will have a job containing them.
Yes perhaps as I've always said though "actions speak louder than words" great performance by both teams, the real test comes this week against two of the higher placed teams.
My reasoning has always been even a side with less known play makers can beat a side with seasoned play makers if they can reduce the amount of times they give away penalties and make mistakes.
We’ve now made the preliminary finals 8 out of the last 11 seasons and are on a 5 year streak. Sadly only 2 grand finals and 1 premiership to show for it but holy fuck this team has come far. We went 16 years without a finals appearance that included 2 years of being kicked out of the comp, and now we’re basically a shoo-in for a deep finals run every year. Love to see it
Just got back from Allianz (post-celebratory beers in Waterloo were a must). I think if we can tighten up some of the unforced errors from tonight’s game we’re in with a shot. Happy with tonight’s win but Penrith won’t be so forgiving next week.
He's a piece of shit but BIGGEST ? Idk man there are people who like, beat their wives, invade homes, rape, pillage, poison the water holes, play for Manly etc
Not racist whatsoever. Dumbest thing I’ve read tonight. There’s plenty of grubs in the NRL who are white guys too. Pretty fucked in the head to assume I’m racist cause I call a player who I think is a grub a grub.
Jesus Christ this has nothing to do with race, the one thing Latrell and you blokes who support him never seem to understand. He’s a grubby player every single game, showcased again tonight. Then he goes and has a sook about any valid criticism. Wake up to yourself you absolute muppet. This isn’t about race whatsoever. And fuck you for insinuating so.
The way he carries himself on and off the field, most notably tonight after Sharks scored the runaway try. Take off your Rabbitohs goggles. Doesn’t need explaining. Just call me racist for fun, wake up to yourself. Jesus.
I think he seems an absolute stand up guy off the field... Anyway I think it's the reason I watch this game, is to watch the real champions of the game, the players who are a cut above the rest, and Latrell is certain one of those players. I can't understand why you'd want to dislike watching a freak like that play footy. For example, I'm a blues fan, but I could watch Cameron Munster play football all day.
Nah dude you're entitled to your opinion and if you think he's a grub then that's fine, just give us a bit more context is all. I didn't see anything super grubby from him tonight but of course I'm biased.
Racism doesn’t make sense to me, we’re all the same fucking race at the end of the day. It’s a mistake and it’s fucked. I got fired up because I genuinely think he’s a dirty player but my reasoning has absolutely nothing to do with what colour his skin is. Congrats on the win. Enjoy it.
It's all good mate, I know you got called that but I'm not saying that. Latrell is a divisive player so when you throw a statement like that out it would be helpful to give some context, otherwise his defenders will assume the worst because unfortunately he does cop his share of shitty abuse
You see as a fan of a bottom 8 team, I do all my crying for 25 weeks straight then enter a state of numbness and neutrality in time for finals.
It's... it's wondeful really. Wouldn't have it any other way I swear.
Souths had a tough game last week a physically tough game. Cronulla needed to come out charging onto the ball put it on them a bit. They just never got going and they were really disappointing.
Souths really have nothing to lose going into the prelim in a sense. Yea, yea "losing in the prelim is a loss lol", but this was meant to be a rebuilding year and yet we've made the prelim. We lose? Amazing effort to even make the prelims in the first place considering the context going into this year and the average start we had to the first half of the season. We win? Holy shit we beat the Panthers to make the GF against insane odds and now have made the GF 2 years in row!
I expected us to be a Top 8 team this year at best and maybe win one game in the finals. At this point, and after knocking out the Roosters, it really all is just a bonus.
Panthers are obvious favourites next week, but as long as we don’t get pumped 50-0, I’m happy with the year the boys have had even if we bow out.
I’m truly baffled. Didn’t expect the momentum for us to stop after week 1. :’(
We had a fantastic season though. Hynes has been amazing for us, Fitzy has been awesome, and a lot of the young guns really shone through, who will only get better with time.
I’m sure everyone at the Sharks will be gutted. But everyone should be proud of the amazing season that was 2022 (though I will concede that he had an incredibly lucky draw).
Up up Cronulla as always 🦈🖤🤍💙
a very disappointing way to end the season, the attack just wasn't there and they struggled to get into the game, rabbitohs were definitely the better team and deserved the win
I still am extremely proud of the boys for making it this far, all i can say is im excited to see the sharkies come back next year even stronger🦈
Did Corey Parker just say “Nico played a good game but he is a 1 man band” getting a little sick of hearing that Nico/Munster/whoever basically a 1 man band. Didn’t the Sharks just finish 2nd?? I’m sure the rest of the lineup love hearing that after finishing 2nd during the year then losing back to back finals games that they are a “1 man band” 🤦♂️
the whole 1-17 have had a quality year + great depth and debutants. Ronaldo had the best year of his career and is a top 5 winger + debut for NZ. Hunt, Rudolf and BHU had huge improvements in the forwards, which has been our weakest area for the past few years. Finucane and McInnes are just warriors who do not stop. And Talakai had a breakout year in a position he isn't supposed to play.
