A major consideration?

[smacker1945]

One thing that seems to be neglected when discussing Souths demise from mid-season 2023 is the part played by the travelling “ circus” that the club undertook during the latter part of last season and the commencement of this present season. Last year they travelled throughout several states and during that time won very few matches. This season began with another major trip to Las Vegas. Obviously those who participated may disagree and I may be wrong but I believe that travelling had a major effect on their results. Why might this be so? Firstly though some might argue that “touring” increases “bonding” between coach and team and within the playing group its effect can be quite the opposite. Problems and concerns cannot be taken home. They stay within the group. A coach who adopts a strong player management role finds himself on overload as he is always with his group. He becomes burdened with the welfare demands of the role with little respite to concentrate on the technical considerations and tactics. Players often say how good it is to go home to family (or to the farm) to get away from the continual demands of football. Our players were denied this. In its place our team had hotels, planes, foreign fields and shared rooms with team-mates. Training routines were disrupted in these regional towns and cities as our players became NRL ambassadors and became less focused on their prime role (winning football matches).Souths have “state-of-the-art” facilitates at their base but were subjected to inferior conditions in these other places. Maybe the increase in injuries and the decrease in fitness levels was a result? Added to all this is the dislocation of the team from it main supporters and fan base and the surrendering of any home ground advantage. As a member of this club and observer from far away I concede that management may know better than me as to what was achieved by this travelling agenda. However I think that this travel time contributed to our demise and if we add the injuries and suspensions that occurred in key positions then we had the beginning of a lack of confidence that came with the losses. I still believe we have the roster. We just need to regain that confidence and stay at home!

 

[Phil]

This definitely would have been a factor.

 

[bundyrabbit]

One thing that seems to be neglected when discussing Souths demise from mid-season 2023 is the part played by the travelling “ circus” that the club undertook during the latter part of last season and the commencement of this present season. Last year they travelled throughout several states and during that time won very few matches. This season began with another major trip to Las Vegas. Obviously those who participated may disagree and I may be wrong but I believe that travelling had a major effect on their results. Why might this be so? Firstly though some might argue that “touring” increases “bonding” between coach and team and within the playing group its effect can be quite the opposite. Problems and concerns cannot be taken home. They stay within the group. A coach who adopts a strong player management role finds himself on overload as he is always with his group. He becomes burdened with the welfare demands of the role with little respite to concentrate on the technical considerations and tactics. Players often say how good it is to go home to family (or to the farm) to get away from the continual demands of football. Our players were denied this. In its place our team had hotels, planes, foreign fields and shared rooms with team-mates. Training routines were disrupted in these regional towns and cities as our players became NRL ambassadors and became less focused on their prime role (winning football matches).Souths have “state-of-the-art” facilitates at their base but were subjected to inferior conditions in these other places. Maybe the increase in injuries and the decrease in fitness levels was a result? Added to all this is the dislocation of the team from it main supporters and fan base and the surrendering of any home ground advantage. As a member of this club and observer from far away I concede that management may know better than me as to what was achieved by this travelling agenda. However I think that this travel time contributed to our demise and if we add the injuries and suspensions that occurred in key positions then we had the beginning of a lack of confidence that came with the losses. I still believe we have the roster. We just need to regain that confidence and stay at home!

This makes sense .You can also add the players we lost to Origin and going into camp.I doubt this saves the coach with many on here though.

 

[PrideOfTheLeague]

This was identified in the end of season review and rectified this year. Yes we had vegas in round 1 but we have taken less games "away" this year and even the ones we have are to Gosford instead of cairns.

 

[Pplspoet]

Women’s World Cup.

 

[Gazman]

I tend to agree, that Build the Wall theme backfired, it showed up as a PR exercise that was unwarranted and in the end unhelpful. That travel schedule was always going to be a drag and in the end rather than building a wall it hastened the fall from the top of the ladder. I couldn’t imagine a coach like Wayne Bennett getting on board with that sort of sloganism.

 

[broncobuster]

Can't build a wall without carrying some bricks...

We've become the Harlem Globetrotters of the NRL, minus the victories. I get that not every game is going to be at the RAS, SCG or a Sydney venue anymore, but we, like every club, are allotted 12 home games.

Vegas was an "away" game but we also lose a home game to Magic Round this season. So far, we've had a 3-game run at Accor, play there again tonight then once more at the end of the month. All of those have been designated "home" games. We've got 2 games in mid-June there, a "home" game in Gosford in July, then 3 more home games at Accor in August-September.

This season, we have 10 home games at Accor and 0 reciprocal away games. Unlike a few years ago, where the Charity Shield, Bulldogs away and Parra away essentially made up for the Cairns, Perth, Gosford, etc. trips, we only have 10 home games in Sydney and 11 in NSW. To not have at least the Bulldogs away at Accor this season means we are essentially robbed of our 12th home ground game.

The Cowboys at Suncorp in Magic Round is a "home game"? Fair dinkum.

Part of the lack of a "home field advantage" probably is down to being based at Accor, but I'd argue the same would apply at Allianz or CommBank. These aren't "our" grounds by any stretch and, as is becoming more of a discussion point around the league, are solely commercial decisions for the club.

I'm probably one of the biggest proponents of playing out at Homebush within this forum - I really hope there are improvements over the next few years, but for me it's a massive honour to play out of the biggest rugby league venue in the city and the home of the NRL Grand Final and NSW State of Origin. However, we either need to buy in to Accor as "our house" or find/build it.

Gosford deserves NRL footy, especially South Sydney - Cairns, Perth and every other "neutral" city we've taken games to probably deserve NRL footy and to see the Oldest, Loudest, Proudest club in the NRL. But do the Sydney fans of our club deserve to have the full allotment of home games (or at least, games at our home ground)? Absolutely.