Preliminary findings reveal another missed opportunity for Bunnies

Making five preliminary finals in five years is no mean feat but when only one of those is converted into a grand final appearance and none into a premiership, the door is left open just enough for a few potshots to be thrown your way.

The Rabbitohs’ record would be the envy of many clubs, consistently putting themselves in a position to challenge for a title and matching motors with the likes of the Storm, Roosters and Eels, but when all is said and done, the killer blow hasn't been landed since 2014.

After finishing the 2022 season in seventh place, the Rabbitohs sent arch-rivals the Roosters packing in a seven sin bin slugfest at Allianz Stadium in week one of the finals before ending Cronulla’s season and eventually bowing out at the hands of the Panthers… again.

For the past three seasons, Nathan Cleary and his buddies have been the ones to shatter the Rabbitohs’ dreams – in the 2020 and 2022 Preliminary Finals and the 2021 decider, when a loose Cody Walker pass and a missed Adam Reynolds conversion cost the cardinal and myrtle dearly.

As if to rub salt in the wounds, the Panthers knocked over the Bunnies twice during the 2022 regular season in the much hyped ‘grand final rematches’ – at their leisure in Round 4 at home and at the death in Round 23 on Souths’ turf at Accor Stadium.

“The competitor in me wants to hate Penrith, I really do, but the coach in me is so respectful of what they do and it's a credit to Ivan Cleary and their club and what they do and what they've been able to produce for the last three years,” was coach Jason Demetriou’s gracious concession after the 32-12 loss in the Preliminary Final.

In his first season at the helm after taking the reins from the supercoach Wayne Bennett, Demetriou proved he is made of the right stuff to enjoy a long and successful career at the elite level.

With club great Reynolds having moved on to the Broncos, the rookie mentor handed the keys to the Red and Green Machine to rookie playmaker Lachlan Ilias, who entered the season with one more NRL games than his coach.

Things got off to a rocky start with losses in three of their first four games and then superstar fullback Latrell Mitchell went down with a hamstring injury, leaving the Bunnies’ spine significantly weakened and susceptible to attack from the Tigers, Broncos, Raiders and Dragons during his absence.

When their gun No.1 returned, spirits lifted and so did the intensity, as Souths produced their best winning streak of the season, peeling off four in a row against the Eels, Knights, Bulldogs and Storm.

From their they split their last six games 3-3 to head into the finals in seventh spot, chasing history as the first team to win the premiership from outside the top four.

With Mitchell and Walker providing the magic tricks and Alex Johnston scoring 30 tries for the second straight season, the Rabbitohs had the weapons to mount a serious challenge but when push came to shove on the second last weekend of the season it was their nemesis Penrith who packed too many punches.

Among a host of positives to come out of his debut season, Demetriou can take great pride in Ilias’ development, the 22-year-old coming up with 12 try assists, 12 line break assists and 16 forced dropouts and showing great maturity to bounce back from a horror night against the Dragons in Round 15, when the coach’s hook came out and the knives quickly followed for the Leichhardt Wanderers Junior.

Showing great faith in his halfback, Demetriou threw him straight back into the furnace against the Eels a week later and he responded with a line break, a try assist and two forced dropouts in a 30-12 triumph.

Johnston, of course, had been setting and breaking tryscoring records long before Demetriou took charge, but the fact he became the first player in history to post 30 or more tries in consecutive seasons showed the left edge was every bit as lethal as it had been in 2021.

At 28 and with three years to run on his contract, Johnston is on track to become the greatest tryscorer in premiership history before his time at Redfern is up.

His career tally stands at 166 tries in 191 games, placing him fourth overall behind legendary Brett Morris (176), Steve Menzies (180), Billy Slater (190) and the big daddy of them all, Norths and Manly speedster Ken Irvine with 212.

Even if his strike rate drops marginally over the next couple of years, ‘AJ’ will etch his name in the history books late in 2024 or early in the 2025 season, and he might even have a second premiership to go with it if his beloved Bunnies can keep putting themselves in a position to challenge for supremacy as they have for the past five years.