Souths have got better since Latrell Mitchell got back into the side, right? Right? Well…yes. But it’s not really him that did it.
It’s fairly obvious to point out that South Sydney are better when their best player plays for them, but the uptick in form since Latrell returned goes far deeper than that.
The context of Latrell’s comeback appearance is worth recalling: his first game, in Round 16 against Parramatta, was a week after the debacle in Wollongong where the Bunnies trailed 32-0 at the break and had hooked rookie halfback Lachlan Ilias.
In truth, they could have also hooked Cam Murray, who was dreadful that night, and Damien Cook, who was perhaps even worse.
That loss came with its own context, too: the Bunnies had started the season 7-7 and were in danger of dropping out of the finals conversation.
It will go down as an inflection point in their season, because it would have been easy for Jason Demetriou to change the plan on the back of their worst defeat of the year.
Instead, Demetriou did the opposite. He steered into the skid. Souths doubled down on Plan A.
“I’ve stayed pretty calm throughout the year,” said Jason Demetriou. “There was a lot of heat on us early on, especially after the Dragons game, but we knew what works for us.
“We knew if we could get our defence right, which we have done over the last eight to ten weeks, that gives our attack field position and the more field position we get the more opportunities we get.”
The Bunnies play a pretty unique style, because they use a deep attacking line, based off backing their ball-handling skills to get the footy wide before the defensive line gets there.
If you were wondering why Alex Johnston scores so many tries at the corner, that’s why. Souths try to move wide, fast.
It’s why, in the early rounds, their completion rate was so poor. Without Latrell – because players do matter, of course – they were working every so slightly closer to the line, because Kodi Nikorima and Blake Taaffe, his replacements, aren’t the same running threat. Tacklers could fly out at them in a way they can’t with Mitchell.
Fundamentally, though, Souths play exactly the same way that they have all year and backed that, as defensive cohesion grew and attacking combinations – particularly between Ilias and Cody Walker, plus new centre Isaiah Tass – formed, they would get better at enacting the plan.
Multiple Souths figures have told me that they never once talked completion rates, despite being bottom of the NRL for that metric. They knew that they were making the right errors.
When the big man came back, the knock on effect was huge. Not only is he an underrated force in defence – go watch Souths live and you’ll see him organising from the back – but he also created an extra yard to play in.
It’s far from just him though. Murray is ball-playing more, with passes per run and line engagement metrics both well above average, interesting defenders before getting the ball out into the attacking shape.
Conversely, Walker is playing even more straight, with a lower pass per run ratio since the Dragons debacle, indicating that he is going himself as well as moving the ball along the line. He made four line breaks in the first fifteen games, but has made seven in the eight since.
Cook has also offered more of a run threat, with above-average dummy half runs in the games that they have won, and below average in the two games that they lost, to the Panthers and in golden point to Souths. His willingness to challenge the markers is crucial, too, to making space further wide.
The apotheosis of this theory came last week against Penrith. When every other team has folded in the face of their line speed, Souths backed themselves to enact their plan, but better.
Cook even through a long, wide pass that was intercepted for an early try, but was not deterred. The Bunnies went wide early on several occasions, especially in the first half, and smashed the Panthers in the process: they managed seven line breaks to one before half time.
Then, after the Panthers scored twice early in the second half, Souths did it again, getting themselves in front with ten minutes to play.
“Penrith are the benchmark,” said Demetriou. “I know they had some attacking players missing but defensively, I thought they were outstanding.
“On the weekend, under pressure at 20-12, we saw the best of our footy both in our execution and where we were able to get back to 22-20.
“We’re able to do it against a team that’s in your face, and they’re a fair way ahead of anyone else defensively, so that sets us up well.
Demetriou was bullish on the position his side were in ahead of a crunch clash with the Cowboys – the second best defensive team in the comp – on Saturday night at Accor Stadium.
“That’s what we want to do,” he said of the style. “We want to be ourselves, to get out there and play a brand of footy that we know we’re capable of playing.
“The challenge for us now is to stay at it, to get our starts right, to get into the groove and let the footy take care of itself.”
“We’re playing good footy. We’ve lost two in ten and both of those were to top four sides in the dying stages. We know we’re in a good place.”
The Dragons extended their lead to two converted tries after Rabbitohs second-rower Keaon Koloamatangi was penalised for verbal dissent.
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