Feast your eyes on the all the key talking points from our first forty of football.
Left is best
Much of the attacking footy in the first forty has been concentrated down the Rabbitohs left. Latrell Mitchell put Alex Johnston away early for a try following some crafty play from Damien Cook to create an overlap. Souths again had an opportunity to score 13 minutes into the opening opening half with the final pass failing to find its target. Look for the Rabbitohs to continue to attack Reimis Smith and Christian Crichton out wide through new left hand centre Campbell Graham & co. The Bulldogs, too have concentrated much of their attacking efforts at the Rabbitohs left hand side defence but failed to convert any of their raids to points on this flank.
Playing it down their end
Possession in key and so far it’s in our favour 56% to the Bulldogs 44%. Time and time again we’ve played down the Bulldogs end of the park, forcing the bulldogs backs to work the ball off of their own line & kick from within their half. If we can continue to play the game in good ball, the fatigue that the Bulldogs are put under could open up the game further for Damien Cook & Cody Walker.
Setting it up
The boys have had no trouble punching it up through the middle with the engine room making 51.1 metres on average per each set compared to the Bulldogs 37.6. You can put this down to Reynolds kicking game, putting the Dog’s back three under pressure and allowing our boys to hunt as a pack, then rock and roll with the ball in hand.
Good Discipline
Completion rates haven’t been perfect, but they haven’t been too far off. So far we’ve completed 13/15 sets at 87% and conceded just three penalties. Adding to this, there’s been a number of last ditch efforts to deny the Bulldogs try scoring opportunities, allowing the Rabbitohs to hit the sheds with a clean score sheet intact.
Run Cookie Run
Off the back of our forward’s dominance and running metres, Damien Cook’s starting to fire. He’s made a couple half breaks in the first forty beating defenders with his raw pace. Keep an eye on him the second stanza as he aims to bring it up a gear.
