That’ll Do Rabbit, That’ll Do

Adam Reynolds opening the scoring against the Raiders

And so just like that the Rabbitohs season is over. Surprisingly almost all the Rabbitohs fans I’ve spoken to or seen post online seem to have a very similar mindset after the team was eliminated in the preliminary final.  Whilst the result was obviously disappointing, the loss was fair and yet so cruel due to the untimely injury to Adam Reynolds who is arguably the team’s most important player. That, in and of itself, is a huge statement to make about a rookie but there you go.

All fans seem to be very content with the result of the season as a whole, finishing third on the ladder, qualifying for the preliminary final and the emergence of several new players such as Reynolds, Everingham and Justin Hunt, as well as the development of others like Farrell, Peats, McQueen etc.

What I love most however, is that whilst the fans are quite content with how the season played out, the players themselves aren’t in the same boat. Nathan Merritt was quoted as saying he sees the season as a failure and that is exactly how I want him to feel. I don’t want him to feel like a failure, he most certainly isn’t, however if the team is happy with just being competitive, then the concern would be that 2012 is as good as it will get.

We see 2012 as a success because we naturally assume that a young team, with a first year coach will improve going forward. It makes sense that if the Rabbitohs can perform this well with youngsters and rookies in many positions as well as the first year of a new system, each year after will be even better. However, you really never know with this stuff. Look at the Tigers and Warriors change in fortunes from 2011 to 2012, or the Eels from 2009 when they made the Grand Final until now.

A friend of mine who supports the Eels warned me that I shouldn’t be satisfied with just getting this far because you never know when you’ll get this close again. When the opportunity is there, you have to take it. Not every team can be Melbourne or Manly and contend for years on end. The hope is that the Rabbitohs will be more like the Storm, where Maguire learned from Bellamy, and be able to turn a promising season into a successful era; however it is certainly not guaranteed.

As important as 2012 was for the Rabbitohs, 2013 is even more important. They will enter the season not just with expectations to be serious contenders, but anything short of the 2012 performance will be considered a failure, not just by the team but by the fans as well. Was 2012 the start of something, or one good year?

After years of being quite unlucky with injuries, 2012 was about as lucky as a club can get in that department for the Cardinal and Myrtle. Roy Asotasi was the only long term injury and he returned in time and in form to make a solid contribution to the finals series. Nathan Merritt missed the first part of the season but hit the ground running as soon as he returned. Even the Greg Inglis suspension could be considered a stroke of luck as it enabled GI to refresh his body for the backend of the season, whilst the team went 2-1 without him.

We can’t assume 2013 will be quite as lucky in that regard. The club has the depth now to cover for most positions, especially in the forwards, but it doesn’t surprise me to see rumours of interest in Blake Ayshford and Sandor Earl to add depth to the backline stocks. I’m also a fan of Jordan Tongahai who plays left centre for the Toyota Cup side.

Another question is whether Souths will be impacted more during Origin in 2013. Obviously Inglis will be missing. Te’o is another who might be selected for Queensland and then you have the possibility that Adam Reynolds might be called up for NSW or even finally Nathan Merritt might get his chance. If that happens, will the Rabbitohs have the form slump that the Storm and Broncos experienced after Origin was over and if so, will they be able to bounce back the way the Storm did and Broncos didn’t?

Optimistically I see the Rabbitohs getting at least as far as they did this year, but I certainly won’t be taking it for granted. For now I’ll spend the offseason content and very proud of the performance of a team that hadn’t won a finals game since I was a baby. Being there to see the team beat the Raiders and win a finals match is an experience I’ll never forget and for that I thank Michael Maguire and the entire team.

Now for South Sydney to march on. Glory Glory.

That Unfamiliar Feeling

This guy goes alright

As I write this I am sitting on Jetstar flight 513 to Melbourne as I prepare to watch my beloved Rabbitohs compete in the finals. I’m also visiting my sister and her new puppy, but you don’t care about that. This experience is certainly unfamiliar to me and most Rabbitohs fans under the age of 35 or so. Sure everyone knows that the Rabbitohs haven’t won the Grand Final since 1971 and that we have only even competed in one finals match since 1989, but some people don’t realise that the Rabbitohs haven’t won a finals match in my 27 years on this earth.

