Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou has offered his insight into the uncertainty he experienced ahead of last season and why he now believes that South Sydney will be a premiership threat in 2023.
The departure of Wayne Bennett and a host of experienced players including Adam Reynolds, Dane Gagai and Benji Marshall in 2021 left a lot of doubt surrounding the club ahead of last season.
Doubt about how Demetriou would go in his first year as a head coach and how 22-year-old halfback Lachlan Illias would go stepping into the shoes of Adam Reynolds refused to abate during the pre-season and opening rounds of the season.
There was also the matter of South Sydney's captaincy being handed down to 24-year-old, Cameron Murray.
Now with the 2023 season on the horizon, Demetriou told the AAP, "That doubt has gone."
"I had a little bit of doubt in myself, a little bit of doubt whether Lachie could do the job, a bit of doubt over our new captain. Obviously losing some key players as well.
"We start the season really confidently. You can feel that in pre-season at the moment.
"The expectations are to turn up every week and be more consistent."
"I think that's probably been our biggest problem (consistency) and because of that we rode the emotions quite high and low in the season.
"That takes its toll by the back end."
Mounting injuries were also a source of woe for the Rabbitohs, with Campbell Graham, Cameron Murray, Mark Nicholls, Hame Sele, Liam Knight and most notably Latrell Mitchell all serving stints on the sideline.
"As a staff, we've got to own that," Demetriou said of the injury concerns.
"We're making sure that we're getting every player as fit and healthy as we can to make sure we can reduce the injuries that played a big part last year.
"The club has aspirations, and as a team obviously we have to have aspirations. Otherwise what're we doing it for? We want to be the best."
The Rabbitohs have a new reason to get excited about the future after news broke that the club had locked up the services of Latrell Mitchell, Damian Cook and Cody Walker for next year and beyond.