A Souths Fans Low Point

A Souths Fans Low Point

By Greg Allan for Bunnies TV.

NRL Round 5 Match Report – South Sydney Rabbitohs v New Zealand Warriors – Accor Stadium – 6/4/24

After yesterday’s trainwreck I wasn’t going to write anything but as I’m going to be away for a few weeks I thought I would get it out of my system. I hope I can look back at this article when I come back and see this was a low point that we are slowly recovering from. A low point it was, possibly my lowest as a Souths fan. As someone who has followed the team closely since the mid to late 80’s, I think this was one of the worst performances. Sure, we’ve had bigger floggings and poorer results but even those battling sides of the 90’s and the early 2000’s gave us something. I thought yesterday’s effort given our roster and low position in the NRL comp was rock bottom. I certainly hope it was anyway but who knows maybe we haven’t even reached that yet??

I’ll try to keep this short, after all there’s not much to report anyway in regards to gameplay. I hope this article can be a talking point for Souths fans where we can vent our frustrations (respectfully), offer solutions and eventually unite to support the club we love. I certainly don’t have any solutions but I’ll offer my take on the awful situation we now face as Rabbitohs fans and members.

Fortnite

Juliet and I arrived late to the game yesterday. After stuffing about at home for too long in the morning we only arrived just before NRL kick-off. Her brother, Lucas, had decided to stay at home and play ‘Fortnite’. I know nothing about the video game but maybe I should have joined him? My Rabbitoh friend, Simon, gave me the shocking news about Lachy Ilias. Not a great start to the day….

I was hardly confident about the match. As written last week, I was happy with last week’s game. Sure, it wasn’t a world beating performance but just the fact we were willing to make an effort to complete sets and grind out a win impressed me. I was hoping we could build on this but after listening to NRL media and podcasts all week about how poor we were despite winning last week, my spirit had dropped. Turns out the pundits were right.

A Fantastic Start

The game kicked off in bright and sunny conditions with a decent crowd on hand. The weather had been horrendous up till Saturday morning so I think everyone was thankful for the change in the weather. The Rabbitohs were off to a fantastic start after a quick shift early putting Izaac Tu’itupou Thompson in the clear! He showed some nice speed and amazing footwork to get past Nicoll-Klokstad and score a ripper of a try! The South Sydney members were up on their feet, cheering and full of hope! I high-fived everyone around me thinking how good a start this was for us… Unfortunately, that’s where the highlights ended. 

After an avoidable error from Souths running the ball out from our line the Warriors hit back almost immediately through a fairly easy try to Rocco Berry. 6-4 Warriors. Following this we had a bit of a nothing period in the game but the errors were starting to mount for us, some really bad ones too. I thought the signs were not looking good and knew we wouldn’t be able to hold them out for much longer. In the 35th minute, Jackson Ford crossed followed by the obligatory opposition try before half-time. This time a split through the middle from Egan with Johnson eventually getting the four points.

Embarrassing Errors

At 18-4 at half time things were looking dire. I didn’t have a great feeling about a potential comeback but where there’s life there is hope. The ridiculous errors from Souths continued and the Warriors piled on the points. I started to disengage from the game at this stage as did those around me. You can always tell when your team is going extremely poorly as everyone just starts chatting instead of watching. Then they eventually get up and leave.

I forced myself to watch the highlights this morning and it wasn’t any better the second time around. It was so disappointing that the Warriors didn’t even have to try that hard to beat us… It was just another day of our forwards getting dominated, countless embarrassing errors, poor discipline and our gun players giving nothing and struggling with any adversity put upon them. In contrast, Johnson, Harris and RTS put on a veteran player masterclass for the Warriors. Final score 34-4 to NZ….

No Answers

So now this is what we have become. As mentioned before I don’t have any answers, I’m not sure if the club does either which is the worst part. First of all, our ‘stars’ are underperforming badly and I think it’s time to make a statement. I think JD will be saved one tough decision with a likely suspension looming for Latrell but really what is the harm of giving guys like Cook and Walker a run in the 2nds? Will it make us better? Probably not, but it won’t make us much worse. We have a ready made replacement for Damien who got a very strange 15 minutes at the end of the game yesterday when the match was over (What was the point of that??). I’m not sure who replaces Cody but I guess Wighton is an obvious choice. 

Who Comes In?

Our forwards have been misfiring for so long. Once again, I’m not sure who comes in? Those who watch the NSW Cup more closely could answer this but I’d be willing to take anyone who was willing to have a go. As for JD, I fear his time is up as it’s clear his message is not getting through. The performances that the players are coming up with of late are not showing they have a lot of respect for him. 

It’s a shame, I think JD is a good coach and I was hoping he would be with us for a long time. He seems an intelligent, respectful and great guy but it looks as if his need to emulate Bennett’s coaching style is beginning to cost him. These guys like Wayne, Bellamy and I guess Jack Gibson in the past can get away with more because of the credits they have built up in the game, everyone else can’t. Who replaces him? Well there’s no obvious choices so I wouldn’t be rushing into this. Personally, I’d like to see Madge back. It’s unlikely I know but his tough style would at least have us competing.

Lack Of Fitness

The other issue I wanted to mention is our fitness as a team, or lack of it. We look completely spent whilst every other NRL side bursts with enthusiasm for the 80 minutes. It’s tough to watch as it’s so obvious. Then we have the lack of fitness contributing to the errors and then the errors exposing our lack of fitness…

This has been an absolute diatribe of negativity and I’m sorry about that. It’s not usually my style but it’s hard to find positives. If anything, I thought Tass and Wighton tried hard from their positions yesterday. Cam put in effort as he always does but his impact is severely blunted these days.

There you have it. It’s a terrible time to be a Souths fan, here’s to better times ahead. I’ll be back in a few weeks or so with hopefully something nice to say.

A Souths Fans Low Point.