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South Sydney’s season is spiralling out of control after a devastating 26-16 defeat to Cronulla in Perth.
This was supposed to be the night in which they announced themselves as candidates for the Premiership after a raft of injuries and Origin-affected clashes, but with everyone back on deck, the Bunnies were thrashed by a rampant Sharks.
There’s no excuses now: since the five game winning streak that saw them defeat the Panthers, Storm and Broncos in consecutive weeks, the Bunnies have gone 3-6, leaving them scrapping to stay in the top eight rather than challenging for the Premiership.
“We have to be honest with ourselves and get it right, and get it right starting next week,” said Jason Demetriou.
“I feel like we’ve shown some signs we’re heading in the right direction – I liked the way we fought from 26-0 down to 26-16, but we lacked any smarts in the last eight minutes to give ourselves any chance.”
(Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)
“By the time we showed desperation, it was too little too late and our discipline let us down in terms of any chance of getting back into the game.
“They were that bit more desperate than us tonight. We’re saying the right things, but we’re not putting it out there on the field, and not consistently.”
The Sharks, on the other hand, might have turned their season around. They have been tagged as flat track bullies, but this was a performance that belied that. As bad as Souths were, Cronulla did everything right.
They’ll take enormous confidence from this dismantling of a competition heavyweight – and, more practically, they move to 11 wins, capitalising on the Cowboys’ defeat earlier in the day and taking over from the Knights, who also won, in sixth place.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” said Craig Fitzgibbon.
“We’ve been frustrated by our inconsistencies this year for how hard we’re working. You get just rewards like tonight for that work. It’s taken a while to pay off. It was good tonight but we’re still not where we need to be and we’ll get back to it this week.”
They did it without Will Kennedy, so often their lynchpin at the back, and Ronaldo Mulitalo, their best finisher.
Souths also lost Jai Arrow to a back spasm which may yet keep him out further, and potentially Tom Burgess, who was binned late on for a high shot on Tom Hazleton. The Sharks big man left for a HIA, too.
Twice this year, on showpiece occasions, they have fluffed their lines: first in Indigenous Round, when they took over Allianz Stadium, and now on the road in front of a huge crowd at Optus Stadium.
Not for the time, it seemed like they turned up thinking that they had won. Demetriou can now use this as an example of that happens when they are not at their best.
Anyone can beat anyone in this comp, and Cronulla are a lot better than just anyone. Fitzgibbon now has proof to show his side that they can beat anyone, too. Don’t discount that.
The logic with Cronulla this year has been simple. They’ll beat anyone bad, and lose to anyone good. Souths aren’t a bad team, but they did an awfully good impression of one tonight.
This was as poor as Souths have looked all year. They lacked any intensity in defence, allowing Cronulla to put on their moves, and when the Bunnies got the ball, the radar was well off. On several occasions, the passes went well behind their target, especially on the right edge.
Cronulla opened the scoring through Mawene Hiroti – somewhat fortunately, as Siosifa Talakai’s pass was a mile forward – before Sione Katoa made Mitchell look very silly indeed to add another.
Both Tracey and Wade Graham were held short by a blade of grass, too, saving the Bunnies from yet further embarrassment.
Demetriou gave them both barrels at half time, but the trend continued. The line speed was terrible, which is a death sentence against as good an attacking team as Cronulla.
The reason that Sharks lose to good teams comes from their lack of polish against the fastest defences, but South Sydney never came close to testing that theory. They never showed up.
It’s not time for Souths to go back to the drawing board, and they did eventually kick into life late to make a game of it.
Given how quickly they could fight back and get to within touching distance, it makes it all the more frustrating that they didn’t lay a glove on the Sharks until past the hour mark.
Craig Fitzgibbon, in his year and a half as a coach, has never been a coach who lacked an idea. The Sharks play a highly defined style of footy, and almost to a fault, have sought to do Plan A as well as possible without much regard to their opponent.
Tonight, faced with side who are perhaps most like them stylistically, they knew exactly what to do to throw Souths off their game.
Fitzgibbon has emphasised a defensive mentality, and often repeated that mantra in his press conferences. He’s said that because the attack, at this stage, largely takes care of itself. The line speed and intensity are where they have fallen down.
Not tonight. Souths – at least when they play half well – are the masters of taking on the line speed of the opposition and beating it to the punch.
While the Bunnies might be rusty, they were simply never given a chance to be good, as Cronulla raced into their faces and provoked mistakes.
Lachlan Ilias was harried constantly and thrown off his game. Cody Walker got no change whatsoever. Even Latrell, usually irrepressible, was throwing passes into touch.
It was even more impressive given the outs for the Sharkies. Mawene Hiroti has barely played first grade and Connor Tracey had never started in the NRL at fullback.
You’d never have known. That’s why you have a system.