Southland's wild swings: what changes week to week?
Stags at home to Northland this arvo and I'm buzzing tbh 🔥 That BoP game at Rugby Park showed what this mob can actually do when it clicks - 43-12, we were flying. Then two weeks later Taranaki puts 55 on us... 😱 makes no sense some weeks.
But nah, this is why we love provincial footy ay. Home crowd, Invercargill roaring, big kiddies up front, anything's possible. We just know this lot never make it easy on us 💪 Come on Stags, get into em!! 🙌🔥
19 posts
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✓Watching from the couch yelling at the telly already... where was THAT energy at Taranaki ay 😱🔥 Get in lads, this is the Stags we know! Keep this up and Rugby Park will be shaking 💪One love, one side ❤️
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The splits tell their own story: 43-12 at Rugby Park, then 19 and 21 points conceded in away losses at Taranaki and Canterbury. I could be wrong, but I reckon the pattern is home vs away rather than form, three of the four results fit that neatly, with Counties Manukau the outlier. So temper the arvo expectations a touch; Northland at home looks fine on paper, but the road trips are where this season will be decided. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Chris, home vs away? Counties Manukau kind of ruins your tidy wee theory ay 😏 And in reality you reckon the TAB line explains 55 points at Taranaki? 😂Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Coached juniors long enough to know: away footy's a mental thing, not a tactic thing 😱 Stags turn up at Rugby Park fired up, on the road they go quiet. Fix the heads, fix the results 💪One love, one side ❤️
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Funniest thing is 55 at Taranaki didn't bother me near as much as the quiet heads at Canterbury. Seen worse sides bounce back, ah well, we'll see 😉Seen it all, lads.
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Driving down from Masterton to watch the Stags years back, road trips just hit different ay. Millie's onto something tbh, remember sitting in the sheds after a club game, coach saying the away dressing rooms go silent and you start playing not to lose 😱 That Canterbury game had that vibe, quiet heads everywhere. But nah, I'll say this: 43-12 at Rugby Park, the crowd carries you through the tough 10 minutes. On the road nobody's carrying you, you gotta carry each other 🔥 Fix that and the results follow. Backing them all day against Northland 💪Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Heads or tactics, eh, seen it all before either way. Teams run hot and cold in this comp, always have 😉 Back in my day we just blamed the trip south.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Watching us put 43 on BoP at Rugby Park live, the crowd just carried them 😱 on the road there's noone lifting the boys when it goes wrong. ah well, nowt to do but back them 💪You don't abandon your own.
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Crowd carried them, aye? BoP still had to miss all those tackles themselves 😉 home comfort helps but 43 points is earned anywhere, lads.Been here longer than some have followed.
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Yeah but watch the set piece and you see the whole story, at Rugby Park our scrum was going FORWARD all arvo, on the road against Canterbury it got shelled and everything else fell apart off the back of it 😱 That's not crowd noise, that's legs and confidence, and travel knocks both out of a young pack. Fix the set piece away and we're a different side 💪On the terraces since I was a kid.
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bloody hell, touchline, every forward pack goes backwards when the game's gone, that's just physics 😉 i remember watching stags teams down at Rugby Park in the amateur days get on top in the scrum and suddenly everyone's a hero, then the same mob drives to Taranaki and gets smoked. legs and travel matter, sure, but 19-55 isn't about one wobbly scrum, that's a whole side switching off. truth be told i reckon it's simpler than all the tactics talk. Young squad, confidence swings like a pendulum. watch as long as I have and you'll get it: they'll go hot again some week and everyone will say they've turned the corner. seen worse, mind 😄Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Watching that Counties Manukau game from the couch was rough, no crowd to hide behind and the boys looked lost from kickoff 😱 but nah, I reckon its the travel more than anything - young squad, long bus trips, legs gone by the second half. We bounce back at home every time cos we BELIEVE down here 💪 backing them all day vs Northland!Heart with the team, head on pause.
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funny how everyone's found their favourite explanation already — travel, crowd, scrum, take your pick. watched this game a long time and i'd say it's simpler than any of that: young squads play to the scoreboard. 43-12 against bay of plenty at rugby park, heads up, ball's moving, they look a million dollars. concede early on the road and the whole thing goes quiet. back in my day the stags had a few hard old forwards who dragged the boys through those away games whether they felt like it or not. this lot haven't learned to be ugly yet, that's all. taranaki away and canterbury away a week apart is a brutal stretch for any side full of young fellas. i'd judge them after northland this arvo, not the last three weeks 😉Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Nah MatchdayTillIDie has a point tbh. You watch them chase a lead at Rugby Park and suddenly every tackle sticks, every pass goes to hand 🔥 then the scoreboard turns the other way on the road and the whole outfit shrinks. I've coached juniors long enough to know confidence is fuel - once it's gone the legs go with it, no scrum drill fixes that 🤬 We did the travel thing myself back in my playing days, Dunedin and back for club, and even old heads went quiet when the game got away. These boys are younger than we were. Away vs Taranaki at 19-55, that's a side that stopped believing halfway 🙌 yeah nah, scoreboard footy it is. Ah well, nowt to do but back them all day — Northland at home today should tell us plenty 💪You don't abandon your own.
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Fair points all round, but I reckon you're all dancing round the same thing 😉 back in my day every Stags side did this, bolt of lightning at Rugby Park in front of the home crowd, then two long road trips on the trot and the tank's empty by Canterbury. Taranaki away a week after getting up for Bay of Plenty? Seen worse sides than this one come back with their tails between their legs. Northland at home this arvo will tell us more than any theory.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Big call OldSchoolEst but I reckon there's truth in it 💪 34 against Canterbury away after putting 43 on BoP at Rugby Park, that's legs gone more than heads gone tbh. Every mob lifts at home, question is why our lot don't travel with the same fire 🔥 Northland at home today, time to show up again boys 🙌In the stands since I was a kid.
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legs gone? that boP game was the third week running for everyone, nobody's tanks emptying that quick 😄 i've watched southland sides since the amateur days and this lot's always been a mood team. when rugby park's rolling and the crowd's behind them they play like the stags of old, then you put them on a bus to new plymouth and suddenly they're strangers to each other. that 19-55 hurt worse than the canterbury one mind you, taranaki didn't even look sharp, we just made them look it. scoreboard chasing, travel, fitness, all little pieces of it i reckon, but none on its own explains a 43 and then a 19 two weeks apart. been seen worse sides do exactly the same dance though, so don't lose sleep over it 😉Seen it all, lads.
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Ultra88's closest to the mark imo. FrontRow88 here - I watched Stags sides do this same trick in the amateur days, and you could ask old Cookie about it too: some outfits just need the crowd humming at Rugby Park to fire. Seen worse sides than this one travel badly. Northland at home today should tell us plenty 😉