South Sydney coach apologises for 'liking' brutal comment about his own players
Two players were targeted in a savage social media spray after a game for the Bunnies earlier in the season.
South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has reportedly apologised to Jacob Host after accidentally 'liking' a disparaging Instagram post about the Rabbitohs forward and his former teammate Liam Knight. Both players were the targets of a savage spray from a supposed fan after a round 13 loss to Canberra in the NRL.
The supporter's comment was made on South Sydney's official Instagram page. It read: “We had Liam Knight and Jacob Host playing for us tonight. It’s a wonder we didn’t lose by 50 having those clowns pretending to be first graders.”
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It has since emerged that Demetriou has 'unliked' the comment, with the Souths coach explaining to the Sydney Morning Herald that he never meant to like it in the first place. Following the match in question against the Raiders - in which Souths lost 33-26 - Knight didn't play for the next six weeks and featured just one more time for the Bunnies, before being allowed to join the Bulldogs mid-season.
The same report says Demetriou has since told Host the comment 'like' was an accident and has apologised to the playing group for any misunderstanding. It's far from the only player-related issue the Rabbitohs coach is dealing with right now, with reports emerging that he has not been holding superstars Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker to the same standards as other teammates.
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The SMH claims the issue has caused ructions at the club, with Rabbitohs officials also reportedly unhappy about footage of Mitchell 'shot-gunning' a beer on-stage at a Luke Combs concert last Wednesday night. NRL 360 host Braith Anasta discussed the apparent turmoil at the club on Monday night's show and admitted he had heard similar whispers from various connections to the club.
“There’s a reason why you are a premier club and you aren’t winning, it’s not a coincidence,” Anasta said. “There’s a story that just broke that Latrell and Cody are not being held to the same standards as the other players in the team, this is getting louder.
“Discipline comes from standards, which comes from training, which comes from taking the standards set at training on to the footy field. They are last in errors, second last in completion rates.”
Anasta also took aim at Mitchell's apparent lack of effort during the round 25 loss to Newcastle on Sunday. The Bunnies' 29-10 drubbing featured a sin-bin and subsequent one game suspension for Mitchell's elbow to the back of Tyson Frizell's head, while the Rabbitohs fullback also made a number of costly defensive errors that led directly to Newcastle tries.
His effort was also thrown into question after Anasta showed what veteran league journalist Phil Rothfield described as a "damning" clip of Mitchell failing to push up in support after an attacking break from his side. “Tell me another fullback in the game who stands still like that and doesn’t support up the middle of the ruck,” Anasta said.
Rothfield added: "That is really damning video, it shows a lazy footballer to me and he is on over $1 million dollars, he hasn’t played much football... When you are on that sort of money, and he’s on double what (Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards is on, you’ve got to look at Edwards’ effort plays.
“They were total opposite to what we just saw... that was a desperation, season-defining game yesterday and from that video I saw, he didn’t really turn up.”
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