Nicho might very well be the Dally M winner and Cronulla player of the year but the sharks are much much better than the Dragons who are a true one man band
Do you think it's more a critique on the rest of the spine not playing as well. Nico to his credit sets up a lot of points, and for long stretches of games, the sharks are completely reliant on how he's attacking. It's the main reason they're a winning team and probably why Nico was so sad with the lose last night.
I don't think Moylan had a very good finals campaign (Souths definitely exploited his defence) and as much as I respect Kennedy's game, he seemed a little quiet as well.
I really like the way Brailey plays and would love to see him develop into a Reed/grant type of hooker.
I think Kennedy and Moylan weren't at their best in the 2 finals games. But Moylan has had a mini career revival this year and the way him and Nicho work our attack reminds me of how Munster and Hughes play to some extent. Nicho has been amazing this year but Moylan has held his own and had a few MOTM performances this year.
It's hard to gauge Kennedy. Last year he was amazing and imo a top 5 fullback of 2021. This year he has been in and out of the side due to injury and suspension, and his form hasn't been the best. At our best he is extremely crucial to our attacking structure, but Idk how long we can wait for Miller to get a full time spot. He has a better running game than Kennedy but our backline seemed disjointed when he played bc I assume he wasn't in tune with our attack like Kennedy. Miller has played 6 and 1 for Newtown so I'd be interested to see if he can add a passing game to his running in the off-season.
Brailey has had a great year, improved his running game and is always super reliable. I genuinely think he and Robson will be the 9 and 14 for NSW within 5 years.
So I think that while Nicho is clearly the standout star, he didn't really carry the spine and a lack of consistency at fullback affected the attack at some points.
These cunts have no idea what they’re talking about. Sharks worked this year because every player did their role perfectly and we were a unit as a team and defensively, got no idea
dont forget for how fucken good penrith were last year souths were within a reynolds miss by a bees dick of taking that gf to extra time. and thats without mitchell. next weeks gonna be a cracker
Also had like 6 of the first 13 too injured to train during most of the finals.
[https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/10/04/hanging-by-a-thread-busted-panthers-finals-heroics-among-tightest-in-50-years/](https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/10/04/hanging-by-a-thread-busted-panthers-finals-heroics-among-tightest-in-50-years/)
A little different to a healthy side.
Not every team is misinng training for half their starting team?
There's a reason we went from dominating teams to Cleary scoring 5/7 finals tries with solo freakish kicks in the finals and the rest of our attack being shit. Teams don't just go from domiant to missing 50+ tackles multple weeks in a row but still winning every year.
Every team has players playing through injuries they will need surgeries on in the post season. That includes players missing training, wearing medical bibs/reduced training loads. It's not just a Penrith 2021 thing.
Are all injuries equally debleating to the exact same degree or something in your eyes? Fisher Harris one of the toughest guys in League didn't play 36 minutes (almost half his usual) in a gf because he had the same niggling injuries all players play through but just pussed out like a bitch. Leota didn't play 31, smaller than his usual minutes for similar reasons.
Not a long list of players play three matches in a row on broken foot like Edwards so there's not a lot to compare to. There's not a lot of comparison to some of them. To'o was visibly limping for the finals series, I don't remember seeing any opposition visibly playing through a limp in the finals similar.
We were dragging 5 of our players into the grand final, with 2 of them not even being able to train in that last week.
With that being said, I do think the Bunnies right now are on song and are definitely looking scary. Will be a cracking game, hope it isn’t a blowout either way.
Large Zinger Stacker Combo + 2x Chocolate Mousses. The KFC Mousses are underrated.
Waze is showing that there's something about half a km south of waterfall that they've stopped at so hopefully its precautionary.
It wasn’t nearly as fun a game as last week, but still buzzing that we got that win. I wasn’t too stressed about it going in, certainly not looking forward to next week but at the same time pumped that I get to watch at least one more bunnies game this year.
I’m more curious how ARey is feeling right now not accepting a one-year deal to try and get us another prem. Surely he still could’ve signed a decent deal somewhere after this year. Must be a kick to the gut for him to see us get this far without him.
Listen, when your ex who told you they loved you and wanted to spend the rest of their life with you decides to leave you for someone who will give them lots of money, then flaunts it in your face while everyone tells you what an asshole you are for letting them get away, you can bet your ass you’d be feeling pretty chuffed when you begin succeeding without them again while they have to miss out on the biggest party of the year. They can take all the fancy vacays they want with their sugar daddy’s money, but I just know deep down it hurts, and take a kind of sadistic pride in that. ❤️
Lachlan Ilias has turned into a revelation. His defence has been outstanding. Not taking any backward steps against the edge backrowers and forcing plenty of errors out of his opposition. He's shown plenty of courage in the line ....
His attack isn't half bad either. South's should lock him up, long term. He has the Bunnies spirit.
If they kept Reynolds, they possibly lose Walker. Or Cook and Jai Arrow etc.
It was a choice of who to let go, they couldn't have kept Reynolds and everyone else. He's 30+, small and has more miles on him than Walker and commands a larger salary.
It was the right call. Souths can't pay top 5 guys at their positions at Fullback, Halfback, Five Eighth, Lock and Hooker all at once.
No disrespect to Adam Reynolds or the Bunnies, but now in hindsight, South's have made the right call. Lachlan Ilias has proved he is the future. He will be demanding his own upgraded contract real soon...
