Bozo is actually Pennywise the clown from the Stephen King movie “IT”. He hides in the sewers just out of sight and snatches anyone who comes too close! Barrett is now just a husk that does the bidding of his master. Old Pennywise can even make online articles “disappear”. Stay away from manhole covers and sewer grates!

Careful with that last “observation”, posts (and even articles) have been “mysteriously disappearing” lately at the mention of this, It’s the “Bozo Triangle”. It’s MAD house, a MAAAAAD House! Hahahahahahahahahaha

Tom Rock, TB and Matt did, I think you will find he was addressing them. Simples!

Josh Reynolds is a real footballer, he just breathes the game and plays with passion and intensity and has skill which is why he is doing alright in the halves for the Dogs but he is not excelling there because it is NOT his position. I would play Mbye at FB or centre before I would play him at hooker. He has a natural running game and does not have the defensive capabilities to defend in the middle. Reynolds does! Lichaa would defend well in the middle but as a lock forward.

Tom, and if you partnered Corey Norman with the Sea Eagles forward pack (including Taupau and AFB) how do you you think he would go? There were times in both games that the Eels forwards were not dominating the advantage line and Norman played around the defence (i.e. using the Eels backline and beating teams out wide) or beat them with his kicking game. Do you think DCE would magically produce a kicking game from behind the Eels forwards?

Where are you getting those figures? I’ve seen $1.3M per year for DCE.

Jarryd Hayne sells advertising space and DCE does not (at least by comparison). THAT is the reason! Because Hayne is a passed Dally M winner, international representative and has a media profile abroad thanks to his well marketed brief stint in the NFL Hayne is simply click bait for online media sources who can sell advertising space off the back of this. Hence the recent scurrilous article with the obvious “click bait” headline “This Eels fan is glad Jarryd Hayne plays for the Titans”.

“Lichaa had a shocker against the Chooks. The pass he threw on 5th tackle towards the end of the game… was awful.”

It’s simply too much pressure on a mascot. His only job should be to keep the crowd happy!

Lichaa is not a hooker, I have been saying it for long enough now. Josh Reynolds is not a real 5/8 and started as a hooker and would be the ideal player to take over from what Mick Ennis did so effectively at the club.

The problem for the Dogs is that they had no halves and panicked and moved a hooker (Reynolds) to 5/8 and a FB/centre/hooker (Mbye) to HB. They have been suffering for it ever since. The spine is comprised of specialist positions for a reason. When you play players out of position there are inevitable consequences.

Lichaa defends well and can run the ball but CANNOT hit the side of a barn with his passing and has no kicking game. Beyond that he panics under pressure and frequently comes up with the wrong option when his role should be a simple one. His primary function at dummy half is to provide good service from the play the ball for the players around him, passing the ball out in front of charging forwards and in behind decoys but in front of waiting halves but he misses the mark every time.

I believe Lichaa is a lock forward in the old style, playing as a loose forward following the ball around and acting as a tandem option at dummy half to run the ball NOT pass it. Mbye is better suited to FB or the centres and and Reynolds should player hooker and control dummy half. But as the Dogs have no options for the halves this won’t happen. At least the Dogs should play Craig Garvey at hooker and move Lichaa to lock. That would be a step in the right direction.

Jason Clark is NO prop (yet he started at prop for Souths played out of position for 31 mins). Souths were also missing Tom Burgess (aka “flippers”) out with a severe case of “dropsy” à la butter fingers and Greg Inglis which may have also made a slight difference. They also had to chase a 12-0 score line (3 tries!) after 12 mins so all things considered Manly have every opportunity.

They also had no kicking game to get them out of trouble racking up 361 mtrs with kicks to Souths 580 mtrs! DCE contributed very little to the game for his $1.3M a year salary and DCE, Green and Apisai Koroisau looked lost as a combination controlling their teams go forward and steering them around the field. Instead it looked like Manly sat back and relied on the two Trbojevic brothers to bail them out of trouble (at 23 and 20 years of age this not something they should NOT be expected to do) and DCE needs to take the initiative to lead the team as the most experienced long serving representative of the club who after all is their “million dollar man!”

Souths were written off by “so called” experts after they lost Inglis and got hammered in only their FIRST game of the year but are now sitting just outside of the top 8 (9th) after round 2 and following a 20 point win on the weekend! Clearly I have much to learn about the game. LOL

steveng, I respect your option on many things mate but on this we will need to agree to disagree. Goodwin is passed it. He is too old and too slow to play in the outside backs, it’s that simple. He lacks genuine speed and acceleration and lateral movement required to play in this position. Teams need SPEED out wide and Goodwin would have to be about the slowest winger at any club.