Now obviously there is no guarantee at all that we will see a victory in 2012, but with a guaranteed double chance, the second of which is a home game, I would like to believe there is a pretty decent chance you will see the Rabbitohs in the preliminary final in two weeks time. A friend of mine (a Roosters fan no less) already texted me suggesting we are already only one win away from a grand final, as he sees it as being nigh on impossible for us to lose both of our next two games. I wish I had his confidence.

Sure I do think we are a good chance to qualify, but there is also a chance we repeat the efforts of 1989 with back to back losses leading to elimination and fans wondering what happened. Hopefully no current Rabbitoh ends up being remembered as the 2012 Steve Mavin.

As I wrote previously, I still am conditioned to be pessimistic about the Rabbitohs, even as we are firmly entrenched into this new era of professionalism under Michael Maguire. Then again, if I thought we were certainly going to lose on Saturday, I wouldn’t be on a plane to Melbourne right now (that may be a lie; after all I’m still visiting my sister).

Anyway, the feeling it seems that I and other Rabbitohs fans have right now is one of excitement, but also restlessness. There is the old saying “Act like you’ve been there before”, but the problem is we haven’t been there before and thus we are acting accordingly. The whole concept of having to wait and find out when our game is so we can book finals tickets and flights etc was completely foreign to myself and my other Rabbitohs fan friends. Within a few minutes of the game being announced, I had three texts from friends about flights and tickets and when we were heading down etc. We’re like kids in a candy store, only if the kids had been driving past the candy store every day without going inside, only now are we allowed to go in and buy a lolly. We just hope that lolly tastes like victory and that the players are better than we are at acting like they’ve been there before.

Glory Glory fellow Rabbitohs. Enjoy your lolly.

About Last Night

No caption necessary

As I write this, it is about 20 hours since Adam Reynolds scored the winning try for the Rabbitohs against the Roosters, in a match where the existence of karma and even maybe Newton’s third law were proven beyond reasonable doubt. Yes I know, we already knew about the Newton one.

When I woke up this morning I wanted to write something, anything, to sum up what being at the game last night was like for a Rabbitohs fan. Unfortunately, I sat down and was still speechless. How does one put into words something like this?

Having been on the losing end of the exact same loss in round 1, I know how it feels to be on the other end of this sense of euphoria and bliss. But, it’s having gone through that feeling, which makes this feeling all the more special.

There is a part of me that feels sorry for my friends who support the Roosters. I can empathise with how they felt last night and today, having been there only a few months ago. However, another part of me feels that they deserve to go through it, as the counter balance to their euphoria and joy from the previous encounter. Plus, they are Roosters fans; I never want them to be happy.

I wrote recently about going through the highs and lows of being a sports fan in a short period of time. That day it was in reference to Cadel Evans' failed attack, but it pales in comparison to the roller coaster of emotion that all 20,000 people at Allianz stadium went through last night.

Rabbitohs fans are not conditioned to believe that those sorts of results will happen in our favour. We are scarred not only by losses like round 1, but years of missed opportunities, bad bounces and players who didn’t know how to win. Not anymore. This really is “new Souths” and the fact that the 13 guys on the field wearing cardinal and myrtle did believe that result could happen; it has now spread to the entire fan base.

Watching the players embrace not only each other, but also the fans in the “Burrow” shows that in an industry where players often are just mercenaries, these guys not only get how much we as fans care, but they care equally as much.

It was fitting that the winning try (and goal) was scored by Adam Reynolds. Not only has he been a perfect reflection of the change and improvement in the club throughout this season, but you couldn’t find anyone in that stadium who was more of a Rabbitoh than he. It was a moment every fan grows up dreaming of and if it couldn’t be me wearing the 7 jersey and scoring that try (because I’m the obvious alternative.... maybe I’ll even fill in when he plays for NSW next year) then I’m so glad it was him.

Whatever happens through the rest of this season, whether we go all the way or simply bow out in the finals series, I will never forget being at that game last night and really, isn’t that what being a sports fan is all about?