Rugby League: Club more popular as a cause than a team

By PETER JESSUP

If big money had stayed out of rugby league, the South Sydney Rabbitohs would in all probability be dead by now.

The Rabbits have been losing for so long that they don't deserve to have survived and only emotion has kept them breathing - emotion fed by the battle of poor leaguies against the money of News Ltd.

The tens of thousands who turned out for street marches to protest at Souths' expulsion from the NRL in 1999 are nowhere to be seen now. The team last recorded a win in July last year.

Home crowds have been hovering below 10,000 - around 5000 short of break-even for a league club. Even last week's game against North Queensland, where a win was expected, drew only 9442. And the Rabbitohs lost again.

Sacking the coach a week before the season starts is never a good look. Why the Rabbitohs waited for bad performance in pre-season rather than getting rid of Craig Coleman at the end of a dismal run through 2002 is a mystery.

But maybe it was loyalty from chairman of directors George Piggins and his board. If so, it's likely they, too, will pay when the board comes up for election at the annual meeting on April 13.

Yesterday, Piggins was pre-occupied with burying a report from the Sydney Daily Telegraph, which reported him as saying Souths had to win 10 games this season in order to meet budget. Piggins met News Ltd executives, and afterwards the Telegraph ran a story quoting him as saying the club was financially sound.

He couldn't have thrown more petrol on a bushfire if he tried. The observers are bound to question why he was complaining so loudly. It could be the end for the former international hooker who led Souths to the minor premiership in 1989.

The Rabbitohs NRL team relies on a huge grant from the Souths Juniors Leagues Club via poker machines to survive. It has plans to develop its home close to the city to include rent-returning businesses but finances are not solid and a shaky footballing performance isn't helping.

The club has had a succession of disappointments in coaching and Paul Langmack is unlikely to be able to turn things around.

One of his big problems will be the playing roster. Coleman started with a poorly balanced side thrown together from discards and second-chancers and anyone else available when Souths won its court case forcing the NRL to re-admit it.

In the off-season the club spent up large but it did not get value and the buys do nothing to fill out the team or worry the opposition. In came Bryan Fletcher from the Roosters, earning extra pay as captain and Chris Walker from the Broncos after a bidding war forced his price over the odds. Others went because they could get more first-grade time and more money.

You don't buy in big names and start winning consistently like the Broncos do - you have to groom your own junior players.

So it's hardly surprising that Souths are already being criticised by their new captain, new coach and some of the team for playing without any heart or attitude.

Too many of the buy-ins are already sidelined with injury for them to be any threat in the competition and it's easy to see Souths continuing the playing slump, followed by a circling of the wagons, various sackings, loss of fans and sponsors. It's a sad position for a club that was one of the first eight born in 1908.

South Sydney

* Founded 1908

* 20 premierships including 1908, last in 1971.

* 13 times beaten grand finalists, last in 1969.

* 1993: 6 wins, 14th

* 1994: 9 wins, 9th

* 1995: 4 wins, 18th

* 1996: 5 wins, 19th

* 1997: 4 wins, 11th

* 1998: 5 wins, 18th

* 1999: 10 wins, 12th

* 2000/01 suspended

* 2002: 5 wins, 14th

NRL points table and fixtures