Goodwin scored a hat trick against the Tigers but are you seriously telling me that either Braidon Burns, Robert Jennings or any number of other young wingers could not have scored in similar situations? The metres he made and his average metres per carry admittedly were good but Souths (like all teams) need speed on the flanks.

Let’s look at an example of the better wings/centres running around and see if we can see a pattern:

Bryson Goodwin (31)

22 years old: Aaron Gray, Dylan Walker, Tuimoala Lolohea, David Fusitu’a, Nene Macdonald, Waqa Blake
21 years old: Robert Jennings, Bevan French, Jack Bird, Valentine Holmes, Suliasi Vunivalu, Josh Addo-Carr
20 years old: Tom Trbojevic, Braidon Burns, Brian Kelly
18 years old: Kalyn Ponga, Nick Cotric, Moses Suli

Granted there are some exceptions:

Brett Morris (30), Nathan Ross (28), Jordan Rapana (27), Josh Mansour (26), Semi Radradra (24)

However, these are all players (with the exception of Nathan Ross) who have played international rep football. Lote Tuqiri gave Souths much more at the back end of 2014 and was not as exposed for lack of pace as Goodwin is.

Unless a player is exceptional then positions like wing and centre are a young man’s position IMO. I think Goodwin could play as a utility off the bench but would spend more time in the back row than in the backline but at least he could allow Souths to cover multiple positions. As Damien Cook and Angus Crichton are a must on the bench it would leave Souths light for genuine forwards though so it would probably not be worth it unless either Cook or Farah were missing.

Souths need to look to the future mate and they need to start bringing their younger players through. I was crying out before the game against Manly for Burns and Jennings to be included and look at the difference they made! Given a few more weeks to grow in confidence they will make a huge difference to Souths backline. When Aaron Gray returns (in around 16 weeks), I think he will force his way into the side at Goodwin’s expense. He will probably play in the centres at that point and Jennings will take Goodwin’s place on the wing.

As a Souths junior and former player it must be hard to play against the team you have loved and played for his whole life (especially playing for a bitter rival club like Manly). There is also the fact that the coach and players know all his weaknesses and how best to exploit them.

Happy to do a straight swap Goodwin for D. Walker, no questions asked. What do you say? On yesterday’s form (if you look at their stats and performance on field) it’s a bargain. ?

It’s Robert Jennings not Ryan but autocorrect does that to me all the time. I think we will be hearing the name a lot more in any case. BOTH Jennings and Burns looked good for Souths and look likely to be permanent fixtures in the side for the rest of this season.

Souths just need to bring Aaron Gray in for Goodwin now and the backline is set (at least until Burns gets moved to FB and AJ goes back to the wing). AJ played well but contributes more on the wing IMO while Burns has the X-Factor needed for FB. He may not have played there but I think he will be a natural once he is given the chance.

“Wayne Bennett is only human”

I demand proof! I heard that The University of Queensland – Faculty of Medicine reported a cadaver was missing. I haven’t seen much evidence of life in the coaches box so “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” QED, check for a tag that says “property of The University of Queensland”.

“goons like me”

Seagoon: It that you Eccles? Stand on my shoulders and pull me up.
Bluebottle: Can I put the manshole cover back on now? Otherwise, if it rains, the hole will get wet.
Eccles: I haven’t seen any high horses or no trumpets neither but I did see a Shetland pony playing a piccolo trumpet. It’s hard for a horse to play an instrument with foot in mouth disease especially when there is no equine susceptibility.

“and the calls ON the field”

I believe Ross Conlon (Magpies/Bulldogs/Tigers) was the first to be credited with the “around-the-corner” kick (at least in Rugby League, it was happening well before then in Rugby Union).

As per wiki:

“Conlon,,, developed an ‘around-the-corner’ sideways shuffle before moving in to strike the ball, claiming the shuffle gave him more time.”

I don’t think he kicked either foot though so Eden had him covered there. I think Conlon was also the Halligan or El Masri of his day as the kicker who had the best success rate in the game in his day.

I forgot to add…

I remember old names like Billy Smith (Dragons), John Brass, Mark Harris, Johnny Mayes, Barry ‘Bunny’ Reilly (Eastern Suburbs), Neil Pringle (first at the Newtown Jets and later at the Balmain Tigers) and Brian “Chicka” Moore (Newtown) and more besides. I also remember a match between the Cronulla Sharks and Newtown Jets when a young Steve Rogers played the ball and mouthed off to Chicka and got dropped! He copped one right on the chin right in front of the referee and when the Sharks players complained and demanded a penalty the ref just said “He asked for it!” and called play on. Ah, those were the days.

Love the depth and insight you bring sheek with both this post and the one below. Some of these names were a bit before my time as I only started following the game as a little kid in 1970 and was only born a few years before (around the time of your terrific holiday).