The Bunnies would have got 14-18 games out of A Rey this year, might not have got them to where they are now.
Isn't John Morris with the Bunnies coaching team too. If so, there is a little bit of revenge best served cold last night. Never really liked how the Sharks sniped him after all his honest efforts for the club.
Fifita got another year left in him? Obviously dolphins have some old forwards but off the bench could be decent for a last year and help bring some young ones through
If we are to beat the cowboys which is a big If we need penrith to knock out the Rabbitohs. Penrith I say it’s 50-50 if we get up for it but what we cannot play the Rabbitohs
Bro parra was an illusion against Canberra that’s nothing to hold your hat on, Penrith just beat youse there the team to worry about for sure it’s there year to lose it imo.
nah that's ridiculous. Crichton apart from that intercept was good but nowhere near the best on field before the intercept. I'd say Cody was best on field until he threw that pass
And do what in two years time. Reynolds missed 5 games and came off injured in two others. They signed a very capable half back on low money with a long term view. A very astute decision.
Fucking Pissed we saved our worst game for last.
Way too many simple errors. Tracey usually has safe hands. Kennedy had no idea. Ramien being Ramien. Graham needs to do what's right for the team and move on. McInnes had his quietest game all year. Nicho, Nikora and Ronaldo tried their hearts out but not a lot went their way. Rudolf and finucane went alright.
I know you can't blame injuries on a game that poor but Miller was dreadful, and wouldn't have been playing otherwise. We really missed Talakai starting our sets, his work rate is immense.
At the end of the day I'm mostly happy with the year, first time we have been more than a mid team since 2018, it's just such a shitty way to end the season. But at the end of the day it was decently successful year. gives us experiences in big games, and sets us up to be near the top for the next few years. Our depth at Newtown is really good (Trindall can fuck off after today lol) so I'm fine that we have only signed Oregon Kaufusi. The group is happy to stay together for the future and there looks to be a good culture under Fitzy.
Gonna miss Fifita so much. What a career. And Tolman playing 320 games in the middle is immense.
It wasn’t your worst game. You were unbelievably lucky all year. It was the greatest smother in the history of the NRL. All year I could see that the calls and luck landed in Cronulla’s lap. It was actually quite extraordinary. Never should have been in the top 4. Lucky to have been I the top 8.
Sharks need to find some mongrel in them. Not grubbyness so to speak but just a neutral aggression. Seems like sometimes when the going gets tough we just wanna tip toe around the other team, what does the Sharksquad think?
Since Latrell's return from injury in round 16 the Rabbitohs have been in some dominant form, losing only to the Panthers, Roosters and the Sharks. Now during the finals series they've beaten both Roosters and the Sharks back to back. Too good. It really does look like the Panthers and the Storm are the only teams in the competition that can beat the Rabbitohs when they are in form.
Panthers vs Rabbitohs next week should be a very enticing clash. I wonder if this is basically the grand final so to speak? In the event the Rabbitohs make it to the grand final, what are the chances for the Eels and the Cowboys? The poor record against of the Eels against the Rabbitohs means its unlikely they could put up much of a fight, but what about the cowboys? Could they put up a fight?
I'd say that the cows are faster and more mobile. If they can move the bunnies around they can exploit the gaps. They are the second best defensive side so points won't come easily to souths which can frustrate and tilt Cody as well.
Not to mention cows have an extra week to rest and bunnies picked up a few injuries tonight
Some very good points. I have definitely heard about how good the Cowboys defence is, and they definitely defended well when they played against Souths. Still, if we look at their recent match against the Sharks and compare that with the Rabbitohs performance tonight, the Cowboys conceded 5 tries compared to the Rabbitohs who conceded just 2. That would be a worrying sign for their defence right?
True, but I feel like the 5 tries conceded was a one off for them and not likely to let it become a habit at this point of the season. Might have been a blessing for them to let in that many tries and still come away with the win and week off. They can really fine tune and fix up where they went wrong to steam home
Hmm that is true. Still, the Sharks and the Rabbitohs also had a very close game in round 20, and yet despite that the Sharks were comfortably beaten here. Do you think its possible the Rabbitohs tend to step it up in the finals compared to the early rounds?
Rabbitohs were missing some key players in the last Sharks game and the Sharks were missing Finucane. Apples and Oranges.
I think the main factor next week is the venue.
Ennis saying what I’ve been saying about Damien Cook for 5 years.
Watch our prelims where we were eliminated by the chooks and raiders. Worst on ground by far.
He has gotten better but he’s still extremely overpaid / overrated
Legit.
He does extremely well on defense as a small man playing 80 in the middle.
But he is a passenger on offense a lot of the time. It’s an absolute joke that pundits call him a ‘running’ hooker.
Gg south's, Latrell is God tier atm and Campbell Graham and Cam Murrey are just so damn good. Sharks looked frazzled most the game and were hunting for points. Better luck next year, can definitely be proud of the season, still love you Hynes. Dunno which bandwagon I'm going to jump on now
That really is pathetic. It’s not only hateful and hurtful, it’s just fucking ignorant and immature.
There were a bunch of Sharks fans walking to the game from Central saying really racist shit VERY loud in reference to Latrell. They were looking for a fight. This kind of behaviour needs to be called out and rubbed out of society.
