South Sydney’s dramatic but ultimately unsuccessful comeback against Melbourne doesn’t hide the fact that coach Jason Demetriou is two weeks into life as an NRL coach and he’s already facing a mammoth decision about whether to persist with rookie halfback Lachlan Ilias.
The new Rabbitohs No.7 has had a rough start in the top grade since replacing Adam Reynolds and is only one part of a Rabbitohs side that has underperformed in back-to-back weeks aside from the late 20-minute rally against the Storm to come back from 14-0 down before going down in extra time.
Demetriou, who himself is following in the footsteps of a legend after taking over from Wayne Bennett, in the post-match media conference on Thursday night reinforced his support for Ilias by saying he is willing to ride through the inevitable growing pains as he’s confident he’ll find his feet at NRL level sooner rather than later.
Cody Walker has not been his usual dynamic self, Latrell Mitchell did not make much of an impact in his return from suspension and some of the forwards should be blushing a bright shade of cardinal after some of their embarrassing defensive efforts in the 11-4 loss to Brisbane in Round 1 and Thursday night’s 15-14 defeat in Melbourne.
Ilias nearly failed to find touch early in the first half at AAMI Park and then booted out on the full after not standing deep enough at first receiver, rushing his kick as the defence loomed large.
That error was compounded with interest when Melbourne scored off the ensuing set to double their 4-0 lead and when they scored virtually from the next kick-off, it had triggered 10 points in the space of a few minutes.
The Rabbitohs have faith in Ilias to be Reynolds’ long-term replacement. Demetriou did exactly the right thing early in the pre-season by saying he was their halfback and backing him to the hilt.
But that was when Souths, like every other team, had a zero in the loss column. Now they are 0-2 and facing the Roosters and Panthers over the next fortnight and the very real prospect of a winless first month of the season.
Jason Demetriou. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Demetriou said the NRL’s deregistration of former Broncos playmaker Anthony Milford’s contract due to assault allegations had forced them to change their plans for 2022.
“I think people forget Anthony Milford was signed here for this year and that was to take a bit of pressure off Lachie, to allow him to grow into that role. And he’s been thrown into it,” Demetriou said.
“What I like about him is that even though the game was behind, he could have easily drifted out of the game andI don’t think he did that. He started organising, I thought he was better in the second half.
“He came up with some good plays, dug into the line really well, created two tries on the right-hand side. While there’s things for him to work on, I’m really comfortable with his temperament, I thought overall he kicked really well.
“It’s a work in progress. It’s my job and the coaches’ jobs to keep working with Lachie. He’s long term, he’s going nowhere and he’ll be the future of the club, no doubt about that.”
Rookie halfbacks make rookie errors. There’s a very good reason why very few teams win premierships with a greenhorn in the No.7 jersey – only Manly in 2011 with Daly Cherry-Evans in the NRL era have bucked that trend.
Souths were a Reynolds sideline conversion away from potentially lifting last year’s premiership trophy and still have a talented squad capable of being genuine contenders this year.
The eighth Immortal, Andrew Johns, someone who knows a thing or two about the development of halfbacks, urged Demetriou in Nine commentary to “be patient”.
“There’s a player there,” he said, adding that he had been keeping an eye on Ilias from the Charity Shield and had been impressed with his playmaking skills.
Lachlan Ilias during the Charity Shield. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Johns also said the Rabbitohs were undergoing a period of adjustment after a decade-plus of hearing Reynolds barking orders at them.
Raiders Hall of Famer Laurie Daley, another rather handy playmaker in his day, said the Rabbitohs looked like a rabble who “looked like they had never met each other” for most of the loss to the Storm.
“It was there to see last night how much they’ll miss Adam Reynolds and how much they do miss him,” he said on Friday morning’s Big Sports Breakfast. “Young Lachlan Ilias, I think is going to be a good player but it’s going to take time with him and with some of the other players, Adam was the glue that kept them all together.
“I just felt last night they lost their way and everything was conceived and you could just see what was unfolding and they were rushing their plays and being frustrated. There was no one out there calming them down.
“When Melbourne were down to 12 men and it started to open up for them through the middle and they created the space on the edges, they started to look like the South Sydney of old.”
With Blake Taaffe sidelined for another couple of weeks with an ankle problem, Demetriou doesn’t have much of a choice for the upcoming grudge matches against their 1908 rivals and their 2021 nemesis even if he wanted to make a change.
Even though he has filled in admirably for Mitchell at fullback, Taaffe is a natural halfback but also untried as a playmaker in first grade, like the other option in their top-30 squad, Dean Hawkins.
The other combination Demetriou could use is putting Taaffe at fullback and switching Mitchell to five-eighth with Walker becoming the chief organiser at halfback.
It could work but it could further dull Walker’s attacking edge by making him take on more of the set-up work rather than picking and choosing his spots to chime into the offensive flow.
The encouraging aspect for Souths fans is Demetriou looks like he will have the courage of his convictions to back his instincts without chopping and changing.
If you look at last season for example there were several teams that rotated their halves regularly like Brisbane, Canterbury, North Queensland and the Dragons and not coincidentally they all finished a long way from finals contention.
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