Souths coach baffled by Melbourne Storm hoodoo and NRL hip-drop tackle inconsistency
Wayne Bennett has been in rugby league for more than 50 years but still struggles to explain two things: South Sydney’s 0-20 record in Melbourne and what he sees as a lack of consistency in players throwing away sins for a drop-off challenge from the hip.
Bennett and the Rabbitohs will be hoping to end one of the game’s longest hoods when they take on the Storm at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
The Southerners have failed to return from the Victorian capital with a victory since the Storm entered the competition. Seven games were held at the former Olympic Park before 13 fruitless trips to AAMI Park.
Looking at similar figures, the Illawarra Steelers lost 19 consecutive games at Belmore from 1982 to 1996; this includes Monday night games against teams other than Canterbury; Newtown and Parramatta lost 16 and 15 games respectively during their glorious run at Kogarah against the powerful St George team of the 1950s and 60s.
Southerners lose in Melbourne Golden dot in 2022and was denied a qualifying final win in 2018 Cameron Munster scores a late shot.
Asked if his players will ignore the Melbourne cap, Bennett said on Friday: “I hope not. It’s a new game, new year, let’s go out there and do our best and see what happens.”
“It’s a tough place to win. They’ve been one of the best teams for a long time.
“I didn’t count [the number of defeats]. You can’t change things from week to week. This is difficult. It usually crashes on you and doesn’t work. “We are who we are, we will get there and we are determined to play the full 80 minutes.”
David Furner, now based in South Sydney, remembers ending his Canberra Raiders cap in Melbourne. The Raiders had not won in Melbourne for seven years but cruised to victory in 2009 after having to walk to the ground after the team bus broke down on approach to the stadium.
Furner thinks having to walk the final stretch of the journey helps the players take their minds off the next 80 minutes.
Most consecutive losses in one venue
illawarra 19 Belmore Sports Field (1982-96)
Newtown 16 Kogarah Jubilee Oval (1957-77)
parramatta 15 Kogarah Jubilee Oval (1950-70)
penrith 15 Kogarah Jubilee Oval (1967-81)
Western Suburbs 14 Brookvale Oval (1965-78)
annandale 14 Birchgrove Oval (1914-20)
Eastern Suburbs 14 Sydney Sports Ground (1965-67)
parramatta 14 Stadium Australia (2010-14)
penrith 14 Brookvale Oval (1967-80)
Canterbury 13 Suncorp Stadium (2016-24)
Eastern Suburbs 13 Kogarah Jubilee Oval (1952-71)
penrith 13 Sydney Sports Ground (1967-76)
South Sydney 13 AAMI Park (2010-25)
South Sydney 13 Sydney Cricket Ground (1942-48)
Statistics provided by David Middleton
While the Storm have lost five in a row, the stars of the Southern teams are firing; including Latrell Mitchell, who scored four tries last weekend, and former Melbourne premiership winner Brandon Smith.
Another source of concern for Bennett is trying to work out why some players were scrapped for hip-drop interference and others were allowed to remain on the pitch, only to later be charged by the match review committee.
Southern hooker Peter Mamouzelos was charged with dangerous contact and scrapped last week for a tackle the NRL later judged to be a ‘bear trap’ rather than a classic hip-drop. In the same match, Dragons prop Emre Güler was tackled for a hip drop, but avoided being sent to the bin.
Noting Wests Tigers counterpart Benji Marshall’s comments on Thursday night. called for consistency As for some referees, Bennett left the game.
“Benji is a young coach; if he’s a little confused about the rules, wait until he’s had another 10 years in the job; if he wants consistency he’s wasting his time; you’ll never understand that,” Bennett said.
“We had a situation in the game last night. [against the Dragons]Our player goes to the sin bin for 10 minutes to hip-drop, another player hip-drops but does not go to the trash bin.
“Same referee, same dugout officials, but you have one rule for one and another for the other.
“Them [the NRL] Come back with the sentence ‘This looked worse’. Bottom line, if you do a hip drop, will we all go to waste or not?
“[We have] We try to make all of these in the game equal and competitive, but the sin bin is the worst thing for me personally due to the inconsistencies.
“And that has a huge impact on the games. I don’t believe it’s fair. We [a match review committee] this does a pretty good job of reviewing all games and they are charged the next day.
“The litter box is overused… it’s a cyclical thing.”
To be fair to the NRL, Koroisau became the fourth player to be scrapped for a hip-drop tackle; Three previous breaches resulted in injuries that will sideline players for at least eight weeks. Ryan Couchman’s tackle ended Parramatta forward J’maine Hopgood’s season.
The Souths welcome the return of Euan Aitken (leg) while Smith is in the back row but is likely to start at lock. This will allow Cam Murray to move to the left sideline, where he has started for the past few weeks.
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