GI - I need to earn back respect to regain Kangaroos berth:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/02/24...-earn-back-respect-to-regain-kangaroos-berth/
from Zero Tackle,
Can “Super Coach” Wayne Bennett take Souths back to the top?
I’m sure South Sydney fans won’t need reminding but their 2018 season ended one game short of a Grand Final appearance – at the hands of bitter rivals the Roosters.
Although the full time scoreline read 12-4 to indicate a close contest, in reality, the Roosters were the far superior team.
That’s not to say they blew their traditional rivals off the park, but you never felt like the Rabbitohs would be the team to tackle the Storm that next Sunday.
Despite the loss, no one can say that the Bunnies had a poor 2018. Quite the opposite.
Given that the entered the new season with a rookie coach and were seen as relative outsiders, I’d argue that they did very well.
A side headlined by Burgess, Reynolds and Inglis finished equal top of the competition in the regular season before pushing the red hot Storm to the limit in their opening finals game.
They did make hard work of their week two finals game but ultimately bounced an in form and confident Dragons side coming off a monster win.
Again though, you never really got the feeling that they were going to beat the Storm or Roosters on the final day of the season.
Their 2019 prospects took a hit before a ball was even kicked in 2018 when
Angus Crichton announced he was signing for the Roosters.
Crichton went on to become a New South Wales and Kangaroos level second rower.
They’ve also said goodbye to 2018 top try scorer
Robert Jennings.
So what have the Bunnies done to ensure that they can go that one step forward in 2019?
Step forward the most success NRL coach of all time. One
Wayne Bennett.
Souths took the unusual step of signing the former Broncos and Dragons Premiership winning coach despite for 2020 and beyond, given that it looked unlikely that
Anthony Seibold would re-sign.
Despite leading the club to a brilliant season in his first year at the helm, the plan always looked to be to move Seibold on once Bennett’s name became a possibility.
67 events of will he/won’t he later and the swap was made for 2019, thus ending one of the most ludicrous off-season stories in recent memory.
The Bunnies arguably overachieved in 2018 by making the prelim final, however I’d find it very hard to lodge a case against them now having a side capable of lifting the ultimate prize on early October.
With an all star centre or fullback in
Greg Inglis, the game’s best attacking number nine in Damian Cook, three Burgess brothers in the middle of their pack, two star halves in Reynolds and Walker, and the quickly emerging Cam Murray, their is a genuine title-winning nucleus right there.
Throw in
Dane Gagai, youngsters such as
Campbell Graham and
Braidon Burns as well as the seemingly ageless
John Sutton and anything other than a top four finish will be seen as a failure.
The above said, for mine, the Bunnies best weapon comes in the form of their coach.
Seibold had a brilliant 2018 season but I’ve found few Bunnies fans who believe they came out as losers in the recent trade. Sure, Seibold is much younger than the seven time title-winner, but Souths are looking for success now.
In terms of their 2019 Premiership chances, the Bunnies are now better placed under Bennett.
This is simply due to the fact that Bennett has shown time and time again that he knows how to get sides to the decider, and he knows how to win them.
By all rights Bennett should have eight titles under his belt, if not for literal last minute
Michael Morgan magic in 2016.
That golden point loss was his only defeat in eight visits to the big dance.
Although Bennett failed to see through his ultimately disappointing role with the Knights, he will be better remembered for taking a talented yet unspectacular Dragons team to a drought breaking title win.
I mean no disrespect to the Dragons team of 2010 but Bennett was able to get more out of that squad of players than their reputations probably suggested.
I’d certainly argue that the South Sydney squad of 2019 is superior.
So what is it that Bennett will do so differently to Seibold to take Souths back to the promised land?
I don’t know … but then again I also don’t have 809 first grade names under my coaching belt, nor do I have almost a decade worth of silver wear.
If there are any weaknesses in the games of South’s best and brightest, Bennett and his team will find them. They’ll limit them and in some cases turn them into strengths.
Bennett has a history of turning decent first graders into stars.
Again, with all due respect to
Ben Hornby and
Jamie Soward, but I can’t see many other coaches who can win a title with perhaps the fifth or sixth best halves combination in the league.
Cronk and Keary combined to form the best halves combo in 2018. I’d say that Munster and Croft would have been in that 5th to 8th category but they ultimately fell short. Cronk and Munster didn’t …
If Souths fail to fire in 2019 I’m very confident in suggesting it won’t be through any coaching inexperience.
There are few better at extracting the best out of his players and as shown by his incredible record of being able to sign superstars, players want to play under him.
Despite the loss of Crichton and Jennings, South look just that little bit stronger heading into the new season under Bennett’s watch.
