Unfortunately for Jason Demetriou, none of this will be new to him.
In between staring at the hotel ceiling after a calamitous loss to Brisbane on Thursday night, Lachlan Ilias booting the ball up Tallis Duncan’s backside will have been on replay between the coach’s ears all night. In the ad breaks, blatant blocking penalties from his front-rowers.
In a week’s time, Souths could be 0-3 after next Friday’s clash with arch-rivals the Roosters. Or, such is the undoubted talent in Demetriou’s side, Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker, Cameron Murray and co could take the Tricolours to school.
At Suncorp Stadium, though, a crisis of confidence collided with a faith shared right across rugby league: that this side is simply too good to fall this far. Cue Demetriou’s apt description of the whole shebang as a “horror show”, putting he and his side right where they finished 2023 again: squarely in the crosshairs.
Setting aside the blooper reel for a moment, Souths’ biggest issue emerged early and, but for 10 minutes after half-time, rarely abated.
Their first attacking raid ended with Taane Milne being bundled meekly into touch on the right edge as Walker and Ilias shuffled the ball wide, looking for speed the Rabbitohs don’t have to get around Brisbane’s outside backs, who are among the quickest in the NRL.
When presented with a midfield scrum soon after and three-on-three, Damien Cook and Ilias pulled a scrum move where everything that could go wrong did. Richie Kennar’s decoy line was a metre too wide, Ilias found himself too tight as a result, Cook’s pass went astray and Alex Johnston was left to fumble a bouncing ball over the sideline.
The theme continued throughout much of the contest, with almost every backline shift easily handled by Brisbane’s sliding defence. At one point when Isaiah Tass was disposed of over the right hand sideline, Walker threw his hands up in frustration.
The Bunnies won’t be the last team to struggle with the NRL’s crackdown on blockers impeding defenders in pursuit of a kicker.
Cody Walker’s early punt out on the full – pressured by Billy Walters because Walker had no cover next to a Sean Keppie play-the-ball – likely triggered a message from the coach’s box to give him some. Nothing unusual there.
Davvy Moale’s execution before half-time though? Unsophisticated to say the least. Moale made a clumsy beeline for Marty Taupau and was duly pinged by referee Gerard Sutton for it. When Keppie did the same in the 58th minute, Payne Haas found him from marker, smiling all the while as Keppie argued with Sutton and the replay played out on the big screen.
“We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot. Whether it’s [that we] can’t feed the scrum properly, first tackle errors, kicking it into our own player, penalties for blocking. It was a horror show of just really little things that kept putting pressure on ourselves.”
Demetriou didn’t miss any in his post-game press conference, though losing a scrum with the feed is rare areas in modern rugby league.
Taupau’s well-timed boot to win possession came after Brisbane themselves let a try go begging, Kotoni Staggs passing too early for Ezra Mam after a break, with Mitchell forcing the knock-on accordingly.
Tallis Duncan’s inexplicable accidental offside penalty in the second half came with all the timing of an English batsman too. The Rabbitohs had straightened up their attack through Siliva Havili in the middle and dragged themselves into a 16-12 ballgame before losing their way yet again.
Coming out of their own end, Ilias and Duncan got their timing awfully wrong for a clearing kick, with the young back-rower stopping dead in front of Ilias as he went to kick long, instead gifting possession back to Brisbane and saddling Souths with more goal line defence.
An unhappy night for Ilias will only strengthen calls for Jack Wighton to partner Cody Walker in the halves, with Matty Johns stressing the young half is as much a victim of South Sydney’s spluttering attack as a cause.
“The system of play is slightly wrong,” Johns said on Fox Sports after full-time, reiterating the issues he outlined earlier in the day on SEN radio.
“They are looking to always play around the opposition. If they want to make a change and they want to adjust, the answer, if they want to start playing through teams, might be Cody Walker to No.7 and Jack Wighton to No.6.
“That will give them more of a run threat. But it is unfair on Ilias because it is not the kid’s fault.”
Ilias is still only 23 and has better playmaking judges than this one in his corner. But with Cameron Murray’s leg speed idling out on the edge and Souths getting little momentum as a result through the middle, it’s a tough beat for any young half.
Jai Arrow’s rotator cuff injury will keep him out for a month or two at least, and Murray was the man to replace him out wide against Brisbane.
It won’t matter where he plays if the Bunnies keep completing at 56 per cent. And, as Demetriou pointed out, there was enough to admire in the Rabbitohs goal line defence and determination keeping them in the contest for 60 minutes. But shifting their captain back to lock, even manufacturing a second-row replacement if need be, might be the best place for Demetriou to start.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
visit website
