Dear Souths Rabbitohs fans - it's never dull being one of your lot, is it?
How you must long for the relative, heady heights of 2012 to 2022.
Eleven seasons of bliss compared to what is happening now!
Premiers in 2014, runners up in 2021 and preliminary finalists in six of the other nine campaigns in what, with hindsight, looks like a golden period for the club.
They even made the finals in one other year! In 2015 they finished in seventh but went straight out of the finals. It was the start of a gradual dip that would see Michael McGuire replaced with Anthony Seibold and then Wayne Bennett in his first stint. Both coaches steadied the ship.
Eleven seasons, nine finals campaigns, one title and another silver medal. How many NRL clubs' fans would dream of such a time to be alive?
Souths were, in many ways, the silent achievers. While the Storm, Roosters and then, Panthers have been getting plaudits galore in most of the last decade and a half, the boys from Redfern were one of the most consistent sides in the National Rugby League during that time.
We've blinked and Alex Johnston is close to becoming the greatest try scorer in rugby league history. Considering the game is all about scoring more points than the opposition then this is no mean feat for him but also his club. I am sure he wouldn't have achieved such a milestone playing for Wests Tigers during his career!
In 2022, Jason Demetriou took over from Wayne Bennett. ‘JD' did an excellent coaching apprenticeship, had success at more or less every level, until he landed in the Rabbitohs hot-seat.
His first season kept the status quo going in terms of preliminary finals appearances, but they had finished in seventh. And they also achieved that without a certain Adam Reynolds playing in the halves. He had left for Brisbane.
It's all too easy to see Souths difficulties starting with the departure of the erstwhile veteran halfback, especially when the Broncos replaced Souths in the top four and finals in 2023.
A team dynamic relies on a lot more than just the identify of the player in jersey number seven, but it's a great place to start when it comes to analysing where things have gone wrong in Sydney's South.
In 2022, Lachlan Ilias played the vast majority of the clubs' games (26 of them including finals) at halfback.
A year earlier, he'd only made his debut in Round 25 of the following season. A look at Ilias's career now shows that was a stand out season for the current Dragons half.
In the middle of that ‘break-out' year, Ilias was substituted at half-time against the team that were to become his future suitors, the Dragons. Souths were 32-0 down. It was a sign that the fortunes of the team were being closely linked to his performances.
He bounced back to help his team to the prelims, but in 2023, they would miss out on the finals completely, despite Ilias featuring in 24 matches.
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2024 was a nightmare year for the young Greek international.
Two losses to start the season saw him dropped to reserve grade, and to make matters worse, he broke his leg playing in the NSW Cup. By the end of the year, he'd left the club.
The second half of 2024 was also full of rumours that Bennett was returning to the Rabbitohs hot-seat before it was officially announced. Rumours also circulated that he was ‘involved' in some recruitment decisions at the club before he arrived.
And that brings us to Lewis Dodd.
In May, 2024, it was announced that the St Helens half was joining the Rabbits on a three-year deal.
The press has speculated that the Englishman is taking up $700k of their salary cap per season. Yet he wasn't even used for a full game at the weekend, when they were chasing the win against the Sharks.
It was only his fifth appearance in a cardinal red and myrtle green NRL jersey, and hardly a show of faith from Coach Bennett. If the speculated salary is correct then Dodd has cost the Bunnies $140k per game.,
There are persistent rumours in the English game that Souths' may have accidentally signed the ‘wrong Lewis'.
Mikey Lewis at Hull KR is regarded by many in the UK as a better player in the halves than Dodd.
Dodd is only a year younger than his fellow English patriot, yet Mr Lewis has played for England on five occasions in the last two seasons, had a break out year in 2021, and has won player of the year plus a Man of Steel Award.
Due to the money spent on Mr Dodd, it's hard to see why this recruitment happened. (And that's putting it extremely politely).
There doesn't seem to be many St Helens fans who were upset that he left the club. Many agree he was excellent against Penrith in the World Club Challenge of 2023. There is also consensus that a season-ending Achilles injury on Good Friday of 2022 did a lot to stunt his career progression, with the winning drop goal at the foot of the mountains in Penrith nine-months later a rare, post-injury high point.
If it was a case of mistaken identity on behalf of recruiters at Redfern, then whoever did it has an awful lot of questions to answer.
Of course, one side of the argument is that Bennett knew about the signing.
Yet did Bennett know he was going back to Souths as far back as May 2024? Also, remember the viral clip that saw the master coach introducing himself to Dodd on day one of pre-season with the question “Who are you?”
Hardly a sign that he had pored over the players' footage for weeks on end, is it?
More likely is that Bennett timed his first arrival and departure to coincide with the pending transfer-out of Reynolds and the last of the Burgess boys who were such an important fabric of the club for a decade.
Another sign that Bennett knows his current squad is not where it should be, both in terms of recruitment but also condition, are reports of what pre-season at the club prior to this campaign.
You will recall many players had dropped significant weight and the Rabbitohs had an excellent start to the year, relative to their current predicament.
All of their six wins this year were in the bank by Round 11. The vanquished include the Dolphins, Panthers, Roosters and Broncos!
Extremely likely is that Bennett knew he had to get some wins on the board early before other teams got their seasons' going, and all the injuries in his own side kicked in (and they have, in a big way).
Injuries in any given season can sometimes occur because players have had some poor athletic development and attitudes towards the 'one percenters' in the years prior.
A slight drop in standards, if repeated daily, can have catastrophic results further down the line.
To support this theory, you may also remember, the chief of the Burgess brothers, Sam, announced he was leaving the club in August 2023. He was an assistant coach at the time and in late August, his head coach, Demetriou was forced to dismiss claims that star players Lattrell Mitchell and Cody Walker ‘ran the club'.
It was reported Burgess had raised concerns with Demetriou about the so called ‘preferential treatment' afforded to Mitchell and Walker, other ‘cultural' issues within the team and that other senior players had joined that particular chorus.
A finish of 16th a year later suggests Burgess may have had a point.
I was at an event deep in Rabbitohs territory this week, with plenty of serious Bunnies fans in sight.
We were farewelling a fan of over 90 years, John Bissell.
The rumour went that nobody was permitted to attend the funeral if they supported the Sydney Roosters. Others said that the attendance at the service, was bigger than at most Chooks' matches! Of course, Mr Bissell was sent to his final resting place along with a Souths cap.
When I raised the thought that Bennett has already started to fix things, they were quick to shoot me down!
I argue that, it is very possible that, on his arrival this year, Wayne Bennett – who has got far more right than he has, wrong in his career, and possesses a great eye for a player – recognised a serious culture change as well as personnel change was required at Redfern.
A deep analysis shows that Bennett's team have had plenty of close losses along the way. Last week, despite being on the wrong end of a 15-3 penalty count, they lost by two points to the finals bound Sharks.
At the same point compared to last season, Bennett's bunnies have played one more game and conceded 88 less points than Demetriou's men a year ago. A sign they are more resilient when you drill down into many of their performances this year.
The ladder doesn't suggest it has been a great season, but there are plenty of myrtle green shoots!
But, Souths fans are a passionate lot and many just can't see that, yet.
Lee Addison is a former club coach at Sea Eagles and Panthers and the founder of rugbyleaguecoach.com.au. His recently published book ‘Rugby League Coach' is available now on Amazon and www.rugbyleaguecoach.com.au
