NRL 2024: South Sydney Rabbitohs board face brave call over Jason Demetriou’s future
After a tumultuous week, things only got worse for South Sydney. Despite everything, they kept fighting. But Jason Demetriou can cop only so much and it has to be resolved – one way or another, writes David Riccio.
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Usually when a coach is sacked he’s lost the dressing room.
The players have rolled over as a collective and they surrender in the reassurance that they will be back with their kit bag tomorrow, but their boss will soon be gone.
But on what we saw last night, with South Sydney captain Cameron Murray ruled out at halftime, with one healthy player remaining on their bench and star fullback Latrell Mitchell suspended, is this really the game that the Rabbitohs decide to sack their coach?
It will be the bravest call the Rabbitohs board will ever make.
If this was the 80-minutes that decided head coach Jason Demetriou’s fate, it will take a huge call to declare it’s all over.
Yes, they lost. Again.
It was the club’s fifth defeat in the opening six games, their worst start to a season since 2008.
And maybe that’s enough for the board to argue it’s all over.
Savvy enough, smart enough and litigious enough, the Rabbitohs board are saying they’ll make a call at their own speed, not that of the media’s.
However, the speculation, the agendas, the rumours, it all has to stop.
Just make a call.
The plan before last night by Souths was to use this upcoming bye round to take a breath and thrash out a way forward.
We were told that what the board wanted to see against the Sharks was spirit from the players. They wanted to see fight and resolve.
The board got all that and more.
In the 8th minute Jacob Host left the field after splitting his head into teammate Jack Wighton.
The Rabbitohs led 6-4 right up until the 19th minute.
They then lost winger Tyrone Munro to a suspected fractured collarbone. Every coach in the game knows how difficult it is to over for the loss of a winger, a position that has become the more specialist than any other.
The Rabbitohs bench resembled a scene from M*A*S*H when in the 25th minute front-rower Junior Tatola suffered a syndesmosis injury. He spent the rest of the night in a moon boot.
The Bunnies then lost debutant Jye Gray to a HIA in the 28th minute. It was only when the rookie fullback left the field that the Sharks took the lead 10-6, nine before halftime.
If we’re looking for signs of ill-discipline it couldn’t be found in the Rabbitohs 85 per cent completion rate, equal to Cronulla, at halftime.
Things only got worse for Souths.
Of all the players that Demetriou could ill-afford to lose it was captain courageous Cam Murray. He failed to return from the sheds at halftime after failing his HIA.
Amid all this, the Rabbitohs kept fighting.
They failed to wave the white flag. When Taane Milne crossed in the second-half it was a 10-point ball game with just over 20-minutes remaining.
Even when the Sharks kicked to their biggest lead of 28-12, the Rabbitohs kept coming when big Tom Burgess crossed with 11-minutes remaining and Isaiah Tass with six-minutes to go to make it 28-22.
The Rabbitohs have been trying to do the right thing by Demetriou.
They rate him so highly, as a person and as a coach, that they want to give him as long as possible to silence the noise. So they should, given they thought so much of him, that they extended his contract only last year.
Yet Demetriou can cop only so much.
His 27-second press conference last Friday was the surest sign that he’s emotionally exhausted from the pressure and speculation.
The longer it goes on, the more pain there is, for everyone involved.
Even Mal Meninga, one of several names being pushed forward to take over the Bunnies, is suddenly wondering whether this is a club he wants to get involved with, largely due to the fact that neither has anyone at Souths shot down the suggestion, nor have they confirmed it.
“I’ve gone underground with all this, because obviously my name is associated with it,’’ Meninga said on Fox League prior to kick-off last night.
“Has anyone else from the club spoken about it at all?
“That’s a red flag for me as well. If no one is willing to step up and talk on behalf of the club and tell them (fans) what is happening, particularly with Jason, that to me is a sign that you maybe shouldn’t get involved with that club.’’
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