By BRENDON MORRIS
What on Earth has happened to the Rabbitohs?
Cast your mind back to the March 12, 2016 at around 7:30pm. South Sydney have just finished putting on a clinic – scoring nine tries and utterly dismantling a hapless Newcastle Knights outfit. This on the back of a 32 point shellacking dealt out to the reigning minor premiers the week before, led all and sundry to believe the Sam Burgess return could be a catalyst for a monumental 2016 campaign. In the months that have followed, the Rabbits have managed to muster just three wins and have looked completely bereft of confidence, continuity and even basic skill. So what went wrong?
There are several theories being bandied about by the media from the ineptitude of Madge Maguire to third party payments not being delivered to certain marquee signings but, in my opinion, the reality is far simpler than this and relates to the loss of one player;
Isaac Luke
Nobody disputes the fact that Cameron McInnes is a serviceable hooker with the potential to develop into something more significant, but the loss of Isaac Luke has been considerably underestimated by the Rabbits’ faithful. In the premiership year of 2014, Luke had nine try assists compared with just the one for McInnes this year. In that same year, Luke had 1667 run metres from 156 dummy half runs with McInnes running 92 times for 958 metres. Finally, Luke had 10 line break assists compared to just the one from McInnes.
In McInnes’ defence, he offers a more stable influence with far fewer errors and far more tackles than Luke (admittedly this could relate to the fact that the Rabbits rarely see the ball in attack in 2016), but the Rabbitohs have lost their pivotal third attacking option. The result of this is that noted game manager, Adam Reynolds has had to take a more creative role, and the team’s defensive and offensive structure has suffered. The long term implications of this are that the attributes which earned Reynold’s his maiden origin call up this year could be eroded by the constant pressure of changing the fortunes of the struggling club.
The great news is that former Rabbits mentor Jason Taylor has handed them a lifeline in the mistreatment and subsequent dumping of NSW Origin star Robbie Farah. Robbie is a ready-made replacement for Isaac Luke as he possesses a great kicking game, a naturally attacking mindset and added leadership which has been sorely lacking at the burrow this year. If Shane Richardson has any chance of reinvigorating the list and making the Rabbitohs competitive in 2017, his first item of business should be to acquire the signature of Farah.
