Wayne Bennett orders in as Rabbitohs dine out on Broncos

Watching from a distance, Wayne Bennett still had the last laugh over Anthony Seibold.

South Sydney’s Tom Burgess celebrates after scoring a try against Brisbane at ANZ Stadium on Friday night. Picture: Getty Images

Watching from a distance, Wayne Bennett still had the last laugh over Anthony Seibold.

And in the grudge match of the season at ANZ Stadium, South Sydney players piled more pressure on their former coach as the bumbling Brisbane Broncos fell to another embarrassing defeat.

While the 28-10 win kept the Rabbitohs in the top eight, it sent the Broncos crashing to their 10th defeat in 11 games since the return from the competition shutdown. In that time their only win came against last-placed Canterbury.

And while Brisbane’s bosses have said previously that there won’t be a review until after the season, it only raises further questions about for how much longer this train wreck can go on before someone steps in and ends it.

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Seibold came up with plenty of positives to take away from the result post-match.

You could well argue he is missing the point.

Because it was left to young dummy half Jake Turpin to give the entire club a reality check when Turpin was asked about those positives.

“We hear the same every week,” Turpin said. “There is a lot of effort but effort in the NRL isn’t good enough.”

As bad as it was, it won’t go down the Broncos’ worst performances of the year. But in saying that Souths were hardly at the standard of what the Roosters were when they put 59 unanswered points on the Broncos back in Round 4. Or what the Tigers did to them with a 48-0 shutout a few weeks back, or Melbourne’s 46-8 pummelling a fortnight ago.

With assistant coach Jason Demetriou standing in for the suspended Bennett on this occasion, the Rabbitohs went on a first-half rampage to lead 20-6 at the break.

And while the second half turned into a bit of a slog, it was Brisbane’s pitiful defensive effort in the opening 40 minutes that let them down terribly.

The Rabbitohs built their win on the back of discipline and a tremendous wet-weather kicking game from halves Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker.

Demetriou said he spoke “to the big fella” after the game.

The response?

“He just said, ‘congratulations, the boys did a great job’,” Demetriou said.

“Everything we spoke about during the week was about putting them inside their 20 and taking our chances. They handled the conditions really well.”

The three tries Souths scored in the first half exposed a standard of defence that was an embarrassment at NRL level.

In particular, the third try scored by replacement forward Mark Nicholls was a disgraceful effort from the middle forwards.

Nicholls couldn’t believe his luck as he took a first-tackle settler off a tap close to the line and stepped his way through.

Souths forwards worked hard for the victory and it will be another confidence boost for them.

While the small crowd at ANZ Stadium gave Seibold a cheeky wave in the final minute before fulltime, the under pressure coach must be thinking how on earth it ended up like this. The Broncos are just so devoid of confidence right now that as soon as any pressure is applied they just fall apart.

It shames what this club was built on when they won all their six premierships under Bennett.

When Bennett coached the Broncos there was pride in the club’s spirit and in particular the effort of the players.

But now it seems that’s gone and the results are not reflective of where a squad this powerful should be.

Souths’ first try went to Dane Gagai after a nice left edge shift but it was hardly breathtaking stuff.

Adam Reynolds scored their next when he followed after a Jaxson Paulo kick and the skipper won the chase. Nicholls’ try came next with Brisbane’s only first-half four-pointer coming from by centre Herbie Farnworth.

In the second half big Tom Burgess scored another well deserved try for Souths.

The contest between Brisbane superstar David Fifita and Souths five-eighth Cody Walker made for fascinating viewing.

In his first game back from injury, the new $3.5m man brushed past Walker for an early second-half try that gave the Broncos some hope.

Then there was a midfield confrontation when Walker went at it with Fifita and Matt Lodge.

Walker then forced two goal line dropouts against Fifita, pushing him over the dead ball line and then sliding him back in goal.

There was sure no mistaking that referee Grant Atkins went out with a point to prove – and did he make it.

All up, there were 13 six-to-go calls and 15 penalties in the match. It got to the point where it became frustrating to watch.

In Channel 9 commentary, Phil Gould didn’t miss as he accused Atkins of having been programmed wrong.

“He is way too pedantic. He is looking for penalties that aren’t there. He is having way too much influence on the game.”

The Daily Telegraph