South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett has accused his side of being too casual after Thursday’s shock loss to Canterbury.
With just one game left until the finals, Souths copped an almighty wake-up call with a 26-16 loss to the Bulldogs – a win that lifted them from the bottom of the ladder.
Souths appeared dangerous at times but could not punch through a desperate Bulldogs side who led 20-0 after 28 minutes.
“I think it’s more of an attitude problem. We gave them a 20-point start then decided we’d get ourselves back in the contest and the scoreboard ended up being 16-6 for the next 60 minutes,” he said.
“They took their chances, we got over the line three times and lost the ball. We didn’t take ours.
“Guys have a pretty casual outlook sometimes on how they’re playing their football.”
It was a big warning sign for the side who are losing their grip on a home final in week one of the playoffs.
The Rabbitohs play Sydney Roosters on Friday week and will need a win to have a chance for a home ground advantage.
“The first thing is to be in the finals and then after that where you play is where you play,” Bennett said.
“We’ve still got a game to go, we’ve got the Roosters, we’re not going to be able to match it with them if we played like we did tonight.
“That’s our challenge to get ourselves back somewhere we know we can play at and not dish up what we dished up here tonight.”
They could be forced to do it without second-rower Jaydn Su’a who was sin-binned for high contact on Bulldogs half Lachlan Lewis.
Su’a will be sweating on the match review committee’s report on Friday morning, but it’s expected he will spend time on the sidelines for the hit.
Bennett was tight-lipped on the incident that ruled Lewis out of the rest of the game, but Su’a found support in Bulldogs caretaker coach Steve Georgallis.
“He obviously connected with his head,” he said.
“It was just unfortunate, I don’t think it was a shoulder charge.
“I didn’t think it was intentional. In the old days that was a good hit.”
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