“If it’s high enough, if it’s long enough, if it’s straight between the posts…”

So goes the refrain of The Day John Sattler Broke His Jaw, Perry Keyes’ tribute to the Souths legend whom the club farewelled with a minute’s silence prior to kick off.

The chorus came true 82 minutes later as Lachlan Ilias’s field goal sailed through to deliver Souths a 13-12 win over Manly in Golden Point.

13 points, just like Sattler’s famous shirt number, against the club he famously downed in the 1970 Grand Final. You couldn’t script a finish like it. The stadium PA played the sound of Sattler singing the Souths’ victory song moments after full time and the previously raucous crowd stopped in silence.

It was a fittingly dramatic, if slightly stop-start clash between two of the competition’s heavyweights and, again in the 2023 NRL, an incredibly closer-fought battle. Defences were on top and largely excellent, especially late on as fatigue played a huge factor.

Both Latrell Mitchell and Daly Cherry-Evans missed their attempts in regulation time, but after Josh Aloiai’s mistake in the early reaches of Golden Point, Ilias did the business.

Fullback battle falls flat

This had been billed as Latrell v Tom Trbojevic, but both were shut down impressively by both sides’ defensive structures. Latrell is hard to keep out of a game, but was marshalled expertly by Manly and barely got a touch until his late field goal attempt, which he badly mishit.

Turbo is even tougher to suppress, and Souths kept him to a yardage role and little more, with one strong run that came close before the break and very little else.

Instead, it was the tackling that came to the fore. Neither of these sides would have been known for their defence in the past, and both would have expected to show more with the ball than without it.

Yet, it was a true slugfest. In the long run, that will likely benefit both teams as they can show much improvement out of possession to add to what they already have with the footy.

Cody Walker back to his best

It looked like it was going to be a long evening for Cody Walker. His first kick was horrendous, lofted well beyond its target, and in his first good attacking moment, Walker chucked a pass to nobody.

Just when it looked like things were really going south, however, he struck back. Walker’s first was all heart and commitment, chasing a lost cause kick and getting to it within centimetres of the dead ball line, and his second was classic Cody, challenging the edge defender and ghosting between them.

In recent weeks, he’s been a little off it and easily led astray, allowing the red mist to descend and distract him from his best footy.

Tonight was a win for Walker’s temperament as much as his play: though there was a bit of a stink, and plenty of adversity, the five eighth didn’t allow himself to be dragged out of the game.

Demetriou’s Koloamatangi error

Souths were scratching around for middles after a spate of injuries, but Jason Demetriou’s call to shift Keaon Koloamatangi away from his usual station on the right edge backfired badly. 

The Bunnies are without Jai Arrow, Hame Sele, Tevita Tatola and Shaq Mitchell, so it is understandable that they had to be creative with their props, but it was clear from early on that Koloamatangi was not the correct call.

It removed one of Souths’ most potent weapons from their attack. Several times in the first half, Lachlan Ilias found his edge forward on a crash ball, but Michael Chee Kan, serviceable as he was, is not Koloamatangi.

In the middle, Keaon wasn’t effective, coughing up errors and penalties and failing to imprint himself on the Manly forwards. He busted out 65 minutes in the front row, had a break of two minutes and then went back onto his edge.

They got there in the end, but for most of the game, Souths lost one of their best attacking options and didn’t gain anything from it.

DCE keeps on going – and he’s making Schuster better

Daly Cherry-Evans is built for this kind of game. His season started superbly with a hat trick against the Bulldogs, but that level of tryscoring was the anomaly. This was trademark Chez, marshalling the team around and showing all the nous in the world to nab his interception try, reading Cam Murray’s pass like yesterday’s newspaper.

DCE is also improving the man next to him immensely. Josh Schuster, who missed Round 1, sprung into life in Round 3 with a superb performance. Like the bowler who takes wickets thanks to the economy of their partner at the other end, Schuster must pay tribute to Cherry-Evans, who does all the difficult stuff so he doesn’t have to.

Schuster showed all of his skills with a series of no look passes and goosesteps, but he gets that freedom from knowing all the kicking, organising and leadership is under control.

No Weekes link

Manly’s hooking rotation was disrupted by a shoulder injury to Lachlan Croker, with Karl Lawton drafted in as a replacement. Lawton was fine – a lot better than his last outing against Souths, in which he was sent off – but the real magic came when Kaeo Weekes entered.

Lawton was removed after half an hour and Weekes was entrusted with the bulk of the play thereafter. He didn’t let his side down.

Weekes has impressed coming through the lower grades and has been around the first team for a while, but has rarely got extended minutes in the NRL. Tonight, he showed just how good he can be, with plenty of deception around the ruck and a few dangerous, jinking carries.

He was a fullback coming through and still moves like one, with speed and evasion. 

Crucially, he was more than up to the task in defence, which is always likely to be the biggest ask for rookies coming into the NRL, and doubly so when switching from the back to the front.