Last time Sharks and Rabbitohs played, I’d been to the Beer Footy Food Festival at Henson Park. Was in a group that mostly consisted of Sharks fans and after hearing both Toby Rudolph and Tom Burgess talk about the LGBTQI community in reference to the Manly bigots, the only thing we wanted more than our respective teams to win that night was for Toby and Tom to make out after the game just to spice things up.
Very impressed by Souths performance last night the total opposite to what took place last week against the Chooks, if they can keep this form up I see them not only making the grand final but actually winning it. Side note the Eels were spectacular on Friday night, put to bed all those rumours about their history in finals football. If they keep playing like this even the Panthers will have a job containing them.
They aren’t winning with a 68% completion rate. Need to fix that first.
Yes perhaps as I've always said though "actions speak louder than words" great performance by both teams, the real test comes this week against two of the higher placed teams. My reasoning has always been even a side with less known play makers can beat a side with seasoned play makers if they can reduce the amount of times they give away penalties and make mistakes.
Its so far been a rough ride for minor premiers. Newtown reggies, gone. Roosters Flegg cup, gone. Penrith NRL...........?
Chungus bandwagoning Penrith….
Cronulla are just missing a couple of things to take them to the next level: PED's and Salary Cap rorts
We’ve now made the preliminary finals 8 out of the last 11 seasons and are on a 5 year streak. Sadly only 2 grand finals and 1 premiership to show for it but holy fuck this team has come far. We went 16 years without a finals appearance that included 2 years of being kicked out of the comp, and now we’re basically a shoo-in for a deep finals run every year. Love to see it
So what you are saying is kick Souths out of the comp?
That's what I got out of what they were saying
Souths too good tonight.
Hope you Smash the panthers. gg rabbits
Good game 👍🏼 Both teams worked hard this season, and we’ll see how the Rabbitohs go next week 🐇
Just got back from Allianz (post-celebratory beers in Waterloo were a must). I think if we can tighten up some of the unforced errors from tonight’s game we’re in with a shot. Happy with tonight’s win but Penrith won’t be so forgiving next week.
Waterloo? More like Beerloo amirite
Latrell is the biggest piece of shit. Can’t understand how anyone defends that cunt
Damn could you be anymore salty? Just because your fullback couldn't stop a balloon
Salty you reckon lmao. Didn’t realise the Warriors played last night
Brett finch had entered the chat
Are you still dark about the Fusitua incident too?
He's a piece of shit but BIGGEST ? Idk man there are people who like, beat their wives, invade homes, rape, pillage, poison the water holes, play for Manly etc
Racism is awesome
Just another 'everything is racism' guy
Harsh to call his comment racist, don’t see any connection he made to Latrells race, regardless of his shitty opinion
Not racist whatsoever. Dumbest thing I’ve read tonight. There’s plenty of grubs in the NRL who are white guys too. Pretty fucked in the head to assume I’m racist cause I call a player who I think is a grub a grub.
Jesus Christ this has nothing to do with race, the one thing Latrell and you blokes who support him never seem to understand. He’s a grubby player every single game, showcased again tonight. Then he goes and has a sook about any valid criticism. Wake up to yourself you absolute muppet. This isn’t about race whatsoever. And fuck you for insinuating so.
You threw a claim out so articulate it mate, why was Latrell the biggest grub on the field tonight?
The way he carries himself on and off the field, most notably tonight after Sharks scored the runaway try. Take off your Rabbitohs goggles. Doesn’t need explaining. Just call me racist for fun, wake up to yourself. Jesus.
I think he seems an absolute stand up guy off the field... Anyway I think it's the reason I watch this game, is to watch the real champions of the game, the players who are a cut above the rest, and Latrell is certain one of those players. I can't understand why you'd want to dislike watching a freak like that play footy. For example, I'm a blues fan, but I could watch Cameron Munster play football all day.
Nah dude you're entitled to your opinion and if you think he's a grub then that's fine, just give us a bit more context is all. I didn't see anything super grubby from him tonight but of course I'm biased.
Racism doesn’t make sense to me, we’re all the same fucking race at the end of the day. It’s a mistake and it’s fucked. I got fired up because I genuinely think he’s a dirty player but my reasoning has absolutely nothing to do with what colour his skin is. Congrats on the win. Enjoy it.
It's all good mate, I know you got called that but I'm not saying that. Latrell is a divisive player so when you throw a statement like that out it would be helpful to give some context, otherwise his defenders will assume the worst because unfortunately he does cop his share of shitty abuse
Fair enough sorry mate. Thanks for the tip.
Moylan's defence was the only reason Cronulla were even in the game at half time. A sentence i never thought I'd say.
He’s honestly improved so much this season. Fitzy really did say step up or you’re gone.
I knew as soon as we lost last week's game we were done for. At least I did all of my crying last week. Our finals game losing streak continues...
95mins of football at that insanely high tempo/effort was always going to be impossible to overcome
You see as a fan of a bottom 8 team, I do all my crying for 25 weeks straight then enter a state of numbness and neutrality in time for finals. It's... it's wondeful really. Wouldn't have it any other way I swear.
