South Sydney are about to enter a month-long stretch against the four teams at the top of the ladder which will determine whether they are indeed genuine title contenders of flat-track Bunnies.
With the competition’s top four teams – the Dolphins, Panthers, Broncos and Storm – looming on the horizon, it could be a season-defining month for Souths as they sit in 10th spot with a 3-3 record.
Since coach Wayne Bennett and captain Adam Reynolds propelled them to the 2021 Grand Final, the Bunnies have been dominant when they’ve taken on the also-rans but struggled to compete with the NRL’s elite sides.
Souths registered a not so nice 6-9 win-loss rate last year against the other nine teams who finished with a .500 record or better.
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They won eight of their nine classes with the bottom six teams who had losing records to qualify seventh and then upset the Roosters and Sharks before Penrith ended their late charge in the preliminary final.
Cody Walker celebrates with Latrell Mitchell, Keaon Koloamatangi and Lachlan Ilias. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The Rabbitohs couldn’t have been more impressive to start off the season with a 27-18 win over the Sharks at Cronulla although the home side was missing its most influential player with Dally M Medal winner Nicho Hynes hobbled by a calf strain.
They then went down 16-10 to the Panthers at Penrith but the margin did not reflect the premiers’ dominance.
Souths then lost to the Roosters in a close one with another late consolation try making it seem closer than the 20-18 scoreline suggests.
They outlasted a Manly side with a golden point but the Sea Eagles’ early-season formline has fallen off a cliff with Newcastle putting 32 on them the following week and Penrith racking up 44 last Saturday.
A 50-16 thumping of Canterbury last Friday was a great confidence booster but they were up against a team lacking Viliame Kikau, Raymond Faitala-Mariner and Tevita Pangai jnr and also lost Josh Addo-Carr early in the contest with a syndesmosis injury, forcing Jackson Topine to fill in at centre where he was badly exposed in defence.
It’s far from panic stations at Redfern but Thursday night’s Suncorp Stadium assignment against Bennett and his upstart Dolphins (4-2) is the first step in a crucial section of the draw leading into the State of Origin period.
The Bunnies trade on passion, whether it’s the history of the club and the fervour of their fans off the field or the emotion exhibited by their players when they step onto the arena.
When they take on the Roosters or have a finals match, that volatility can inspire them to great deeds, as shown in the past couple of playoff series.
But it can be a weakness – when their key players in Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell are flat, the whole team suffers.
If those two in particular – the team’s emotional barometers – get too amped up, they can be baited into ill-disciplined acts.
The level-headed determination of captain Cameron Murray and hooker Damien Cook often balances out the intensity that Walker and Mitchell bring to the contest but that emotion is a strength and a weakness.
To his credit, Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou has done a fine job since stepping into Bennett’s shoes in harnessing the unique energy of the Rabbitohs.
He was statesmanlike recently when a young fan racially abused Mitchell with the way he spoke about how non-Indigenous Australians needed to be better in knowing not to cross the line between sledging and going over the top.
Compared to the likes of Ivan Henjak, Steve Price, Rick Stone and Anthony Seibold when they followed in Bennett’s footsteps, Demetriou’s success looks even better.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Thursday night’s clash with Bennett and the Dolphins is being predictably hyped up as a master versus apprentice coaching contest but Demetriou is his own man and the two competition points far outweighs the importance of a win over his mentor in their first head-to-head encounter.
“I’m not here without him, that’s for sure,” Demetriou said on Wednesday at his captain’s run media conference.
“The first conversation was [Bennett saying], ‘I like people who are self-made and you’re who I want to act and think as a head coach’. He’s been one of the best mentors I could hope for.”
“In the dark times, he stays composed. He trusts what his values are. I remember two 50-point losses in 2021 in the space of three or four weeks. We could have pushed a panic button, but we didn’t.
“He came in and made it fun and got the players excited to play again, and we went on the run to the grand final.
“He’s got an ability to make you feel good about yourself and that’s the art of coaching. It’s about your players having trust in themselves and you.
Jason Demetriou. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
“Everybody talks about the younger generation but Wayne still manages to connect with the younger generation, he’s an icon of the game.”
Bennett was bitter at the Broncos when they appointed Seibold to replace him when he thought Demetriou as his assistant was a better option.
So when he was controversially sacked and started his three-year deal at Souths at the end of the 2018 season 12 months earlier than anticipated, he took Demetriou as well with the same idea for him to take over the reins.
“I took the idea (of a succession plan) with me, I realised I was running out of time coaching wise,” Bennett said.
“That was the plan we had for the Broncos but they didn’t want to buy into that.
“Jason could have been coaching the Broncos but it wasn’t what they wanted to do. Souths were keen to do something like that, so Jason came to Sydney.”
He is again grooming Tonga coach Kristian Woolf to do likewise at the Dolphins with Bennett set to finally bring down the curtain on his unprecedented coaching career at the end of next season and all signs now point to the Redcliffe expansion side being well set up for his predecessor.
The Dolphins are underdogs for this game, just like they were last week in Townsville when they beat the Cowboys. They have played with in a no-nonsense style that is a hallmark of Bennett teams.
You know what to expect from them in this one, whether the Bunnies run hot or cold will likely be the deciding factor.
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