The Rabbitohs have been accused of going away from coach Jason Demetriou’s game plan and not being honest with themselves.
Souths were first on the ladder after Round 11 last year but they nosedived to miss finals and the collapse reportedly triggered “deep reflection” within the club.
But they’ve picked up where they left off in 2024 with two abysmal performances to start the season and they sit winless at 16th on the ladder.
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The club has lost 11 of its past 15 matches and now face a brutal block of games against the Roosters, Bulldogs, Warriors, Sharks, Storm and Panthers.
The NRL 360 panel dissected the Rabbitohs’ mess and they called for genuine transparency within the club.
“If you produce a game like South Sydney played the other day, where errors… it was a pandemic across the team, it wasn’t just Lachlan Ilias,” Dave Riccio said.
“Knowing that South Sydney did some deep reflection work on the way the season panned out last year and they asked ‘what do we need to improve on? And from all the feedback we’ve received we need to be more open and honest with each other’s performances and when there’s an issue we need to step forward’.”
“I can’t help but think the leadership group have had a say on this decision (to drop Illias).”
Braith Anasta, who manages Illias, responded “have they looked at themselves” before Paul Kent called out the club.
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“Do we think they’re being honest, though? I don’t believe so,” Kent said.
“It’s one thing to say you’re being honest and some people might think they are, but I also tend to think there might be a few people who have kept a few things to themselves and haven’t really fronted up this year.
“The Rabbitohs problems haven’t been resolved from last season, they just have not been fixed. So you can talk about them sitting down and letting it all out and talk among each other about it, but it doesn’t look like they have.
“When the game plan is different from the game that gets played and a decision is made on the field to play differently, that doesn’t suggest to me that they’re being honest.
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“You look at other clubs and the guys who drive the culture, drive the culture. And there is sometimes a brutal honesty there, Melbourne are famous for it, Melbourne are the best at keeping each other accountable for their performance. That’s why Melbourne has been so successful for so long, because their honesty is 20:20 in regard to each other and the leadership group in Melbourne was the best we’d seen in two decades.
“I don’t know if Souths have the same transparency in the decisions they make and the way they try to drive the team.
“You can’t sit there and work a game plan and then it changes on the field because a couple of guys want to change things.’
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“It just can’t work that way and should be dealt with this week. (Ask) why did that happen? What’s happened to us? How come you guys decided to take it upon yourself? Illias sits there and loses all control once he gets out on the field.
“Don’t keep telling me they’re being honest about this and it’s all up front and hunky dory, there is something wrong there and until they sit down, and it has to come from someone in authority who sits down and says guys lets just clear it all out here and figure it out.
But at the moment, everyone is pretending it’s all honest and it’s rubbish.”
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