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Opinion
I will rate South Sydney’s spine players out of five, with one being the lowest and five being the highest.
The fullback has been talked about a lot in the pre-season in terms of whether Latrell Mitchell is fit enough for fullback and should be playing centre. Mitchell’s first touch at fullback was a try assist to winger Campbell Graham in their 26-12 win over the Dragons in the Charity Shield. Mitchell had six runs for 52 metres and a couple of errors, and one of them ended up leading to the Dragons scoring.
Latrell Mitchell will start at fullback come Round 1 and will take a few games to find his feet but Souths are hoping he doesn’t take too long because he will be a big part in their 2020 season. His running game will be very important along with his combinations with Cody Walker, Damien Cook, Adam Reynolds, James Roberts along with Cameron Murray and Liam Knight through the ruck.
Cody Walker started the first nine games of the NRL season with a big role, with Walker ending up playing Game 1 for NSW. He played very averagely, which ending up in him being dropped. Walker’s form dropped a lot until the back end of the season.
Walker finished the 2019 season with 16 tries, 64 points, 13 forced drop outs, and 16 try assists in 25 games. Cody Walker will be hoping to do what he did at the start of 2019 and continue that throughout 2020.
(AAP Image/Darren England)
Adam Reynolds in 2019 had problems with back injuries but was still the main man for South Sydney with 25 games played, three tries, 207 points, 28 forced drop outs, 12 try assists and 367 average kicking metres, which is his second highest average since he started playing in 2012.
Adam Reynolds’ number of forced drop outs was his highest since he started his career and his try assist record was his lowest (12) since 2015 (ten). Reynolds will need a better year on the try assists front by combining with Damien Cook, Cameron Murray, Cody Walker and new recruit Latrell Mitchell.
Damien Cook was one the best if not the best number nine in 2019, which saw him play every game for NSW in 2019 in a 2-1 series win. Damien Cook played 26 games for three tries, eight forced drop outs, 18 try assists and average running metres of 79, which is his second highest since he started playing in 2013. Damien Cook will be hoping to continue his form in 2020 along with his combinations with Cody Walker, Adam Reynolds, Latrell Mitchell and Cam Murray.
With the move of Murray to an edge, Liam Knight has been moved to the 13 in hopes of bringing more game time to Murray and unleashing Knight’s full potential. Whether this move will be played out through the season or not will be interesting to see.
Liam Knight has re-signed for Souths until 2023 and when Sam Burgess was injured, Liam Knight really stood up with 23 games, two tries, 48 tackle breaks and his highest average running metres of his career with 108. Liam Knight showed he has a lot of footwork and strength to show and Wayne Bennett will be hoping to unleash more of that in 2020.
I rate the Rabbitohs’ spine a four and a half out of five.
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