recency bias is a possibility. I can’t deny that. But only time will tell. A lot will depend on the combination he strikes up with Flanagan as well. They have to be able to complement one another not pull each other in opposite directions. They each need to find their role and that will be difficult if the Dogs forwards can’t do their job in controlling the middle third and giving their halves some momentum and a platform to work from.

“No trust or communication and Gags was trying hard to cover both.”

That’s why I said old Father Time fell asleep at the wheel last night. We all saw how bad Souths were doing on their right defensive edge and the master coach’s answer was to replace a centre (Marsters) who hadn’t played first-grade all year with a backrower moonlighting as a centre (Cartwright) playing his first game in first-grade this year! This while playing a 5/8 at FB a 36-year-old 5/8 at HB (who was never signed to play more than 40 mins a game) and a kid making only his second NRL appearance, his first in the run on side, at 5/8 against the Storm! Talk about Frankenstein’s monster!

As I said before the game Hawkins was NOT ready to be thrown in the deep end and Marshall was not up to playing 80 mins against the Storm without either Reynolds or Walker sharing the burden of directing the team and creating opportunities. It was a recipe for disaster!

Bennett should have named AJ at FB and Walker at 5/8 with Benji playing HB and Hawkins on the bench to cover injury or fatigue to Benji. When Souths right edge defence crumbled then Gagai should have been moved to right centre with Marsters revertingto the right wing and following Gagai’s lead and defensive calls. Burns (though not suited to the wing) could have switched to the left wing with Cartwright filling in at centre (given there was no other option).

I have no illusions this would have changed the result but I believe it would have contributed to lessening the magnitude of the loss.

[edit]

“It was a strnge decision to start Mrtsers”

You have to hit that “a” key a little harder Nat. Don’t tell me you are a soft touch? I would never have expected that. 😂

Yeah, Dutski. It is unfortunately the burden both our great foundation clubs bear this year. Having to do the impossible with half of their roster unavailable. Just like the chooks are still hanging in there the Rabbits aren’t going anywhere either. Both teams will finish in the top 5 IMO with the Bunnies finishing in the top 4. Let’s see if time proves if I’m right or not. But personally I have no doubt whatsoever.

Whose name? 😂 😂 😂

Sorry to say TB, based on his form this year compared to his game time in 2020 I think Burton goes better in the centres. Like talk of playing Kotoni Staggs at 5/8, I think they both are far more dangerous one on one out wide and far easier to contain on an edge. Yeah, both are great players and will have an impact wherever they play, but I think they have a bigger impact playing in the centres. Just my opinion. But you know I’m usually right. 😁

And I’m rethinking my tip of Raider for the top 4. I think the Eels look like taking a top 4 spot, but I still think Souths will finish in the top 4 once they get their full side back and can keep them on the field. I am still tipping a Rabbitohs vs Panthers/Storm GF like I did at the start of the year.

“The Storm are still afforded a bit more leeway in the tackle than most I’ve noticed.”

Do you think, Nat? They are also allowed to pass the ball forward to score Tries or not ground them correctly while their opposition gets pulled up every time. That’s one hell of an advantage! I won’t blame last night’s loss on that alone though. Souths were extremely poor. Even Broncos-esque with 8 players missing, as Bennett said, it was coming. Now we move on. 😁

Hang in the Kurt. The Rabbitohs are still smokey’s, and I’m pretty good at blowing smoke if you need any extra. 😂 👍

Having lived on the Central Coast for 15 years until about 3 years ago and having attended all the Rabbitohs games at Central Coast stadium I can tell you that the Rabbitohs have the largest following of any club in the NRL on the Central Coast closely followed by Manly and then there is a large gap before there is only a sprinkling of support for other clubs on the Central Coast.

I base this not only on crowd numbers and locals around town wearing Souths merch at the time of games but also at shopping centres and around town where there were plenty of Rabbitohs merch present and every third or fourth car seemed to have a Rabbit logo on their rear windscreen. Why the Rabbitohs stopped taking games there I’ll never know. They always got a capacity crowd every time they played there especially if the played Manly.

Coasties by and large would like their own team to support and would welcome the Central Coast Bears if they were reinstated.

Think again “no one”! See my post below. The Rabbits are still alive in 2021!

50-point curse knocks Rabbitohs’ premiership hopes for six…

Let’s not get hysterical chicken little! The sky ISN’T falling. It was just an acorn that hit you on the head. In this case THAT record does not take into account a side being decimated with 9 players missing! Had Jed Cartwright and Braidon Burns not returned from injury last night that would have been 11 players Souths were missing from their 30-man squad. That is more than a THIRD of the Rabbitohs 30-man squad! That includes 4 players with Origin rep experience Adam Reynolds (round 11), Latrell Mitchell (round 11), Cameron Murray (round 13) and Josh Mansour (round 11), and Campbell Graham (round 13) who is part of the NSW Origin extended squad. Souths were also missing regular first-grader Jaxson Paulo (round 15) as well as Tautau Moga (round 12), Blake Taaffe (round 10) and Brock Gardner (season).

Had Souths fielded a full team and the Storm been missing the equivalent number of key players do you have any doubt that the scoreline would have been reversed? Would everyone be writing the Storm off now or eager to make excuses for a seriously understrength side? The truth of the matter is that the Rabbitohs are still one of the top 4 teams in the competition once they get their key players back.

