After last year's heartbreaking grand final loss to the Panthers, Rabbitohs' star Cody Walker has kept relatively quiet.
Outside of dismissing speculation over a move to the Dolphins and adding a year to his time at the Rabbitohs as he prepares to take over the leading half role from the departed Adam Reynolds, Walker has simply prepared for the 2022 season, using the losing grand final as motivation.
In an interview with Foxsports, Walker has finally spoken out about life after the team's loss.
Following a disappointing end to the season, it would be understandable to move on from the match and focus on the upcoming season. Instead, Walker forced himself to watch the game multiple times.
He hoped that doing so will help him get over the hump in 2022. In particular, his game-changing intercept was something he focused on when replaying the match.
Walker was playing well in the match prior to his intercept pass. He was considered one of the likely recipients of the Clive Churchill Medal if Souths were able to come out on top. Instead, he had to stand and watch Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary accept the medal.
When asked about why he would relive the pain of last year's loss, Walker believed there was value in learning from mistakes and identifying areas of improvement.
"I just wanted to identify things that maybe I could have done better or things that I could have exploited more," Walker told the publication.
"But I tend to watch all of my games, I’m a bit of a footy head, I analyse a lot of footy. My kids like to watch it as well."
The rest of the team, however, hadn't placed as much focus on their grand final loss. Instead, they focused on the season as a whole and the ways their offence and defence can be improved. Walker elaborated on how his approach differed from the rest of the team.
"We went over our attack and our defence for the whole year, we didn’t touch on the grand final too much but personally, I touched on it,” he said.
"I didn’t speak to anyone about it but I watched it a couple of times and the disappointment of losing a grand final lights the fire in your belly to go one better and I’m sure I speak for everyone in the group that played in the grand final last year."
"That’s what is motivating us, we’ve identified some areas in our game where we can improve and get better, that’s going to help us win some games."
Another improvement South Sydney will be keen on is further development from young star Lachlan Ilias. Despite only playing in one game last season, he dominated the Dragons, scoring a try on debut. With another off-season under his belt, Walker is excited about the future of their young halfback.
"He’s a fairly talented kid, I was quite impressed with him last year," Walker said.
"Coming away with us (when the NRL season relocated to Queensland due to Covid) and not getting any game time and pretty much-doing pre-season for three or four months."
"For him to do a pre-season like that then turn out and play against the Dragons the way he did in that last round, it was quite impressive."
"He’s quite a level-headed kid and nothing phases him too much, got a good kicking game, fairly strong in the gym and that all helps with tackling some big backrowers that are going to come at him."
With Wayne Bennett gone, plenty of pressure will be heaped on Walker and other leaders in the team, as well as new coach Jason Demetriou for 2022.
The Rabbitohs kick-off their season with a clash against the Brisbane Broncos on March 11.
