It's been a grinding first half here at ANZ Stadium, now it's time to play catch up on all the key talking points.
Kicks for Cash
Kick game needs to be on point in wet weather conditions and it didn’t look too promising early on when Reynolds kicked out early on the opening set. He didn’t waste time making amends shortly after forcing the first repeat set with a well weighted kick into the Broncos in-goal. Cody Walker followed up shortly after with a kick early in the set pinning Darius Boyd into the corner within his own ten meters. Look for these tactics to continue in the second half.
Front row on fire
So far Thomas Burgess (81 metres) Junior Tatola (92 metres) and Liam Knight (82 metres) have run for a combined total of 255 metres. Their punches have proved pivotal up the middle with a Liam Knight offload and a Tatola burst setting up the platform for Gagai to collect South Sydney’s opening try. We weather conditions have done nothing to deter Knight from throwing the ball around early with the big man chalking up two offloads in the first 15 minutes.
Gagai gets one for last week
At the end of last week’s Indigenous Round win, we we were treated to tries from all of our Indigenous players… All except Dane Gagai. Well, in keeping with traditional we’re celebrating our own Indigenous Round back at home and guess who pops up to score the first try? Dane Gagai of course. Well played mate.
A Touch of Class on the Right Edge
Cam Murray has shifted to the right edge to cover for the loss of Jadyn Su’a through suspension, & he showed his class as a back rower with the ball in hand by tapping on a ball for winger Jaxon Paulo on a raid late in the first half. The play demonstrated enormous skill to accurately direct the ball into his wingers hands with the Broncos defensive line up in his face, a feat made especially difficult considering the wet & slippery conditions. The silky play continued with the rookie winger Paulo putting in a deft kick that was pounced on by Adam Reynolds for the second try of the half. That is Jaxon’s second try assist from a kick since making his debut 3 weeks ago.
Nicho the try scoring machine
Three weeks ago, Mark Nicholls had only scored one try in his 8 years of first grade football, the latter coming in Round 25, 2012 when he was a Raider. Fast forward to Round 10, 2020 and he broke his drought. This time round, Mark didn’t have to wait eight years, he only had to wait three weeks for Cookie to give him a quick tap, for the our try scoring wrecking ball to crash over. Here’s to plenty more meat pies in 2020.
