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On the outside South Sydney’s 30-18 point loss to the Canberra Raiders doesn’t sound too dire. That is, until you realise that the match wasn’t played in the nation’s capital on a freezing cold Saturday night in the middle of winter.
No, instead Sydney’s self-confessed sexiest team in rugby league met a Raiders side that usually travels about as well as your aunt’s motion sickness-suffering miniature dachshund at a sunny, splendid ANZ Stadium where they seemed all set to bounce back from a surprise last up loss.
A plan that lasted for the first fifteen or so minutes, before Canberra decided to punish – not their long suffering supporters for once – but rather anyone who had made a tip for the round.
They turned from a team that couldn’t score fireworks in Fyshwick to point-a-minute marvels.
While the result of the match guarantees Ricky Stuart’s overhead projector stays in the cupboard for another couple of weeks, for Souths it brings up the questions their long suffering supporters really shouldn’t have to ask.
I.e.: Was that it?
Were those one match from a grand final wipeouts the promised land that the Rabbitohs’ famished, weary and betrodden masses had waited so long for? Were they the glory years fans had been promised? Had they lived so briefly in the land of milk and bunny?
Although the season is still early Autumn fresh, one does get the slightest feeling that the premiership train has begun to pull out from Redfern station, with Michael Maguire’s men still stuck at the ticket machine furiously trying to top up their Opal card with Rusty’s black Amex.
Yes, just like the Wests Tigers before them, the window of opportunity seems now like the rear window of a Tangara tearing off into the distance.
So, who’s to blame for all this mess?
Well thankfully for the burrow if things don’t come good soon they’ve got a list of targets longer than the ‘to do’ list at Maroubra Ink.
In no particular order may I present to you the potential South-side scapegoats:
Sam Burgess
Word has it that ‘Hollywood’ Sam is putting noses out of joint with an ego the size of Manoa Thompson in the Bunnies’ sheds. While these might just be filthy rumours started to fill the Dave Warner gossip void, the fact that Burgess has showed the composure of an irate honey badger on the field so far this year certainly isn’t helping.
Halves
When NSW coach Laurie Daley came out and said Mitchell Pearce would be his 2014 halfback, it was really a nice way of saying “Adam Reynolds is stinking it up.”
Reynolds has been a shadow of his 2013 self this season, and with Keary injured, a centre playing five-eighth and no Isaac Luke to help out around the ruck, all of a sudden the Bunnies are looking a little bit Willie Peters.
The buys
The Bunnies’ raid on footy’s bargain bin concerned many at the start of the year, and combined with the loss of depth out wide and the tough Nathan Peats, the ledger was always going to be in the negative for 2014.
On the plus though Lote has had a couple of decent scoots from dummy half…
The media
They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, which I’m assuming is unless that publicity is 24/7 wall-to-wall coverage of every minute detail of a side’s footy season.
What goes up must come down, and while everyone loved to have Souths as their second team when they were the plucky battlers sticking it to the man, the continual red ‘n’ green Tsunami from the press (in particular Channel Nine) has slowly turned the tide of public opinion.
Roosters
No doubt they’ve rigged everything.
But, what if the Rabbitohs do manage to bounce back against the Dragons in front of a packed SCG in Round 5 to re-ignite their season in a stunning fashion?
Well, just feel free to file this one away under ‘F’.
For finals…
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