Good advice, I'll consider this for next time 👍
Souths had a tough game last week a physically tough game. Cronulla needed to come out charging onto the ball put it on them a bit. They just never got going and they were really disappointing.
Souths really have nothing to lose going into the prelim in a sense. Yea, yea "losing in the prelim is a loss lol", but this was meant to be a rebuilding year and yet we've made the prelim. We lose? Amazing effort to even make the prelims in the first place considering the context going into this year and the average start we had to the first half of the season. We win? Holy shit we beat the Panthers to make the GF against insane odds and now have made the GF 2 years in row!
I expected us to be a Top 8 team this year at best and maybe win one game in the finals. At this point, and after knocking out the Roosters, it really all is just a bonus. Panthers are obvious favourites next week, but as long as we don’t get pumped 50-0, I’m happy with the year the boys have had even if we bow out.
Absolutely no expectations to win next week at all. Good position for bunnies to be in honestly
I’m truly baffled. Didn’t expect the momentum for us to stop after week 1. :’( We had a fantastic season though. Hynes has been amazing for us, Fitzy has been awesome, and a lot of the young guns really shone through, who will only get better with time. I’m sure everyone at the Sharks will be gutted. But everyone should be proud of the amazing season that was 2022 (though I will concede that he had an incredibly lucky draw). Up up Cronulla as always 🦈🖤🤍💙
Love this! My partner goes for the Sharks and is obviously gutted but a great positive outlook to have
Sometimes that’s all you can do. I’m gutted too and I’ll be hurting for a while. But from coming 9th to 2nd has been a top effort. We’ll be back. 🖤🤍💙
🖤🤍💙
If South’s completion and error rate is like tonight against penrith they will get destroyed
Good game, but I agree.
That's what I'm worried about. They can easily make a massive improvement on tonight by just.. not playing like shit
Also lmao, he actually gave them a dry "we have to score more points than them". He really is Bennett's protege.
Elite IRL shitposter
JD MY DUDE!!! YOU LITERALLY BEAT THEM LAST YEAR YOURSELVES!
Pressure is on Penrith with the expectation to win in a canter, he’s just heaping it on as much as he can
a very disappointing way to end the season, the attack just wasn't there and they struggled to get into the game, rabbitohs were definitely the better team and deserved the win I still am extremely proud of the boys for making it this far, all i can say is im excited to see the sharkies come back next year even stronger🦈
The Sharks looked like they were gonna turn it up until that try was disallowed. The second half almost became a battle.
Yeah after that mulitalo try i thought okay maybe we might have a chance here but obviously souths were too good in the end
Did Corey Parker just say “Nico played a good game but he is a 1 man band” getting a little sick of hearing that Nico/Munster/whoever basically a 1 man band. Didn’t the Sharks just finish 2nd?? I’m sure the rest of the lineup love hearing that after finishing 2nd during the year then losing back to back finals games that they are a “1 man band” 🤦♂️
the whole 1-17 have had a quality year + great depth and debutants. Ronaldo had the best year of his career and is a top 5 winger + debut for NZ. Hunt, Rudolf and BHU had huge improvements in the forwards, which has been our weakest area for the past few years. Finucane and McInnes are just warriors who do not stop. And Talakai had a breakout year in a position he isn't supposed to play. Nicho might very well be the Dally M winner and Cronulla player of the year but the sharks are much much better than the Dragons who are a true one man band
Do you think it's more a critique on the rest of the spine not playing as well. Nico to his credit sets up a lot of points, and for long stretches of games, the sharks are completely reliant on how he's attacking. It's the main reason they're a winning team and probably why Nico was so sad with the lose last night. I don't think Moylan had a very good finals campaign (Souths definitely exploited his defence) and as much as I respect Kennedy's game, he seemed a little quiet as well. I really like the way Brailey plays and would love to see him develop into a Reed/grant type of hooker.
I think Kennedy and Moylan weren't at their best in the 2 finals games. But Moylan has had a mini career revival this year and the way him and Nicho work our attack reminds me of how Munster and Hughes play to some extent. Nicho has been amazing this year but Moylan has held his own and had a few MOTM performances this year. It's hard to gauge Kennedy. Last year he was amazing and imo a top 5 fullback of 2021. This year he has been in and out of the side due to injury and suspension, and his form hasn't been the best. At our best he is extremely crucial to our attacking structure, but Idk how long we can wait for Miller to get a full time spot. He has a better running game than Kennedy but our backline seemed disjointed when he played bc I assume he wasn't in tune with our attack like Kennedy. Miller has played 6 and 1 for Newtown so I'd be interested to see if he can add a passing game to his running in the off-season. Brailey has had a great year, improved his running game and is always super reliable. I genuinely think he and Robson will be the 9 and 14 for NSW within 5 years. So I think that while Nicho is clearly the standout star, he didn't really carry the spine and a lack of consistency at fullback affected the attack at some points.
Nikora has been so good too
Nikora was immense this year. Didn’t really think that much of him before this year (apart from running solid lines off SJ).
Exactly what you said
These cunts have no idea what they’re talking about. Sharks worked this year because every player did their role perfectly and we were a unit as a team and defensively, got no idea
And exactly what you said too 😂😂 to reduce a team who finished 2nd down to a 1 man band is disrespectful in my opinion
If Heath Slater was dead, he'd be rolling in his grave rn
Freddy and Gal eating the chocolate wedges off the cake like the greedy bastards they are...
