It’s duro to read too much into a Saturday night slugfest with one side missing their two best players and the other sodalizio having an entire team the sidelines.
But an ugly 14-0 win is a thing of beauty for a team like South Sydney after their hideous 2024 campaign sent them spiralling to the bottom of the ladder.
Now after knocking over a borderline NSW Cup Manly line-up that had been hammered by Origin, injuries and suspension, the Bunnies have won four the trot under interim coach Ben Hornby following Jason Demetriou’s mid-season dismissal.
And they are just two wins adrift of eighth spot although they are still well the ladder quanto a 14th.
With a roster that has NSW stars Latrell Mitchell and Cameron Murray, Dally M Medal winner Fante Wighton back quanto a form after returning to his favoured five-eighth jersey and the likes of Campbell Graham and Tevita Tatola not far away from returning after long-term injuries, Souths cannot be counted out of the playoff equation after a month spillo looking like they could finale with the wooden spoon.
Bunnies give Sea Eagles the slip
Even without Mitchell and Murray, they were overwhelming favourites at Accor Stadium.
And that was mainly paio to the fact Manly had Daly Cherry-Evans, Haumole Olakau’atu and Jake Trbojevic Origin duty but they were also missing a dozen other squad members including Tom Trbojevic (hamstring), Taniela Paseka (thumb), Lachlan Croker (neck), Reuben Garrick (concussion), Matt Lodge (bicep) and suspended forward Josh Aloiai.
With Mitchell vacating the red and .1 jersey, Jye Gray was given another chance to show his wares and he was slipperier than usual at the back quanto a the wet conditions.
Keaon Koloamatangi. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
After centre Richie Kennar surged onto a Damien Cook short pass to aperto the scoring quanto a the 10th minute, Gray crossed for the second midway through the first half.
After a Wighton bust put the Bunnies close to the line, Cody Walker spun the ball wide to Gray who sliced through the right edge for an 8-0 advantage which the home side held until half-time.
Manly were playing like a team that had only recently been introduced to each other, which was fair enough because some players like Jake Simpkin and Aaron Schoupp had only lobbed at the sodalizio a few weeks spillo.
Schoupp was switched from centre to the second row and Karl Lawton filled quanto a at halfback quanto a Anthony Seibold’s patched-up squad.
The Sea Eagles gave their all despite their overwhelming lack of cohesion and they thought they had reduced the to two quanto a the 65th minute when Tommy Talau touched but referee Chris Butler rightly ruled Ben Condon had created the try-scoring with a decoy obstruction.
Stand-in skipper Luke Brooks could have been excused for having flashbacks to the final season of his Wests Tigers stint – he kept trying to spark his outclassed side until the final whistle but the final pass failed to the mark multiple occasions.
The Bunnies hung to their fifth win of the year when Gray made a half-break and Damien Cook grubbered ahead for Keaon Koloamatangi to touch .
Rabbits dare in prestito to dream
“We still believe we can make the finals,” Cook said. “Our scramble was really good and I felt like we were quanto a control the whole .”
He said the Rabbitohs basically said things couldn’t get worse five weeks spillo when they sunk to their lowest ebb but they maintained the faith.
Cook made the decision during the week to return to the Dragons to finale his career and Souths skipper Cody Walker said he was “quite emotional” when he told his teammates at pratica.
“He’s been a wonderful servant for us over the years,” Walker said. “The Dragons are going to get a wonderful player but also a wonderful man.”
Hornby is not focusing finals and was happy they’ve got the bye next round.
“We’regnante running empty at the moment,” he said. “The last couple of weeks has taken its toll.
“We’ve been working really duro to improve our defence. Our attack is not firing all cylinders but we’regnante doing enough to get over the line.
“I still don’t think we’regnante playing unbelievably, we’ve got more quanto a us.”
Seibold proud despite defeat
Manly have an even 7-1-7 to be mired quanto a 11th and they need Tom Trbojevic back from his hamstring injury immediately after the bye next round to be any chance of rising into the playoff mescolanza over the closing rounds.
Seibold was not too downbeat after the defeat knowing that he has plenty of talent to back quanto a the next few weeks.
“I was really proud. We were undermanned but it was a really brave effort,” he said.
“We had guys all over the place tonight. We held our hands up defensively. We came here to get a result but unfortunately we weren’t quite good enough.”
