Except it is full, Stadium Australia can really feel like a really lonely place. When it is empty, or near it, it feels eerie and silent and soulless.
For South Sydney, down 30 in opposition to the Panthers on a chilly Thursday night time two days after the coach acquired sacked and with solely the diehards and 74,000 empty seats for firm, it will be simple to get misplaced among the many plastic, concrete and distress.
Unusual issues occurred within the 42-12 loss to Penrith, the form of abiding, unnatural strangeness that solely comes when a membership is completely on tilt.
Dean Hawkins harm his quad kicking off. Damien Prepare dinner was pressured to play fullback after Jye Gray succumbed to an ankle harm following a hip drop deal with.
Prop Tom Burgess hoofed the ball down area from his personal aspect of midway and had it pull up centimetres from the dead-ball line within the form of kick even the absent Nathan Cleary could be proud to name his personal.
The followers gave the aspect a standing ovation as they left the sphere at half-time down 18-12, determined to imagine and possibly even daring to hope.
Not for a win, thoughts you. Even the staunchest Rabbitoh couldn’t have anticipated that, not with a brand new coach coming in 48 hours earlier than recreation, not in opposition to Penrith.
However for a contest, possibly. For a few issues to construct on. For them to stroll away considering the Rabbitohs had been in the beginning of one thing.
However they would not get it. The Panthers poured it on. South Sydney’s dangerous habits reared up once more, those which have helped them lose 16 of their final 21 matches.
The Taylan Could strive was the imaginative and prescient of a aspect means down within the gap and by the top the brilliant begin simply added to the bitterness.
As robust because it was, this was the primary night time of the remainder of South Sydney’s life. The drums are beating louder and louder with each passing day that Wayne Bennett will return to the membership he led to a grand closing in 2021.
It is no fait accompli – even when his signature is introduced quickly, Bennett has backed out of a deal greater than as soon as earlier than in his adorned profession – however his return will deliver reminiscences of higher instances and hope for the longer term.
However that is nonetheless some time off, if it occurs in any respect. Issues may nonetheless worsen earlier than they get higher. There are nonetheless 4 months to go on this season and lots of, many video games to play.
Add all of it up and issues may get very grim certainly for Souths, as grim as they have been since their hellish first years of readmission, when each win was a treasure amidst the ocean of defeats.
It will not get that dangerous, nevertheless it’s a means off getting higher. The Rabbitohs had been already flat out getting a staff collectively earlier than this recreation and now if Grey and Hawkins are out long run they will be stretched to their very limits.
Latrell Mitchell’s return from suspension subsequent week will assist, even when any likelihood of him transferring to centre or five-eighth — which interim coach Ben Hornby denied was ever on the desk — has now been scuppered by the staff’s different accidents.
Hornby will assist as properly – he has a great temperament for this job, as arduous and imposing as it could appear. He was optimistic after the match and it appears as if he’ll deliver that angle as greatest he can within the months to return.
Hornby stated he may really feel the hassle from his aspect and so they did not need to lose by as a lot as they did. It is perhaps a tough factor for a Rabbitohs fan to just accept after conceding 42 straight factors, nevertheless it’s the form of assertion Hornby has to place on the market and his fees need to imagine regardless if it is true or not.
In the event that they had been one spray away from redemption, it will have occurred by now. They can’t be kicked any additional down and proper now all they’ve is one another.
It is a staff at all-time low in search of the street out of hell and the eye and hypothesis will not cease even when the losses proceed. The highlight will not fade as a result of with Souths it by no means actually can.
When some groups are dangerous sufficient for lengthy sufficient they will slide into the background however the Rabbitohs are too large a deal and too outstanding a aspect to ever slink into the shadows. Golf equipment like them are the bride at each marriage ceremony and the corpse at each funeral as a result of that is the worth you pay for being the pleasure of the league.
Bennett, if he does return, will deliver the promise of a brighter future. However earlier than that occurs there can be many frozen, lonely nights at Homebush.