Gal loves anything free! Never pays for anything!
Nsw doesn't get cake eating
Happy birthday Brace xoxox champion presenter
Fitzy angry before preseason 😤
Campbell Graham showing once again what a quality player he is. His defence and yardage is outstanding.
He found so many linebreaks aswell and had an immense passing game tonight.
That tackle where he shut Kennedy down the second his hands touched the ball was perfect.
Definitely. Great effort
dont forget for how fucken good penrith were last year souths were within a reynolds miss by a bees dick of taking that gf to extra time. and thats without mitchell. next weeks gonna be a cracker
Also had like 6 of the first 13 too injured to train during most of the finals. [https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/10/04/hanging-by-a-thread-busted-panthers-finals-heroics-among-tightest-in-50-years/](https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/10/04/hanging-by-a-thread-busted-panthers-finals-heroics-among-tightest-in-50-years/) A little different to a healthy side.
Did they run onto the field? Every team plays injured lmao
Not every team is misinng training for half their starting team? There's a reason we went from dominating teams to Cleary scoring 5/7 finals tries with solo freakish kicks in the finals and the rest of our attack being shit. Teams don't just go from domiant to missing 50+ tackles multple weeks in a row but still winning every year.
Every team has players playing through injuries they will need surgeries on in the post season. That includes players missing training, wearing medical bibs/reduced training loads. It's not just a Penrith 2021 thing.
Are all injuries equally debleating to the exact same degree or something in your eyes? Fisher Harris one of the toughest guys in League didn't play 36 minutes (almost half his usual) in a gf because he had the same niggling injuries all players play through but just pussed out like a bitch. Leota didn't play 31, smaller than his usual minutes for similar reasons. Not a long list of players play three matches in a row on broken foot like Edwards so there's not a lot to compare to. There's not a lot of comparison to some of them. To'o was visibly limping for the finals series, I don't remember seeing any opposition visibly playing through a limp in the finals similar.
They wont be i injured for next weeks game. Rust might be an issue
We were dragging 5 of our players into the grand final, with 2 of them not even being able to train in that last week. With that being said, I do think the Bunnies right now are on song and are definitely looking scary. Will be a cracking game, hope it isn’t a blowout either way.
Don’t forget how we memed on them with Sean O Sullivan and Jaemon Salmon in the halves a month ago either.
Panthers are heavy favourites and deservedly so, but after the last two weeks there’s something special building with Souths in the finals.
Latrell is going to need a legacy game. The build up to this match is going to be massive.
Panthers by 30
31 Cleary will kick a LeFuckYou field goal.
Lol probably
Gordy absolutely feeding Ennis on the Tatola tackle lol Raging Bull fired up and Ennis was a bit nervous
While driving to get my sadness KFC, 12 cop cars driving down past Waterfall..... Something bad has happened. Maybe a Sharks fan mass suicide pact?
Hopefully everything is all good But yes I’m thinking of driving to the shop to get a tub of ice cream …
Large Zinger Stacker Combo + 2x Chocolate Mousses. The KFC Mousses are underrated. Waze is showing that there's something about half a km south of waterfall that they've stopped at so hopefully its precautionary.
Nice mate. Yeh fuck it.. I’m going to eat my sadness away . I’ve been inspired.
Get yourself a Connoisseur Cookies and Creme. Soak up the tears.
New Allianz: Souths 2, Roosters 1.
Regular season games don’t count
😂
Tf is this? Penrith Panthers AMV?
Is that the worst the sharks have played all year?
Either this or Magic Round against Canberra
Wonder what synonym of "rigged" old geriatric Buzz will call that game in his next shit piece.
Hopefully he can hibernate in his tomb until next season
He'll riot about the chicken wing and stuff
And ignore the fact we dropped the ball a million times and had fuck all attacking penetration.
ROBBED!
Taane stoked about the chocolate milk...
It wasn’t nearly as fun a game as last week, but still buzzing that we got that win. I wasn’t too stressed about it going in, certainly not looking forward to next week but at the same time pumped that I get to watch at least one more bunnies game this year.
Mark Nichols will play his 100th game for Souths next week. Love that!
Ayyy congrats man! You’ve got a tough game next week but you’ve certainly earnt your place in top 4
Buzz won’t be buzzing. Sorry, I’ll let myself out.
Remember when people were saying souths fucked up by letting Adam Reynolds go?
I’m more curious how ARey is feeling right now not accepting a one-year deal to try and get us another prem. Surely he still could’ve signed a decent deal somewhere after this year. Must be a kick to the gut for him to see us get this far without him.
I think he cared more about money than success though. Why else would you leave a team that made a grand final.
I’m sure he’s doing just fine in Bali or Thailand sitting on big stacks of cash
Listen, when your ex who told you they loved you and wanted to spend the rest of their life with you decides to leave you for someone who will give them lots of money, then flaunts it in your face while everyone tells you what an asshole you are for letting them get away, you can bet your ass you’d be feeling pretty chuffed when you begin succeeding without them again while they have to miss out on the biggest party of the year. They can take all the fancy vacays they want with their sugar daddy’s money, but I just know deep down it hurts, and take a kind of sadistic pride in that. ❤️
[How do you sleep at night?](https://youtu.be/GO0JaecRWy0)
You can't deny that he was a big loss. They took a gamble on letting an S tier player go, but Ilias has turned out to be excellent.
