South Sydney halves Adam Reynolds and John Sutton aim to recapture some polish in Friday’s NRL qualifying final against Melbourne after admitting to a rare poor outing.
Halfback Reynolds and five-eighth Sutton played pivotal roles in Souths’ surge to second spot but their normally sound decision-making and precise execution was off in the Rabbitohs’ 24-12 loss to the Sydney Roosters in last Friday’s minor premiership decider.
Both men are keenly aware they will have to lift for the ANZ Stadium clash with the defending champions, who haven’t lost to the Rabbitohs in Sydney for nine years.
“Definitely on a personal note, my kicking game wasn’t up to scratch,” said Reynolds bluntly on Tuesday.
“I guess I didn’t build too much pressure so I’ll definitely be going into this game a lot more focussed.”
Sutton was also keen to crank up the pressure on Melbourne, especially through smart last tackle options.
“Probably the polish at the end of our sets,” said Sutton, when asked what he and Reynolds could do better this week.
“We’ve been very good this year building pressure, getting repeat sets, forcing line dropouts.
“But on the weekend we didn’t complete our sets and we didn’t get to build that pressure.
‘Its definitely something I have to look at this week at training and hopefully we can turn it around on Friday night.”
Reynolds was wary of focusing on Melbourne’s famed big three of fullback Billy Slater, halfback Cooper Cronk and captain and hooker Cameron Smith.
For the second straight week, Reynolds will come up against an incumbent Origin halfback, lining up against Queensland’s Cronk after facing Roosters and NSW No.7 Mitchell Pearce last Friday.
“He (Cronk) is a fantastic player, it’s not only him, it’s the whole team you’ve got to worry about,” Reynolds said.
“Everyone in our team has got to do their job and I’ll be trying my best to do mine.”
Reynolds is keen to move on from his last finals experience in 2012, when he suffered a torn hamstring less than half an hour into the preliminary final against the Bulldogs.
“It wasn’t a good feeling for me or the team,” said Reynolds.
“This year is a new year and there’s a whole bunch of new players and we’re just looking forward to the semis this year.”