Adam Reynolds is a chance of being back next week but will probably return in round 11 along with Latrell Mitchell and Josh Mansour. Although I’m not expecting Souths to be at their best against the competition front-runners the Panthers but with Cameron Murray and Campbell Graham due back in the Bye week round 13. Souths next 7 games are against the Knights, Broncos, Tigers, Cowboys, Dogs, Warriors and Dragons and I expect Souths to win ALL of them.

They have a mixed run home though with their next games against the Eels, Titans, Panthers, Roosters, Dragons with only the Eels and Panthers to be potential speed bumps to the Rabbitohs hopes for a top 4 finish.

The time off for these key players will also help to freshen them up for the remainder of the season and could result in players like Latrell, Murray and Walker missing out Origin selection which will only help the Bunnies NRL chances. If ever there was going to be a year when the dreaded “50-point curse” is broken then 2021 will be that year given that the Bunnies 50-point loss was a bogus result in light of the massive impact of so many injuries or suspensions.

No, Souths are far from finished this season and 2021 will still be the Year of the Rabbit! Glory! Glory!

$7 million after tax only leaves $3.5 million? Pomoz, you need a better accountant! Even billionaire Kerry Packer once got away with a meagre $3,000 tax bill after some extremely creative accounting. Unless Reynolds does something foolish, like Craig Wing investing in a resort in Vanuatu that got destroyed by a cyclone causing him to come back to the Rabbitohs cap in hand. Don’t they have insurance over there? Seriously!

No, I’m sure Reynolds will have much more than only 50% of his career generated wealth if he invests it wisely.

The joke was always in the warning coming AFTER the comment not BEFORE. 😛 All in good fun though. Banter and all that. 👍

Sydney High!!!!! Oh, TB! NOW it’s clear why there has been such… strong feelings between us in the past. I went to Clevo (Cleveland Street Boys High) and we used to love to bash the ponces from Sydney Boys High. When did you attend Sydney Boys High?

I’m wondering if we ever played against one another? You aren’t Big Shane or Johnny Johnson are you? Along with Nathan Merritt’s dad I played 14’s in 1979 and 15’s for Clevo in 1980. I played first-grade for Clevo from 16 years old from 1981 – 1983. During the period before I played first-grade Clevo finished in the top 4 in the state in the NSW State knockout in the Buckley Shield (Rugby League) and Buchan Shield (Rugby Union) in successive years. When did you play TB? Did you play first grade or second grade?

If there was ANY venom left in the Dogs they wouldn’t be sitting at the bottom of the ladder after 8 rounds. No kk, this is not a jellyfish of the dangerous variety. More like a case of a Dog with no bite and no bark as well. Like a stuffed dog sitting in a taxidermist’s shop window with a sad pitiful look in its eye and no hope of moving from its current position.

DON’T read that for goodness sake CPB!!

Your club? So which team do you support? As for loyalty I am also appalled at the attitude taken by Blake Solly Souths CEO. Russell Crowe needs to step in and override this disastrous decision. That said, Reynolds is also trying to hold a gun to Souths head insisting on a 3-year deal when he could try to compromise for a 2-year deal instead. At the tail end of his career John Sutton just wanted a contract to play one more year with the Rabbitohs. He didn’t care how much and for how long.

From all reports Reynolds has already earned over $6 million dollars already playing for the Rabbitohs. He would be earning another $800K – $850K on top of that perhaps for another 3 years if he could stick with Souths sure in the knowledge that if Souths refuse to offer him a contract a long line of clubs would be waiting to sign him. Loyalty is a two-way street mate. ARey needs to remember that. I mean, for all the talk of “setting his family up” if $7 million dollars is not enough to do that then Adam needs urgent financial advice!

“a Souths junior too”

So close TB. I bet if back then Souths were where they are now instead of where the Dogs currently are on the ladder you probably would have ended up supporting the Rabbitohs. Sliding doors hey, TB?

I went to school with, and played for school and for the Redfern All Blacks with Nathan Merritt’s dad. He also played for the Zetland Magpies while I played for the Chelsea Eagles. We used to run up those hills at Moore Park carrying a teammate on our backs! Oh, my poor knees ache just thinking about it! 😛

“retro’spective” Nice one Nat! 😁

I just didn’t want the chooks thinking they only lost that game because of an injury to Keary. To be fair I didn’t mention last year’s 60-8 loss… Oops! 😂

This time he is. Hawkins has had wraps on him not unlike Billy Brittain. How is he going? Blake Taaffe though is a gun player and was almost recovered from injury to take his place this week. Taaffe had a short stint against the Dragons in the Charity Shield this year before getting injured. He looked pretty sharp during that period. IMO Hawkins is being setup for failure being thrown in the deep end against the Storm. Blake Taaffe and Lachlan Ilias are the two young gun Souths halves set to play first grade ahead of Hawkins who will be left in reserve grade IMO.

WHAAAT? You’re a Roosters junior TB? They are as rare as hens teeth so you must be worth your weight in gold! 😂

And which Broncos victory this year would you write a retrospective of Nat? Until beating the 8th placed Titans last week by 8 points the only other victory the Broncos have had this season has the last placed Bulldogs! 😂 😂 😂

if Reynolds can’t play in at least 18 – 20 games due to injury…