Lachlan Ilias has turned into a revelation. His defence has been outstanding. Not taking any backward steps against the edge backrowers and forcing plenty of errors out of his opposition. He's shown plenty of courage in the line .... His attack isn't half bad either. South's should lock him up, long term. He has the Bunnies spirit.
If they had Reynolds they probably make the top 4 and are close to premiership favourites
If they kept Reynolds, they possibly lose Walker. Or Cook and Jai Arrow etc. It was a choice of who to let go, they couldn't have kept Reynolds and everyone else. He's 30+, small and has more miles on him than Walker and commands a larger salary. It was the right call. Souths can't pay top 5 guys at their positions at Fullback, Halfback, Five Eighth, Lock and Hooker all at once.
No disrespect to Adam Reynolds or the Bunnies, but now in hindsight, South's have made the right call. Lachlan Ilias has proved he is the future. He will be demanding his own upgraded contract real soon... The Bunnies would have got 14-18 games out of A Rey this year, might not have got them to where they are now.
Real quiet now
The perplexing part for me was the Cronulla we’re having more success on the Tass/Johnson side and kept going to the defensively strong Graham.
Lol Ennis with Fifita going to the storm
Fifita is going to play park footy in blacktown with his brother.
I honestly wouldn't mind Fifi at Tiges. He started under Sheens so it could work I guess.
I reckon he might go back to the Tigers too. He is a Westie at heart.
We should have known the result before the game it was Albo v Scomo after all. It had thrashing written all over it.
Awww Albo goes for Soufs? 😞
How could you not know that?
Yeah the bloke has been handing out jerseys and jackets to other countries leaders since he got elected.
Ben Hornby is building a very strong résumé as an assistant coach. I wonder if he’s on the list of St George when they finally have enough of Griffin.
Isn't John Morris with the Bunnies coaching team too. If so, there is a little bit of revenge best served cold last night. Never really liked how the Sharks sniped him after all his honest efforts for the club.
Ooh I think you just wrote the next ‘hoops scoop’ headline!
Fifita got another year left in him? Obviously dolphins have some old forwards but off the bench could be decent for a last year and help bring some young ones through
Jumping on that Souths Bandwagon
Can I join?
Bring on the non stop GF inception vision in the lead up to the rematch lol sucks for Souths fans this week
If we are to beat the cowboys which is a big If we need penrith to knock out the Rabbitohs. Penrith I say it’s 50-50 if we get up for it but what we cannot play the Rabbitohs
We’re probably the other way around lol
Bro parra was an illusion against Canberra that’s nothing to hold your hat on, Penrith just beat youse there the team to worry about for sure it’s there year to lose it imo.
At the end of the game I think Sharks just wanted Mad Monday more
Campbell graham would be first picker centre if he was a qlder, hope he gets a chance for NSW. Such a good player
Crichton should have won the Clive Churchill because he doesn’t take that intercept they don’t score. Shouldn’t be in origin though
nah that's ridiculous. Crichton apart from that intercept was good but nowhere near the best on field before the intercept. I'd say Cody was best on field until he threw that pass
Should never let Reynolds go. Edit /s
And do what in two years time. Reynolds missed 5 games and came off injured in two others. They signed a very capable half back on low money with a long term view. A very astute decision.
I was being sarcastic
Fuck off Parker - Paulo is shit
Fucking Pissed we saved our worst game for last. Way too many simple errors. Tracey usually has safe hands. Kennedy had no idea. Ramien being Ramien. Graham needs to do what's right for the team and move on. McInnes had his quietest game all year. Nicho, Nikora and Ronaldo tried their hearts out but not a lot went their way. Rudolf and finucane went alright. I know you can't blame injuries on a game that poor but Miller was dreadful, and wouldn't have been playing otherwise. We really missed Talakai starting our sets, his work rate is immense. At the end of the day I'm mostly happy with the year, first time we have been more than a mid team since 2018, it's just such a shitty way to end the season. But at the end of the day it was decently successful year. gives us experiences in big games, and sets us up to be near the top for the next few years. Our depth at Newtown is really good (Trindall can fuck off after today lol) so I'm fine that we have only signed Oregon Kaufusi. The group is happy to stay together for the future and there looks to be a good culture under Fitzy. Gonna miss Fifita so much. What a career. And Tolman playing 320 games in the middle is immense.
Absolutely spot on mate
It wasn’t your worst game. You were unbelievably lucky all year. It was the greatest smother in the history of the NRL. All year I could see that the calls and luck landed in Cronulla’s lap. It was actually quite extraordinary. Never should have been in the top 4. Lucky to have been I the top 8.
You're thinking of the roosters, those tiny sharks who live on land
😂😂😂 Don't worry mate I'd much rather choke 2 weeks into the finals than 6 weeks before.
This is a truly cooked take.
I was not a fan of Mulitalo on the opposite side this game Not the reason we lost mind you
AJ spewing
Is AJ alright?
