Jason Demetriou rips Souths players amid Latrell Mitchell horror show in NRL loss
The Souths coach called his side's performance in their 28-18 loss to the Broncos "a horror show".
South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has labelled his side's performance against the Broncos as "a horror show". The Rabbitohs came into 2024 as one of the favourites for the NRL premiership but now are 0-2 for the season and their performances have left a lot to be desired.
Demetriou was livid at full-time after Souths made a litany of errors that saw their completion rate sit only marginally above 60 per cent in their 28-18 loss to the Broncos. The pressure is mounting on the Bunnies coach after missing the eight last year and in turn becoming the first team in NRL history to do so after leading the competition after 11 rounds. Souths have only won four of their last 15 matches despite a talent-stacked roster.
On Thursday night the Bunnies were shocking in the first half and were somewhat fortunate to go in just 12-0 down at the break, making nine errors alone in the first half. Costly mistakes early in sets, poor passing, an unnecessary Damien Cook sin bin and too many missed tackles left the Souths coach scratching his head.
If that wasn't bad enough, a complete brain fade led to the Bunnies being penalised for blockers as they put in an attacking kick. Fox League commentator Warren Smith said: "A blocker there, the Rabbitohs. That’s just about the full house of mental mistakes they’ve made in this first half." The Rabbitohs came out firing in the second half, quickly levelling things up but once Brisbane regrouped and again took the lead, from there a win for Souths never looked likely.
Jason Demetriou slams 'schoolboy errors'
Following the match the Rabbitohs coach said the performance was an improvement on round one but still nowhere near good enough, stating that "schoolboy errors" continue to kill them. "We're just shooting ourselves in the foot," Demetriou said in his press conference.
"Whether it’s not feeding the scrum properly, or first tackle errors, kicking it into our own player, penalties for blocking - it was a horror show of little things that kept putting pressure on ourselves... We're not going to beat anyone with 56 per cent completions - we’ve got to take ownership of that." The Rabbitohs finished the game with 63 per cent completions, while the Broncos were only marginally better at 72 per cent.
Latrell Mitchell had a game to forget
Another concern for Souths lies in the poor early season form of star fullback Latrell Mitchell who once again delivered a rather underwhelming performance. The Rabbitohs fullback scored a consolation try late in the game but it did little to make up for a couple of howlers at the back. In one instance Mitchell bizarrely chose to toe the ball ahead while trying to clean up a Broncos kick but only succeeded in gifting possession back to Brisbane.
The fullback then had another shocker with the game hanging in the balance at 16-12 with 17 minutes to play. Jesse Arthurs put in a speculative kick after the Broncos launched an attack from inside their own half, with the ball heading straight towards Mitchell at fullback.
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But the Souths star made an absolute meal of it, misjudging the trajectory completely, overrunning the ball. Mitchell turned and chased in vain as Walsh swooped in on the error to pick up his second try of the night. The horror moments showcased the common criticism of Mitchell, that his moments of brilliance are overshadowed by too many errors and mental lapses.
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