The pressure is already mounting on Rabbitohs’ coach Jason Demetriou with Souths facing an 0-2 start to the year against the Broncos amid a nightmare draw to start the season.
After their 36-24 loss to Manly in Round 1, Braith Anasta believes their clash with the Broncos on Thursday night is a must win game.
“The Bunnies can’t go 0-2,” Anasta said on NRL 360.
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“They’ve got the Roosters in Round 3. The coaches… I mean, he (Demetriou) was always under pressure after last year, heading into this year. This is an important game for them already.”
Paul Kent believes Demetriou and Souths need to start winning quick or the speculation around his future will only intensify.
“Look, the speculation about coaching futures is always up in the air now,” Kent said.
“It’s always up for grabs. And Demetriou is one of the coaches that was identified as coming into the season under pressure, given the spectacular collapse from last year. That’s what’s led to the pressure that’s on him now.
“Nathan Cleary spoke about it today, about Penrith. They don’t want to start the season 0-2 and suddenly start to lose touch with the top eight. It’s a dangerous place to be.
“The Cowboys did that last year. They started poor, they fell out of the top eight early, and they spent the whole season trying to play catch-up.
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“Teams sort of get halfway through the year and realise how tough it is to get back into the eight.
“And that’s where the Rabbitohs are going to find themselves if they lose this weekend. And that’s going to bring on the pressure that’s already there.
“There’s already talk. Once talk starts, it’s just got the snowball effect. It’ll just keep going. It’ll build momentum. It’ll get bigger. And it’ll go on.
“And the only way to stop it is to win games. That’s the only way any coach can stop the speculation about their future is by winning games.”
However, James Hooper pointed out that Souths could struggle to win more than one game in the opening eight weeks of the competition with clashes against most of last year’s top eight ahead.
“They’ve got a nightmare draw,” Hooper said.
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“So, over the course of the next seven weeks, their opponents, they’ve got to play the top four sides from last year, and then they’ve got to play six out of those seven games against top eight teams from last year.
“Brisbane, Roosters, Bulldogs, Warriors, Sharks, Storm Panthers.
“That’s a tough start, given the base that they’re coming from at the back end of last year, with so much speculation and that many questions asked about exactly what was going on at the club.”
Anasta has no doubt Souths have the squad to be contenders, but after their horror fade-out from first to missing the finals last year, they have lost confidence in their ability.
“Well, they’re a team with no confidence because of the result last year heading into this year,” Anasta said.
“So, they need momentum and they need to build that confidence back up and the only way to do that is to win games.
“They’ve got the squad. We all know that. It’s not like, for instance, you’re leading the competition after 11 rounds last year.
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“They’ve got the exact same team with Jack Wighton in it. So, they know they can do it. Everyone here knows they can do it. Their fans know they can do it, but they’ve got to prove to themselves that they can do it.
“And right now, it looks like they’re doubting themselves, and that’s what they’ve got to fix. And it sounds like an easy fix, but it really isn’t.
Dean Ritchie warned Souths need to win games before the Origin period because they could lose quite a few players in that arena.
“They need to get some points too because of the State of Origin,” Ritchie said.
“They’re going to lose Latrell, Cam Murray, Jai Arrow will be back and Keaon Koloamatangi.
“They’ll lose four or five players, so, they’ve got to get points in the bank now because they know around that time they will be pillaged.”
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