The last time South Sydney played coach Michael Maguire delivered one of the great dressing room sprays, asking the Rabbitohs to have a “good, hard look at themselves”.
Now Maguire reckons he likes what he sees despite the Rabbitohs crashing to their third-straight NRL loss on Friday night.
Brisbane held on for a 24-18 win at Suncorp Stadium despite losing Queensland five-eighth Anthony Milford (shoulder) in the 72nd minute.
However, there was no repeat of Maguire’s now-infamous tirade after their last match – a round 12 loss to Parramatta – that was captured on Channel Nine’s TV coverage.
“We obviously had some words after our last game and I thought the boys responded really well,” Maguire said of South Sydney, who had the bye last round.
“I have a lot of belief in this team and they put that out there on the park.
“They have to continue to back that up.”
South Sydney dug deep to bounce back after Brisbane jumped to a 12-0 lead after 19 minutes.
When Sam Burgess steamrolled his way to score in the 45th minute, scores were level at 12-12.
The Rabbitohs gave themselves a sniff of a miracle win when impressive back-rower Angus Crichton scored in the 74th minute.
“The effort was definitely there,” Maguire said.
“We spoke about what we wanted to look like as a team and we definitely got that.
“I can’t fault anything that they did right across the park – it was just those key moments in games.
“I think we are lot closer than a lot of people think.”
South Sydney now have just four wins after 14 rounds.
“If we keep performing at that standard and tidy up a few areas a win is going to come,” Rabbitohs skipper Sam Burgess said.
“We gave them a couple of cheap tries and that cost us the game – we have to find a way to stop that.
“We just need to find a way to take our chances.
“But I still have a lot of belief in the team.”
steveng
Roar Rookie
Breaking News; Dane Gagai has signed a 4 year contract with Souths taking affect 2018.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Yep, Walker seemed to take a 'form dive' a few weeks ago, after his disappointment that Souths are willing to fork our 2.1 million on Gagai while he's getting 200k. Walker was the reason Thaiday scored that last try (which was the difference, he left a gapping big hole so that Thaiday just had to dive over for a try, plus his handling errors didn't help. With Reynolds, Madge is in a dilemma, he's a top goal kicker and is worth his weight in points but his form doesn't justify some of his selections. Those are the selection problems that Madge and Souths have. As far as Angus Crichton is concerned, he's a beauty and he deserves players around him who firstly, can keep up with him secondly, have a go like he does, Sam Burgess never ever stops trying, how I wish that the rest of them would be like Sam and Angus then we would have a top team. Let's see if Gagai will sign with us for 2018, as he would be a great asset in the centres. And the return of GI next year, will improve our side considerably in 2018, as 2017 is gone and we are only making up the comp numbers.
rossco
Guest
Reynolds is the weak link in the team and Walker is poor. Farah gave nothing last night and Cook's arrival sparked the team. Get a proper spine and the team wins.
Albo
Guest
Yep ! Both have lost all form they had earlier in the season. Their attack now seems to revolve solely around Big Sam and Angus Crichton on the edge. Crichton is a beauty ! Sutton at 6 always indicates to me that they have limited options in attack.
Con Scortis
Roar Guru
Hmmm. I can't fault the effort, even the Burgess twins are trying hard and as a fan I'll always back the players when they are putting in. But Souths have played 37 matches since Round 1 2016 and lost 24 of them, for a win % of only 35%. Opposition coaches have worked out that Madge has run out of ideas and our structured plays and decoy runs may have worked in 2014 but are completely useless in 2017, no matter how much effort the players put in. We need a change.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Walker and Reynolds were not crash hot in last nights game. Walker made allot of fundamental mistakes especially in defence that let curtail points in and Reynolds attacking passes and options were pretty poor, Souths are not up to the top notch NRL standards (to beat top sides) and they should really have a good hard look at themselves and have a few roster changes, which are needed. Souths looked like the Dogs there for allot and parts of this game, old and bunched up, tired and going no where.