{"id":388644,"date":"2024-04-28T02:45:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T02:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388644"},"modified":"2024-04-28T04:05:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T04:05:49","slug":"cook-addresses-major-souths-issue-after-awful-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388644","title":{"rendered":"Cook addresses major Souths issue after &#039;awful&#039; display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/south-sydney-rabbitohs\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"South Sydney\">South Sydney<\/a> hooker <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/damien-cook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Damien Cook<\/a> has admitted he and his teammates are shaking their heads trying to work out the root of their on-field problems.<\/p>\n<p>On his return to the side after being dropped to the reserves, Cook made five runs as the Bunnies <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-south-sydney-rabbitohs-jason-demetriou-coach-loss-to-melbourne-storm\/3ff99909-836c-4fe3-8b69-eac437fd5ebe\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"were flogged 54-20 by the Storm\">were flogged 54-20 by the Storm<\/a> on Anzac Day.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on 2GB&#x27;s <em>Continuous Call Team<\/em> on Saturday afternoon, Cook agreed with Sharks great Paul Gallen&#x27;s assessment the Bunnies had been &quot;awful&quot; for a side as full of quality players as they are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FOLLOW LIVE: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/live-scores-2024-dolphins-knights-raiders-sharks-round-eight-news-updates-results-highlights\/15736906-6273-494e-bbaf-2d5c6106f245\" title=\"NRL round eight Sunday\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>NRL round eight Sunday<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-jackson-topine-lawsuit-canterbury-bulldogs-andrew-johns-billy-slater-criticism\/d7e0d12e-7517-424b-ac88-99947e3c9df7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;Not for everyone&#x27;: Joey&#x27;s passionate Bulldogs defence<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-benji-marshall-press-conference-wests-tigers-campbelltown-record-broncos\/8662dd11-ab16-4555-b0a7-0ed0fd726180\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;Don&#x27;t ask it&#x27;: Benji bites back at &#x27;silly question&#x27;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#x27;re shaking our heads trying to figure out what is going on here,&quot; he said. &quot;Why are we doing this and why are we playing like that?&quot;<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"98c27234-4768-49e8-a6f1-e20a7a08f819\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/98c27234-4768-49e8-a6f1-e20a7a08f819\" alt=\"Damien Cook in action for the Rabbitohs against the Storm on Anzac Day.\" data-width=\"3110\" data-height=\"1749\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cook said it was his side&#x27;s defensive resolve that needed the most work, and pointed to their performance against the Bulldogs as an example of when it all comes together.<\/p>\n<p>That 20-16 victory is their lone of the season. It&#x27;s also the fewest points they&#x27;ve conceded in a match. But a week later against the Warriors, they got pumped 34-4.<\/p>\n<p>That Warriors loss and their 48-6 loss to the Roosters in round three are comfortably their worst attacking efforts of the season. They&#x27;ve scored at least three tries in each of their other five matches,<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Our resilience to a second set of (defence) at the moment is not there,&quot; Cook said.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"495b70c5-80f9-4891-a404-5dca2fe7532e\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/495b70c5-80f9-4891-a404-5dca2fe7532e-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The Rabbitohs looking dejected during post-game formalities after the Anzac Day clash against the Storm.\" data-width=\"4886\" data-height=\"2748\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Go back a couple of weeks to our last victory against the Dogs, we defended almost 50 tackles inside our 20 and showed some great resilience &#8230; we lost that the week after.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&quot;(On Thursday against the Storm), we showed some good sets where we locked them in, but as soon as we gave them a six again or a penalty \u2026 it looked like we were under stress straight away.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>This poor start to the season, coupled with their disastrous back end of 2023 has led to well-publicised uncertainty around the future of coach Jason Demetriou.<\/p>\n<p>But Cook said Demetriou still had the confidence of the playing group.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.app.link\/NGHBKQkVweb\"><em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6351522897112\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/240424cook_frame_464.jpeg\" alt=\"Demetriou explains Cook recall\" data-vms-id=\"ref:clvd9kipq00040hr5x0f9wfnt\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think he&#x27;s got the whole support of the players (but) at the moment it&#x27;s just not happening,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;But we&#x27;ve still got a lot of confidence we can turn this around and click. We&#x27;ve got a great side on the roster, we just need to do what we&#x27;re trained to do come game day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&quot;At the moment, it&#x27;s not the best of times, but all we can do at the moment is keep going back to training and working hard.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He said the effects of David Furner&#x27;s arrival as defensive coach were already being felt.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;ll say he&#x27;s done a great job and made an impact \u2013 it might not look like it at the moment, and it&#x27;s only been one week, but I&#x27;m really loving the energy and his coaching.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The struggling Rabbitohs take on the Panthers at Accor Stadium on Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>South Sydney hooker Damien Cook has admitted he and his teammates are shaking their heads trying to work out the root of their on-field problems. <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388644\" title=\"Cook addresses major Souths issue after &#039;awful&#039; display\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":388646,"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\/388644"}],"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=388644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388650,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388644\/revisions\/388650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/388646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}