Souths are missing Arrow, Knight, Havili and Johnston. From last week they have Tatola come back and have dropped Chee Kam.

If you get to the NSW Cup game you'll see Yileen Buddy Gordon still playing off the bench for Souths. That's incredible.

Dont confuse winning the battle up front with not having big name forwards…
If we win the battle up front and in the ruck we give ourselves best chance of winning… 
If we don’t we make it incredibly difficult…
No matter who plays or their status…
Weve shown this already this year…

Our side is similar to the early days of the Storm when they had a smaller more mobile pack.
We smashed them in a vital semi and ever since then Bellamy has gone for more size.
TPJ, Tommo and Patolo would improve our attack.
Kicks is out, but aside from him our main attacking threat this season has been, King (offload), Preston, Marhoney,
 Burto and the back 5. I would argue that even without size in the forwards we have enough attack.

Definitely it is our linespeed, workrate and mobility against their size in the middle, we need to win to keep Cook out of the game. Then the treat is Cody and Latrell, we can't plan for Latrell, but turn him around and make him work chasing kicks. For Cody it is worth running plenty of traffic at him and numbers on him in defence.

I don't think a smaller pack can always win, but a motivated fit side in form can carry the day if they want it more.
So I am pumped for the game, I think we can win and that win would put our season firmly on track.

I can also see that if the bigger pack gets the majority of posession, sooner or later size counts. So we are far from a sure thing and will need to earn the win, just like most weeks.

Mahoney is the single most important influence.
Secondary is the attitude to hit the Mahoney pass at speed and get on a roll.

Size of forwards has been the biggest myth in league for years. It's a late 90's, early 00's attribute.

Still ideally I would have 1-2 bigger forwards just to create go forward and 2nd phase in attack.

A big guy running in on to a pass from Mahoney counts the same as any other try and a good big decoy draws defenders like moths to a flame.

A smaller guy with workrate, skill and energy is also very useful.

Aside from the odvious candidates like Preston, I was most happy with Morrin.

What I have seen from Morrin in the lower grades suggests that he has skill and a footy brain.

This game Morrin, Topine and Edwards need a big game to stay in the team. Morrin and Topine are capable of giving CC some selection headaches.

When we are at full strength some good forwards will be playing reserve grade. (If that ever happens)

I'll be there on Friday cheering them on. Although it looks like an uphill battle, you never know.

I certainly don’t. But I would hardly back a forward pack of park footy players showing up a first grade pack. 

Melbourne and the Chooks had the biggest packs during their time as the two best teams. Penrith have had a huge pack too. If both forward packs are equal in all but size. The bigger pack will always win. 

No matter the size they must have ability. Ideally I think you definitely need a minimum of four big boppers in your 17. After that smaller forwards around 95kg are ok. Nothing wrong with Radley and Murray at this size. Topine and Morrin are similar in size 

Mase said that Edwards plays a bit like Cam Murray.

I know what Topine and Morrin bring...

Mase is a bit biased and optimistic and I'm similar.

Go Dogs!!!!

Roosters / Storm entertainment, I don't care who wins, and I don't know who is favourite.

Topine is a fantastic clubman. he was leading the team song after the Cowboys' victory. But if the player injuries, short turn around etc aren't enough we have Gerard bloody Sutton as referee. It would be truly a victory for the ages 

Raining… must be Easter… 

How did you go in the wood chop?

I heard that the prize was a 6 pack of beer.

If the prize is beer, you know how I went… 

I used to play in a weekly pool comp… $100 for the winner, carton of beer second place… I ran second every week… 

Yeah you probably chopped the other contestants legs on your way to the prize!

TIMBERRRRR!!!…

Its obvious Sutton only has eyes for the Dogs, Souffs are perfect in his eyes

Maybe CC should have swapped Kiraz and Alamoti once JAC was gone.

Souths are taking advantage of Topine-Alamoti. 
Need lateral speed which Kiraz can provide

Well… I guess it’s back to hooking players and sacking the coach… 

Yes, we need more of the ball second half, but this is a big lead to reel in with so much petrol chew up.

The injury to Fox cost us bjg time.

I'll be happy if we win the second half.

There were some BS penalties, but also unforced errors from us.

I don't think Grub at 14 is the answer.

Good suggestion, Allamoti has the speed but hasn't played much wing in the higher grades.

The horse has bolted, this game is an opportunity to learn.

It's a case of remaining competitive and plugging a hole the opposition is exploiting.

Can't do much when down on troops and injury to a position and player most teams can't cover easily.

Fox a big loss. No pace or organisation on our left. Stupid penalties Preston and Reynolds. Not finding touch from a penalty. Cheer leader should be an off field role..we need forwards back pronto.

Yeah this is now too big. Even 14 points was too big. But I'd like us to restructure and remain competitive. A blow out gives us nothing to learn from in future. 

Winning second half or at least losing it by a try only would be something to look back at and can help the team reflect on later in the season.

I assume we play Souths again this year and so would be good to know we can change things around to thwart their attack

At this rate there will be a lot of hip drop sin bins/suspensions this year. Most of them accidents. If this is to be the standard is there a role for the referee, to protect the players, to recognise the danger and calling held. Oh, wait a minute the referee didn't know it happened, he had to be told by the bunker.

This is a learning experience we didn't have the defensive structure to adapt to the loss of Fox.

Short turn around and a bigger pack having the majority of posession are the other factors.

The binning of Preston was a joke, but not the only bad decision.

11-3   penalty count just what we would expect from Sutton.

Overall slightly disappointing but understandable, I hope we learn from it.

Hip drops have happened  for years. I have an injury from a player falling on my leg years ago. It was an accident. It happens. Penalty’s fir it are a disgrace. No player means to do it. No player would. But sometimes it happens. Next year it will be forgotten. 

Who makes the decision on where the focus will be, year to year and week to week. Your point is correct, these crackdowns usually run their  course  then get forgotten and replaced by the new flavour of the day.

The difference between intentional and accidental isn't hard to spot.

The Preston one was even more of an accident that the Okunbor one. 

However, I was pleased to see CC calling out not sticking to our process as the main reason for the loss.

When Fox went off we lost focus and became timid in attack. We started passing side-to-side off slow play the balls and took some dumb options forcing low percentage plays.

Defence wise, that was well down on our normal standard right across the park.

I am hoping that this was a one off bad day at the office for us.

In contrast, we played Souths into form, and it was too easy for them at times. But they got some confidence and put on some slick plays.

The scoreboard did reflect the game, but not the relative quality of the teams.