{"id":382669,"date":"2024-04-07T23:58:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T23:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=382669"},"modified":"2024-04-08T01:02:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T01:02:55","slug":"gal-the-one-man-who-can-turn-rabbitohs-rabble-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=382669","title":{"rendered":"Gal: The one man who can turn Rabbitohs rabble around"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL great<\/em><\/strong> PAUL GALLEN<\/em><\/strong><\/a> will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in tonight at 10.40pm (AEST) following a bumper round five!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago I penned a column for Wide World of Sports saying people may have jumped the gun on South Sydney's demise<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

I argued the Rabbitohs<\/a> had plenty of time to turn it around after losing their first three games to the Broncos, Roosters, and Manly – three teams I think will be around the top four this year.<\/p>\n

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The following week they beat Canterbury, although that win was far from convincing.<\/p>\n

And after a pretty dismal performance against the Warriors in round five, the drums are well and truly beating for coach Jason Demetriou<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I'm still not going to write them or the coach off completely – I've learnt to never say never in this game, and stranger things have happened than South Sydney turning this around.<\/p>\n

But if they lose to Cronulla this week things are getting dire.<\/p>\n

One win from six games heading into the bye is not good enough \ufefffor a club with that quality of roster.<\/p>\n

After the bye they have games against the Storm and Panthers, so there's a good chance they won't win any of their next three.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It's not entirely about the results – if they lose the game but show some real heart in defence and put in a strong performance, the coach might survive.\ufeff<\/p>\n

I've heard Rabbitohs fans calling into radio stations over the past week calling for players to be sacked.<\/p>\n

I'm telling you now that won't happen – I've never seen it happen before and it won't happen with the Bunnies now.<\/p>\n

It's much easier for a club to sack one coach and pay him out nine months' salary – which is reportedly the clause in Demetriou's contract – than sack a handful of players and have to pay out millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\"Slater's<\/p>\n

If Demetriou does go, it will be interesting to see who the club tries to replace him with.<\/p>\n

Sam Burgess might come back to the burrow at some point but I can't see it happening this year or next.<\/p>\n

He's still a rookie head coach and he would have a multi-year contract with Warrington in the Super League.<\/p>\n

I also think the Rabbitohs need an experienced head coach\ufeff with the playing group there at the moment.<\/p>\n

It was a mess last year when stories were getting leaked about Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker getting preferential treatment from Demetriou.<\/p>\n

Whether they were true or not, those kind of rumours just don't get \ufeffleaked at strong NRL clubs.<\/p>\n

Look at the Roosters for example – they somehow kept Cooper Cronk's fitness a secret right up until the 2018 grand final, when he played with a busted shoulder.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThat's just one example but it shows how strong clubs are able to keep information in-house that they don't want leaked to the media or the public.<\/p>\n

It comes down to leadership, and that's why I think the Rabbitohs would benefit from having an experienced campaigner come in to do the job.<\/p>\n

\"Wayne<\/p>\n

There's rumours linking Craig Bellamy to the job but personally I can't see that happening – although like I said, never say never.<\/p>\n

The obvious choice is Wayne Bennett.<\/p>\n

He doesn't have a job lined up for next year and in my opinion he's the greatest rugby league coach of all time.<\/p>\n

If the stories about preferential treatment are true, and it is having a negative impact on the Rabbitohs, Bennett could come in and nip that in the bud straight away.<\/p>\n

Don't forget he led the Rabbitohs to a grand final just before leaving the club in 2021.<\/p>\n

He is the sort of coach who can \ufeffget players like Latrell and Cody back to their best, which is what the Bunnies desperately need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382674,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382669\/revisions\/382674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}