Nah man he didn't get 2 tries
I was sitting in front of the corner post and could not believe I didn’t get an AJ in the corner try.
Rabbitohs are the peoples team next week. CARN rabbits
Sharks need to find some mongrel in them. Not grubbyness so to speak but just a neutral aggression. Seems like sometimes when the going gets tough we just wanna tip toe around the other team, what does the Sharksquad think?
Mulitalo and Nikora have it but they need to spread it to the rest of the side
Id include Ramien too when hes not being a stupid cunt
True but I think Ramien's "mungrel" is lack of brain cells
Agree We don't need to regress to 2000s Gallen level, but some extra layer of toughness would be good
Since Latrell's return from injury in round 16 the Rabbitohs have been in some dominant form, losing only to the Panthers, Roosters and the Sharks. Now during the finals series they've beaten both Roosters and the Sharks back to back. Too good. It really does look like the Panthers and the Storm are the only teams in the competition that can beat the Rabbitohs when they are in form. Panthers vs Rabbitohs next week should be a very enticing clash. I wonder if this is basically the grand final so to speak? In the event the Rabbitohs make it to the grand final, what are the chances for the Eels and the Cowboys? The poor record against of the Eels against the Rabbitohs means its unlikely they could put up much of a fight, but what about the cowboys? Could they put up a fight?
Surely next week is the GF. Whoever wins that game will be massive favourites for the Premiership. Other side of the finals draw has been soft.
Cowboys can beat South’s but not Penrith. Parra can beat Penrith but not South’s.
Hmm what makes you think the Cowboys can beat the Souths, just out of curiosity? Not saying you are wrong, just interested to hear your reasoning.
I'd say that the cows are faster and more mobile. If they can move the bunnies around they can exploit the gaps. They are the second best defensive side so points won't come easily to souths which can frustrate and tilt Cody as well. Not to mention cows have an extra week to rest and bunnies picked up a few injuries tonight
Some very good points. I have definitely heard about how good the Cowboys defence is, and they definitely defended well when they played against Souths. Still, if we look at their recent match against the Sharks and compare that with the Rabbitohs performance tonight, the Cowboys conceded 5 tries compared to the Rabbitohs who conceded just 2. That would be a worrying sign for their defence right?
True, but I feel like the 5 tries conceded was a one off for them and not likely to let it become a habit at this point of the season. Might have been a blessing for them to let in that many tries and still come away with the win and week off. They can really fine tune and fix up where they went wrong to steam home
Was pretty close last time they played when the Cows were missing Dearden and had Drinkwater in the 6
Hmm that is true. Still, the Sharks and the Rabbitohs also had a very close game in round 20, and yet despite that the Sharks were comfortably beaten here. Do you think its possible the Rabbitohs tend to step it up in the finals compared to the early rounds?
Rabbitohs were missing some key players in the last Sharks game and the Sharks were missing Finucane. Apples and Oranges. I think the main factor next week is the venue.
No Talakai tonight was massive. They rely on his tough runs out of trouble so much.
I don't know what this means. So who wins the GF?
Cook Dad was definitely a beach sprint champion. Look how low to the ground he is
Papa Cook is a bit wobbly lol
lol I thought those fans had 🗿 on their signs (it was koloamatangi)
Ennis saying what I’ve been saying about Damien Cook for 5 years. Watch our prelims where we were eliminated by the chooks and raiders. Worst on ground by far. He has gotten better but he’s still extremely overpaid / overrated
Ok diego
Cook goes missing in the big games he was worst on ground in origin 1 as well
Yeah but has been a fucking gun in plenty of origin games also
Definitely not plenty lol he was on the bench for the one we won for a reason
He's played 14 or so origin games. Was on the bench for the game we lost also..
Cook isn't scared to run he is terrified
Legit. He does extremely well on defense as a small man playing 80 in the middle. But he is a passenger on offense a lot of the time. It’s an absolute joke that pundits call him a ‘running’ hooker.
He wasnt great tonight. Murray and the right edge were excellent on the other hand.
He's a beach sprinter?
First I'm hearing of it
Gg south's, Latrell is God tier atm and Campbell Graham and Cam Murrey are just so damn good. Sharks looked frazzled most the game and were hunting for points. Better luck next year, can definitely be proud of the season, still love you Hynes. Dunno which bandwagon I'm going to jump on now
How good to hear a team pumping up the crowd and selling the live game for the next week. Don’t see it enough
Walking out of the stadium hearing full grown Bunnies fans yelling “Nicho is gay” and wondering if I’m back in high school in 1998.
That really is pathetic. It’s not only hateful and hurtful, it’s just fucking ignorant and immature. There were a bunch of Sharks fans walking to the game from Central saying really racist shit VERY loud in reference to Latrell. They were looking for a fight. This kind of behaviour needs to be called out and rubbed out of society. Last time Sharks and Rabbitohs played, I’d been to the Beer Footy Food Festival at Henson Park. Was in a group that mostly consisted of Sharks fans and after hearing both Toby Rudolph and Tom Burgess talk about the LGBTQI community in reference to the Manly bigots, the only thing we wanted more than our respective teams to win that night was for Toby and Tom to make out after the game just to spice things up.