{"id":382927,"date":"2024-04-08T22:42:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T22:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=382927"},"modified":"2024-04-09T00:03:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T00:03:09","slug":"slaters-switch-to-take-walker-out-of-his-comfort-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=382927","title":{"rendered":"Slater's switch to take Walker 'out of his comfort zone'"},"content":{"rendered":"

League great Billy Slater<\/a> believes Cody Walker<\/a> needs to be taken "out of his comfort zone" to change the fortunes of a looming disaster at South Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs sit last on the ladder with speculation rife about Jason Demetriou's future<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lachlan Ilias was dropped as halfback after round two and is now out of contention after breaking his leg in NSW Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Alleged Burgess 'kerfuffle' \ufeffinside Russell Crowe's box<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Gould drops Latrell bombshell after suspension\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Prized Winx foal smashes Aussie record at auction<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

His replacement, Dean Hawkins, has failed to improve the Bunnies as coach Demetriou continues to look for answers to rescue his job and the season.<\/p>\n

At the weekend, Slater flagged a need to "shake up" the Rabbitohs and doubled down on his view that new recruit Jack Wighton needs to be partnered with Walker in the halves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"When your team's not performing, the players are under pressure, the coach's under pressure and I just think it's a great opportunity to reset and make some changes," he said on Nine's The Billy Slater podcast<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"They don't have to be dropped changes. I think Jack Wighton needs to come a little bit closer to the football, he's a wholehearted player and that's exactly what they need at the moment.<\/p>\n

"I would play Jack Wighton on the left-hand side of the field \ufeffin the halves and I would move Cody Walker over to the other side and get him out of his comfort zone and just play a different style of game."<\/p>\n

\"Gus'<\/p>\n

The change for Walker would be a brave move from Demetriou, considering how lethal the five-eighth has been on the left.<\/p>\n

His job has been made more difficult by the three-week suspension of Latrell Mitchell<\/a>, with Walker, Mitchell and Alex Johnston normally combining for a superstar left edge over the years.<\/p>\n

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

NSW Cup sensation Jye Gray is expected to replace Mitchell at fullback, with Slater singing his praises. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"He's a young Queensland boy, he's not very tall but he's not a small guy," he said.<\/p>\n

"He's built quite well and the two attributes I've seen from watching him play in the NSW Cup is he's very fast and energetic, he's going to be in the game; and he's tough, he puts his body on the line.<\/p>\n

"So I think it's a great opportunity to blood the young fella at fullback and change the halves up a little bit, you might spark something."<\/p>\n

\"Demetriou<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs will host Cronulla on Saturday, determined to lift themselves off the bottom of the ladder and reverse what's been a horrible run of form.<\/p>\n

A horrendous end to the season last year bundled them out of finals contention, despite being one of the premiership favourites.<\/p>\n

Despite the obvious concern, Slater explained from his past experiences, there's always a \ufeffchance to turn the momentum around.<\/p>\n

"I was a part of a team back in 2012 that lost five in a row \ufeffin the middle of the season, and we ended up winning the premiership, it's not the end," he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/the-billy-slater-podcast\/qld-injuries-mounting\/embed<\/a><\/p>\n

"It can be turned around, and there's enough class, there's enough quality of player in the South Sydney Rabbitohs squad to turn it around.<\/p>\n

"When you're down, you're down … but the one thing you need to do is you need to stick together. You need to stay galvanised as a unit and as a club and as a group but the unfortunate thing for the South Sydney Rabbitohs is it's not just the opening five rounds.<\/p>\n

"This was happening at the end of last year, there was turmoil with Sam Burgess and what went on there.<\/p>\n

"There was some rumblings back in 2023\ufeff that something wasn't right at South Sydney and that's transferred into this season so if they're willing to get to the bottom of it, it's not the end of the road but it can fall away quick if you don't galvanise together."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

League great Billy Slater believes Cody Walker needs to be taken "out of his comfort zone" to change the fortunes of a looming disaster at […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382929,"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\/382927"}],"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=382927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382934,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382927\/revisions\/382934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}