Anthony Seibold took a predictable South Sydney side and turned them into a ferocious NRL powerhouse
FOUR years after they cracked the premiership seal, the Rabbitohs are hungry and capable for their next. And it’s all thanks to Anthony Seibold’s extraordinary vision, writes PAUL KENT.
Opinion
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THE resurrection of South Sydney is complete.
Four years after they cracked the premiership seal, their first in 43 years, the Rabbitohs are hungry and capable for their next.
They are confident and feel full of reinvention, their credentials as a legitimate NRL powerhouse confirmed.
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The true powerhouses have staying power. They are never too far from success.
South Sydney found their success before going wobbly for two years, then reinvented themselves and are now back with a new way to win.
It began, like it always does, with a coach and a worry.
Anthony Seibold was appointed coach last season after an ugly split between Michael Maguire and the club.
Maguire brought the Rabbitohs their elusive premiership.
He was blindsided by backroom conversations and a lack of faith from Rabbitohs officials, who couldn’t stay the course. It was no way to treat a coach who delivered the club its first premiership in 43 years, with so much heartburn in between, but Maguire was gone.
And Seibold has saved the backroom dealers.
Even more so in light of the recent blood on the floor in the coaching boxes.
Seibold inherited a roster that finished 11th in points scored last season and knew that before anything else he had to find a way to put the grunt back into the Rabbitohs’ attack.
Their only recruitment was Newcastle centre Dane Gagai. Good, but not enough.
What Seibold did next bordered on extraordinary for a rookie coach.
He gave control to his players.
Not in any ‘I can’t fix it so you blokes do’ it kind of way, but in a way that cleared their minds and empowered them.
The Rabbitohs had the most structured attack in the NRL.
The year they won the premiership then-Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett wore a lot of heat after labelling Souths’ attack as predictable.
Bennett was spot on. They were as predictable as mathematics.
On any tackle rival coaches could tell you where the Rabbitohs would be and what they would do next.
Structured sequencing, they called it. Basically, the Rabbitohs were either about to play towards the goalpost or hit back with a block play. Tackles one, two, three and sometimes four were all the same as they set up for a shot.
Back then the problem was stopping them.
Seibold wanted to change that. Rivals had figured out how to stop them.
Seibold thought the sidelines needed to be used for more than telling the wingers where to stand and so he encouraged his team to play all the way across to the sideline and back again.
“We have three simple principles,” Seibold said.
“The first is how do you create momentum?
“The second is how we can apply pressure once we have created momentum.
“The third is once we put pressure on the defensive line, how do we capitalise on it?”
It was a giant shift from what brought South Sydney their success.
Seibold told offensive coach Dave Furner his broad plan and sent Furner off to deliver.
Adam Reynolds, the little halfback who drove the game plan perfectly — to the point he rarely, if ever, strayed out of it — was encouraged to run.
Reynolds had to understand it was OK to be tackled.
Cody Walker was shifted to five-eighth and encouraged to let his natural gifts flourish. Play the numbers. Take a short side if you had the numbers.
The Rabbitohs are not the only team to restructure their attack to make it, oddly, less structured.
It puts the game on the edge of its next evolution.
Melbourne have also began stretching the ball from sideline to sideline. So have Cronulla, even Canterbury in recent weeks.
The Rabbitohs’ benefit is most noticeable in the Burgess brothers.
Sam Burgess is the most influential middle forward in the game. Tom and George have surged back into form.
Under the old structure rivals jammed the middle to combat the power of the three Burgess brothers.
Spreading the ball has forced opponents to the edges to defend against the threat there.
This, in turn, has opened the middle for the Burgess brothers to play through the bigger spaces. And right behind them comes Damien Cook.
It makes it tough for teams to defend Souths now.
The evidence is not only their third place on the ladder but their status as the best attacking team in the NRL after the end of the premiership rounds.
The resurrection is complete, even if the job is only half done.
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