How great is playoff footy! You just never know what can happen when any of these top teams hits a high point of their capabilities. South Sydney certainly did that last night.
Admittedly the back end of the match is some cause for concern; they conceded too many points to be completely happy with the overall performance. Manly’s depleted line-up was also a consideration, and reason enough for the Bunnies not to get carried away.
But inwardly they must feel a premiership is more than just possible now. Souths have found a combination that offers so much more than that powerful core we all know they developed over the past few seasons under coach Maguire.
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My own view is they now have the weapons to not be completely reliant on that massive forward pack and Greg Inglis individual feast.
The addition of their most inexperienced NRL player, Luke Keary, has offered a smart way to maximise all that muscle. He appears to me to carry an ability to bring out the best and smartest aspects of this red and green team.
And those young finishers in Dylan Walker, Kirisome Auva’a and Alex Johnston have points in them to turn smart plays into points. Old stager Tuqiri also joined the point scoring party last night, in a performance reminiscent of his work at his prime.
But it’s Souths superstars that Keary ignites with the greatest effect. Sam Burgess and Greg Inglis seem almost serene, all the while capable of those blockbusting big plays, but not over-trying to make it happen.
And fellow attack co-ordinators Adam Reynolds and Isaac Luke are free of pressure it seems. Keary is talking and making great “little” decisions by the 100s, to spark not only big plays but all the ideal little plays to get it started. It’s keeping their opponents on the back foot, play after play.
He is smart with footy oozing out of him.
Let me highlight an example.
Manly completed a set with a high bomb into Souths’ right corner. Inglis catches it beats one and gets it out to the 12 metre mark. At the point, when Foran kicked the ball, Keary was in Souths defensive line just inside their left winger. When Inglis played the ball Keary was at dummy half!
Why did he track that far that fast? Perhaps because he knew that Reynolds was limping from an earlier play in that defensive set. Perhaps because he had noticed Manly’s right side chase had been a little loose.
As he got to dummy half Keary indicated early to right centre Dylan Walker that he didn’t need to go to dummy half and also indicated to get infield for a wider pass. Keary delivers a basic but important pass to the evasive speedster. Walker finds a bit of space gets across a few Manly defenders and all of a sudden Walker smells possibilities. At this point he is still inside his own 20 going laterally.
Confidence was needed to throw the pass the Auva’a, and execution too. The long break that followed was a beauty. Negative or percentage play is unnecessary when young players combine with that sort of ability and precision.
More was to come. On play four in that set Reynolds capitalises on Manly’s fullback being out of position with a supremely confident grubber for a try! You already know the scorer was Keary, who instinctively saw the play coming as he recognised the same game indicators as his teammate.
Did Keary call it or Reynolds? Who cares! They may have reached a point here they don’t always need to talk to create top end plays, they sense it.
The Rabbits have found a formula to win big games.
John Sutton did well as left side second row as he should. He has been wearing number six but playing left side only for seasons. I thought he led his team perfectly, mixing a combination of direct hard running and skill perfectly. His offload early in the match and play in his own half to Inglis for a Souths break was almost a signal to his teammates that they no longer needed to smash their way to a powerful win by bludgeoning their opponents.
Pre-line offloads and link plays by outside backs on kick returns and second plays are not something we have seen in this quantity or with this quality before. Short players used dummy half scoots too with great variety.
There has been no talk of wrestling or slow or grinding their way to this win. The Rabbits played footy to take away the attack of a hardened play off team. And left them in their wake!
It was mighty win for Souths, and perhaps an indicator for all of us that playing with more skill and a little more adventure can be its own way of undoing those negative tactics of the totally mistake-free, defense-minded teams. Perhaps percentage play is not God any longer.
For those mistake-free freaks and advocates, Channel 9 stats said Manly had committed one only first half error in possession. Souths had three, but that 22-0 scoreline told the real story of a different style being this playoff winning performance.
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