Friday night football heads West this week to NIB Stadium in Perth where we get to see a repeat of the round 16 clash from last season between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Brisbane Broncos. That match was won by South Sydney 16-12 after a vert gutsy effort. They hope to continue that trend this Friday night.
Both teams are coming off a win from Round 3 so they should both be full of confidence leading into this match. South’s gave Penrith a lesson in attacking football last weekend with a 40-24 win that saw Big Dave Taylor at his attacking best with two excellent tries including one from a grubber kick. Sam Burgess was also a hand full for the Panthers along with Greg Inglis who has found himself in a new home at fullback.
South’s may have lost their two opening games of the season against the Roosters and Storm however they have shown in both of those games that they can mix it with the big boys and should not be under estimated when it comes around to finals time.
Rookie Coach Michael Maguire has done a lot with this team in a short period of time and they can only improve as the season continues. Many people are talking about South’s as having the team to go all the way this season, and when you look at this team and the squad that is available then you can see what they are talking about.
Brisbane will be the acid test this Friday night in Perth as they are also being talked about as a real title contender in 2012 as they have a real young crop of exciting footballers. In particularly the back three of Hoffman, Beale and Yow Yeh. The Rabittohs will need to be on their toes in broken play as anyone of these three young kids can carve you apart at will if given the slightest chance. Add to that the centre pairing of Reed and Hodges and you have one of the best backlines in the competition.
The Rabbittohs young winger Andrew Everingham is having only his second 1st Grade game this week and he will need to stay focussed and alert at all times. He is a tall kid and has good pace so expect to see him scoring a lot of tries this season.
John Sutton has been running the ball a lot more this season which is a great thing as he has many great skills and needs to get hold of the ball as much as possible. Perhaps coach Maguire has found the key to getting the most out of him this season. If that is the case we can expect to see more attacking play from Sutton this season. And when he links up with Greg Inglis anything is possible!! Inglis is relishing his opportunity at fullback this year and looks like he has found himself a new home, which will have many teams shaking in their boots when he has the ball in his hands.
The big match ups for this game will be in the back row. Everyone at the game will get their moneys worth when you look at Michael Crocker, David Taylor and Sam Burgess vs Sam Thaiday, Alex Glenn and Ben Te’o. Watching these 6 guys will be worth the admission alone.
If the Souths forwards can get a roll on early watch out for Issac Luke from dummy half. He is one of the best dummy half runners in the comp and if he can scoot around the markers he can gain valuable metres up the middle. He can also link up with Sutton and Inglis which will spell disaster for Brisbane.
Many people are now asking ‘Chris Who?’ now that they have seen Souths new halfback Adam Reynolds. He was 8 from 8 with the boot last week and has already scored 26 points this season. He is a great young player who has a lot of confidence and I am sure Michael McGuire is bringing him along slowly and teaching him the finer points of the game. He has a real future in the NRL if he stays focussed and committed.
Brisbane won’t be a push over in Perth however this could be the start of a very successful season if South Sydney stick to the game plan, control the ball and avoid unnecessary errors.
You can hear the fans already getting excited with the anticipation of what could be…………….
