There is a very real world where the South Sydney Rabbitohs could win just one of their first eight games this year.
That is the grim reality staring the Rabbitohs in the face after a loss that coach Jason Demetriou described as a "horror show" against the Brisbane Broncos on Thursday evening to kick-off Round 2.
The Rabbitohs made just about every mistake in the book during the first half, and with the exception of a brief burst where they scored two tries in the space of four minutes after halftime, they were comprehensively outplayed by the Broncos.
That leaves them with back-to-back losses to start the new season following on from last season's dismal fadeout where, after leading the competition at the end of Round 11, the Redfern-based club, surrounded by off-field turmoil, somehow missed the finals. In the process, they set a very unwanted record as the team who led the competition furthest into the season but didn't play knockout rugby league.
Most, if not all of that demise on-field was an attitude problem. The Rabbitohs went from one of the best defensive teams in the competition over the first 11 games to one of the worst over the remainder of their 2023 matches.
It was an attitude which simply had to find a way to be fixed over the summer, but on the evidence of their first two games, the only thing their defence has managed to do is become worse.
They frankly looked as if they wanted to be anywhere else during the opening round against the Manly Sea Eagles at that end of the park as they let in 36 points, and then conceded another 28 against the Broncos last night.
And those 28 points for the Broncos came without the men from the Queensland capital ever really looking at their best - it would be absolutely fair to say they left points on the park.
Time and time again the Rabbitohs' defence was slow moving, both in line speed and lateral movement, decision making was atrocious and some of the attempted tackles were what you'd expect to see in the under-10s with arm grabs and reaching efforts that showed off nothing but a team who have played with the motto "we will outscore you" for the last five years.
Of course, the issue with that motto is that South Sydney's attack was poor on Thursday evening. As mentioned already, they made every error imaginable in the first half of the game, and while it improved marginally after halftime, there were still more moments of madness than greatness.
By the time it was all said and done, the Rabbitohs completed at just 65 per cent, a total of 25 out of 38 sets, coming up with 14 errors and 42 missed tackles.
Those stats, if we are being brutally honest, are more fitting for a team who are going to wind up in the bottom four at the end of the campaign than one who are going to be fighting for a premiership as the Rabbitohs have done in five of the last six seasons.
Maybe an even greater concern for South Sydney is the fact Jason Demetriou seemingly believes there was nothing wrong with the club's defensive effort throughout the contest, instead blaming errors in attack for their ultimate plight.
โYeah, I thought it would just really, like I said to the boys in there, I couldn't fault our defensive effort,โ the under pressure coach said during his post-game press conference.
โI thought our defensive effort in the end result was outstanding, but we're just shooting ourselves in the foot [with errors].
โYou know, whether it's, we can't feed the scrum properly or first tackle errors, kicking it into our own player, penalties for blocking, just like, it was a horror show of just really little things that just kept putting pressure on ourselves.
โSo doing that, we bottle that effort and that desire and tidy up some of that stuff then and see how good this footy team is.
โBecause I was really pleased with our toil on defence in particular. We're asked to do a hell of a lot of it and it was a big improvement from last week.โ
They say defence is an attitude, and if the attitude from the top is that the Rabbitohs were strong at that end of the park on Thursday evening, then there is frankly little wonder they collapsed in the fashion they did throughout 2023, and have started 2024 equally as poorly.
It's not just defence, errors and attitude which are the problems at the Rabbitohs though.
Of course, Jai Arrow's injury hasn't helped matters, but whichever school of thought put Cameron Murray onto the edge last night was the wrong one.
He had just four touches of the football during the first half, and was virtually a passenger. He then played big minutes and, by the time he could make an impact on the game in the middle during the second half, was completely burnt.
It's rare to see Murray tired on the football field, such is his tenacity and endurance, but last night, he was just that. Tired, struggling and unable to have his usual impact.
A chunk of that came from having to play out of position on the edge, but another chunk came from the ineptitude of his teammates dropping the ball, missing tackles and wondering when it was all going to turn around.
There was also the decision to bring Taane Milne into the side which backfired, while Richie Kennar also had a shocker of a game. Again, the Rabbitohs have plenty of issues in the outside backs injury and suspension wise (Campbell Graham's long-term asbence headlines the problems), and will welcome back Jack Wighton next weekend, but they simply weren't good enough there on Thursday evening.
There is also the continuing selection of Lachlan Ilias at halfback, the issues around Latrell Mitchell at the back, and Cody Walker's form at five-eighth.
Walker is looking like the game is slowly passing him by, and had a poor performance on Thursday, while Mitchell was lazy at times, his game all but summed up when he failed to field a kick on the full which led to one of Brisbane's late tries.
Ilias is another problem altogether, because while Mitchell and Walker have the runs on the board to continue being selected, Ilias simply doesn't, with Dean Hawkins surely not far away from an opportunity.
It must be acknowledged that the trip to and from Las Vegas probably hasn't helped South Sydney, and that was evident in Brisbane's performance as well on Thursday, but there is little doubt the Rabbitohs have had the poorest performance so far of the four teams who travelled without seeing how the Roosters or Sea Eagles will bounce back on Sunday afternoon yet.
But to pin everything on Las Vegas would be doing a disservice to the real problems confronting the Redfern-based club.
The issue is the Rabbitohs don't look like turning things around. There are frankly very few positive signs coming out of the club as the season moves into gear, and their draw doesn't get any easier.
They clash with the Sydney Roosters next, then play the Canterbury Bulldogs in their traditional Good Friday match on Friday. That serves as a must-win match, with the New Zealand Warriors, Cronulla Sharks, a bye, Melbourne Storm (away) and Penrith Panthers to follow before they have some more winnable games on the horizon.
Without turning things around, the Rabbitohs could well only get past the Bulldogs in that list, leaving them on a hiding to nothing to start the season.
One win from eight, following last season's collapse, would mean South Sydney would have won 5 of their previous 21 games.
A record like that, for a team with some of the game's biggest stars, as well as the fact one from eight almost certainly leaves them out of finals contention far too early in the season, would surely leave Demetriou scrambling to keep his job.
Pressure will, either way, reach fever pitch in the coming weeks if South Sydney can't turn it around, and Demetriou has shown no signs of his team being able to do just that.
Without it, there is a very real world where Demetriou doesn't see out the season from his Redfern office.
