South Sydney: How They Did It

[Big Pete]

I thought it'd be interesting to break down all the individual pieces that went into Souths glory on Grand Final day and see what lessons can be learned or even appreciate where it all started from.

So I'll open by saying this premiership can be traced back to March 3, 2006 when Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes-a-Court where the club members supported their bid to privitise the club. Before they had any real influence on the club, Souths had won 3 wooden spoons and were spared a fourth when the Dogs were caught for cheating the salary cap.

I believe what Crowe and Holmes a Court brought to the club was an air of professionalism. Before then, Souths seemed like a club completely stuck in a by-gone era of chook raffles and the players had to make do with sub-par training facilities. Crowe and Holmes a Court really made a point of fixing that and of course had the players dress up in Armani suits much to the chagrin of the Rugby League public but it clearly had a mental affect on the players and they really started playing like an NRL club as opposed to a glorified NSW Cup side.

So I'll throw it open to you guys. What factors went into Souths Sydney success?

Pending on interest, we may take a look at other clubs in the past.

 

[Alec]

The Burgers

 

[Broncoman]

Development of junior talent and taking a gamble on youngsters such as Reynolds, Johnston and Walker played a part but I believe that the takeover and the coaching of McGuire was the biggest factor. Russell and Peter saved them from total oblivion and brought professionalism and modernisation that Piggins could only dare to dream of and McGuire's coaching was the final piece of the puzzle.

 

[Harry Sack]

The single biggest factor was what was highlighted in the original post. Russel and Peter buying in. It instantly gave the club a shine that it had been lacking since their re-admittance. Without even taking the field, the club was suddenly taken seriously again and that simple....adjustment of dressing the players in Armani seemed to instill a sense of pride in the jersey.

The one area they faltered in, IMO, was the appointment of Lang. It was an odd choice but then, they didn't have much choice given the Taylor incident, so you can't take too many points off them for that. It's an interesting journey if you look at the time line of it all and Madge was definitely the final piece of the puzzle. However, what happens if the Broncos (for whatever speculated reason) don't **** the Inglis deal? Does it ruin their chances to challenge? I don't think so. As fantastic a player as Greg is, he isn't the best signing they've made since being re-instated. That honour goes to the brothers Burgii....most importantly Sam, purely because he was the catalyst to bring the rest. Something I do wonder about though is, what would have happened last season if Coach hadn't lost his father? The team just didn't seem focused in that final game and I'm sure the loss effected the whole team. Through no fault of the coach might I add.

 

[vertigo]

To go a bit meta on the question, they did it by changing up what didn't work for them in prior finals exits.

2012	2013	2014
1. Greg Inglis 2. Nathan Merritt 3. Chris McQueen 4. Dylan Farrell 5. Andrew Everingham 6. John Sutton (c) 7. Adam Reynolds 8. Luke Burgess 9. Issac Luke 10. Roy Asotasi 11. Sam Burgess 12. Dave Taylor 13. Michael Crocker (c) 14. Nathan Peats 15. Dave Tyrrell 16. Eddy Pettybourne 17. Ben Lowe	1. Greg Inglis 2. Nathan Merritt 3. Bryson Goodwin 4. Dylan Walker 5. Dylan Farrell 6. John Sutton (c) 7. Adam Reynolds 8. Dave Tyrrell 9. Issac Luke 10. Luke Burgess 11. Sam Burgess (c) 12. Ben Te'o 13. Jeff Lima 14. Jason Clark 15. Roy Asotasi 16. Chris McQueen 17. George Burgess	1. Greg Inglis 2. Alex Johnston 3. Dylan Walker 4. Kirisome Auva'a 5. Lote Tuqiri 6. Luke Keary 7. Adam Reynolds 8. George Burgess 21. Apisai Koroisau 10. David Tyrrell 11. Ben Te'o 12. John Sutton (c) 13. Sam Burgess 14. Jason Clark 15. Kyle Turner 16. Chris McQueen 17. Thomas Burgess

Bold indicates new players and positional changes.

From memory there was a bit of doubt cast over whether their backline in previous years really had the strike to a) make it to the GF and b) win it - dumping Merritt for Johnston and taking a punt on Tuqiri proved a masterstroke as well as shifting Sutton back into the forwards to account for young Keary who gave them more options in the halves other than Reynolds kicking game (Sutton did a have a great year at 5/8 in 2013 but couldn't back it up this year).

Although Koroisau's 60 odd minutes at hooker was forced he gave them everything Luke could and more, he was close to man-of-the-second-half when Souths really started grabbing the game by the throat.

 

[Big Pete]

Agree with all the posts so far and shout out to vertigo on his contribution. Pure class mate.

Bman raises a really good point on their juniors. It's easy to attribute the bulk of the success to signings such as GI & the Burgess brothers but I definitely feel like their junior management is a forgotten component of their success.

When the Souths NYC side qualified for the 2010 GF they had a squad comprised of a number of prospects including James Roberts, Dylan Farrell and Adrian Ha'angana. In the past, Souths would have bent over backwards to keep them and persisted with them season after season despite their issues either on or off the field. Maguire drew a line in the sand, picked out the talent worth persisting with and set expectations that ultimately spelled the end for Roberts and Ha'anganas tenure at the club.

That in conjunction with the development of Johnston and Walker who spent very little time in reserve grade paid dividends.It's one thing to simply play them, another to groom them and ensure they're ready for this level and Maguire obviously did just that.

 

[vertigo]

Roberts is just another example of wasted talent, consigned to journeyman status because he can't get his shit together off the field. Some of the tries he's scored are insane, if he had his head on straight and paired with Walker they'd be one of the deadliest pairings in the game.

Walker is definitely a star in the making, so much strength for a nuggety little bloke. I hope Johnston is more JYY than Kemp, it will be hard to top what he's achieved this year though.

 

[OXY-351]

I think it was to do with the the Bell. Every team that has a Bell wins a premiership. The Storm have their Cow Bell. Manly had Steve Bell. Based on this I really think we should have chase Craig Bellamy rather than Wayne Bennet. Although in 1998 Parramatta had Jason Bell, so maybe that blows my theory out of the water.

 

[gordjw]

I think it was to do with the the Bell. Every team that has a Bell wins a premiership. The Storm have their Cow Bell. Manly had Steve Bell. Based on this I really think we should have chase Craig Bellamy rather than Wayne Bennet. Although in 1998 Parramatta had Jason Bell, so maybe that blows my theory out of the water.

Every team that wins the premiership has a couple of bell-ends in the squad, so I think you're onto something here.