I am old enough to remember when Newtown were called “the Bluebags” and Canterbury Bankstown were known as “the Berries” (when their uniform was black shorts and their jersey had blue and white stripes) and the Penrith Panthers were known as the chocolate soldiers and had a jersey with vertical brown and white stripes and the two pommies Mike Stephenson and Bill Ashurst played for the club.

I also remember Frank Hyde’s call “it’s long enough, it’s straight enough… it’s right between the posts!”

It was a different time but there is still so much about it I miss in an age of constant changes to the rules and in jersey design for sales and marketing purposes and sponsorship name changes it is easy to get lost and lose sight of tradition and the history that made the game what it is. Everything these days is so sanitised and politically correct and players lives are under a microscope when the focus should be on the game and not on a players lives outside of it. Games are broadcast live now and started to synchronise with TV time slots and the refs are too scared to make a call because the scrutiny and pressure is so great that the game just does not flow as it once did.

“digging their HEELS…” Doh! “proof BEFORE you post!”

“Sharp eye their for” THERE… Oh, I give up!

“I can’t type and spell at the same time!” – Grouch Marx

Cheers. silvertail47 reminded me of another “blast from the past” that has now gone the way of the dodo since the emergence of the kicking tee… the buckets of sand for conversions! There were ball boys back then but also sand boys who would run the buckets of sand to the kickers. I also remember groups of players digging their heals into the turf and bringing handfuls of soil to the kicker as well (when sand had run out). It must have driven the groundsmen crazy! He also reminded me that the official name for “the metal signage on fences around the ground” is “the hoardings” Good pickup st47. Sharp eye their for a “Sea Eagle!” LOL

“debate points in detail WITHOUT getting personal or attacking an opposing point” (correction)

And still Souths have to make use of Robbie Farah. I have posted at length on the ROAR (and another site before this) arguing the very point you are making (that Cook should play 80 mins for Souths, or perhaps get a 10 min break at some period). But the fact is that Souths are in a unique position with BOTH Farah and Cook and need to work out how best to exploit this. What do you and Barry think about my suggestion (above) on how both can be played together. You don’t have to agree with me but at least articulate and explain your objections and suggest what would be a better option. Fair enough? I’m happy to hear other opinions also but no one here seems keen to discuss and debate points in detail with getting personal or attacking an opposing point of view. Also, there seems to be little effort to explain WHY there is an objection to an opinion offered or WHY an alternative opinion should be preferred.

I have not seen anyone make a comment one way or the other about my suggestion of Josh Reynolds at hooker for NSW or about my assertion that Nathan Peats is currently the best option for this position.

Where is the “discussion” ROARers?

Oops! “I think Souths have more valid excuses…” (not more and more)

Now that Reynolds has been named in the side for Kelly (and assuming he IS fit) Souths will receive an enormous boost and having the full 17 players for 80 mins for the first time this year should help. The fact that Braidon Burns and Angus Crichton are in the team (and I have “heard” that Robert Jennings may replace Siosifa Talakai) means the team is starting to align with what I have been calling for in my recent posts. There is still a question mark over FB, although I have posted that Walker is the best fit for the position ATM, Souths might be able to continue with AJ for the time being especially now that Reynolds is back in the halves with Walker. Given time to find his feet in first grade I am sure that Braidon Burns will the Valentine Holmes and RTS of the Rabbitohs and make the move from the wing to FB before long.

It is astonishing though that Souths are playing Jason Clark at prop! If he is fit, George Burgess should have been given a call up and should replace Clark. Sam Burgess should not be playing in the middle of the field and should be attacking on the right edge where he has always played his best football. Burgess needs to replace Kyle Turner as the right edge back rower and Robbie Rochow can move from the bench to lock with Anthony Cherrington brought into the side to play off the bench in place of Rochow.

Sadly Tuner’s 80 mins last week only produced 18 tackles, 5 missed tackles, 1 error. On these stats he needs to be demoted as much as Tom Burgess and Dave Tyrrell (who, from a statistical point of view, did not play badly but lacks the impact to play first grade). Turner’s 7 runs for 81 mtrs (11.6 mtrs a carry) was good but he fails to involve himself in the game as he once did. I don’t know if this is due to a loss of confidence following his injury but time in reserve grade to rebuild this might be the best thing for him at this stage. I think Souths have more and more valid excuses for their bad performance last week and will have more to prove than the Sea Eagles who look lost with Green and DCE in the halves and Apisai Koroisau at hooker. I think with Reynolds return linking with Walker in the halves and Farah and Cook controlling dummy half Souths should be too strong for the Sea Eagles. Well fingers crossed anyway.