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Years of underachieving and falling short in big games are a thing of the past at South Sydney according to co-captains Michael Crocker and Matt King who say the club’s ability to win finals-intensity games will carry them deep into the finals.
Since scraping into the post season in seventh spot in 2007, the Rabbitohs have fallen agonisingly close of September football every year since except for 2008, when they finished 14th.
In 2009 they finished 10th, went one better in 2010 and last year they slipped back to 10th once more but on all three occasions they were just one win short of a finals berth.
Sunday’s 19-18 golden point victory over St George Illawarra, which Crocker described as having a finals-type intensity, followed similarly courageous close triumphs over top eight teams Wests Tigers, Cronulla and North Queensland this season.
“The last couple of years we’ve been in positions to win games like this and haven’t come away with the points,” Crocker said.
“It definitely has been a focus for us. We’re just really starting to get that confidence in what we need to do to win the games and thankfully it’s coming off.”
The win against the Dragons lifted Souths into sixth spot on the ladder in their first season under coach Michael Maguire, and it has Crocker and King convinced the club has what it takes to go far in 2012.
“I think definitely if you come away with those sorts of wins it helps you get closer to the finals,” Crocker said.
“I know the last couple of years if we’d won one or two of those games we probably would’ve snuck into the finals.
“If we can keep grinding out wins like that or get ourselves in a position to win the games and come away with it, it will definitely help us.”
King, in his first year at the club following a four-year stint in the English Super League, said he could feel the belief growing with each win.
And the former Melbourne Storm star said the club took confidence from every close game they earned points from – reminding his team of this fact before they went into golden point against the Dragons.
“I actually mentioned to the boys when we were in our huddle before golden point that we’d been here before, against the Tigers, a few weeks ago,” King said.
“If you can draw on experiences like we had yesterday leading into big games then hopefully that’s a good thing. Hopefully it will hold us in good stead.
“Belief and confidence is a wonderful thing in our game … It goes hand in hand with momentum.
“If we can believe we can win games before a ball’s been kicked, you’re a long way to winning a game.”
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