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Michael Maguire, Nigel Plum and Jarryd Hayne are three very different individuals who have one big thing in common right now – each is living right up to his responsibility.
South Sydney coach Maguire produced his team in superb shape to win a very important game against North Queensland at the start of this round – way back on Thursday night.
Six more games have come and gone since then and although there was plenty to like about some of the performances in them, none of the winning teams were as impressive as the Rabbitohs.
That leaves Cronulla and Melbourne, playing at Remondis Stadium tonight, with the last chance to try to better them. The Sharks and Storm would have been playing for fourth place on the competition table had Souths not hung on to it by beating the Cowboys.
It was the best performance by the Rabbitohs since they won last year’s grand final.
There were previously worrying signs for the Rabbitohs because they had been responsible for a few below-par performances this season which suggested some of the sting had gone out of them as a result of being premiers.
No team has won back-to-back titles in the same competition since Brisbane in 1992-93 and the task has become more difficult over the years because the competition continues to get more and more even.
There are not the ‘soft’ games the better teams used to be able to count on to help their win-loss record before drawing on whatever energy they had saved to pour into a big run at the end.
Now, any drop off in intensity puts teams high on the competition table at risk of losing to those low on it. Souths have lost to Penrith, Wests Tigers, Canberra and Parramatta this season – four teams that won’t be required come finals time.
The Rabbitohs had been disappointed in losing by 20 points to Manly in the previous round and with the finals only a month away it was imperative Maguire find that something extra from his team – if it was there.
Whatever he did, it worked. Souths clearly treated the clash with North Queensland as a statement game. They were extra physical, extra intense and extra desperate. They wanted it badly.
Maguire was pumped up in the coach’s box. At one stage, after his team scored a try, he rose from his seat, turned and jumped into the back of the box. The attitude the Rabbitohs were displaying had come from the coach down. He refuses to allow himself or his players to rest on their laurels.
That is obviously no guarantee Souths will go back-to-back, but it’s a good start. Whether they can repeat that same level of desire against Canterbury on Friday remains to be seen.
Souths have problems with key men Issac Luke and Luke Keary each facing likely suspension. But what we do know is that – all things being reasonably close to equal – the Rabbitohs are still capable of winning the comp.
Penrith prop Plum is from the old school. There was a quaint reminder of that in a post-match interview he did with ABC Grandstand after Saturday’s game against the Warriors, when he announced his retirement, effective immediately.
Plum referred to the match venue as Penrith Park – something it hasn’t been known as for a long time in these days of sponsor-flavoured stadium names.
The big fellow had originally planned to retire at the end of the season, but a recent concussion rattled him in more ways than one and he decided Saturday’s game – his 150th in first grade – would be his last.
Plum said in the interview that, “I’ve got to look after this head of mine”.
He had sustained multiple concussions in the past, but after this latest one – the result of a head clash playing against Canberra three rounds back – he praised the game for the much stronger concussion protocols protecting players from returning to the field too soon.
Plum is only 32. He has a young family. He is thinking of their future.
Finally, you would have had to have been living in a cave to not know that former league superstar Hayne had fared very well in his first official NFL pre-season game for the San Francisco 49ers Sunday morning, our time.
I watched the game live on in the NFL Network and was excited to see what he was able to do in the running back and kick returner positions. The highlights have obviously been all over the news.
Hayne took a huge step towards making the 53-man cut and playing in the first round of the NFL proper next month. It could come undone for him with one horror performance between now and then, but I don’t see that happening.
He may well have some downs to go with the ups in the remaining pre-season matches, but he looks to be well on the way to realising his dream now.
Hayne felt like he had done all he could do in league. The desire to beat the odds and establish a new career in a foreign game at the age of 27 was eating away at him. Instead of ignoring the call and staying in his comfort zone, he answered it.
That took a huge amount of self-belief, determination and plain guts.
Hayne could have continued doing what he was doing in league and made a lot of money for at least another five years out of that, but he didn’t want to have regrets.
He felt he owed it to himself to find out what he could do. Whatever happens from this point, the guy is an inspiration.
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