Jason Demetriou has described South Sydney's 48-6 loss to the Sydney Roosters as the lowest point of his career after a week in the spotlight ended disastrously for the Rabbitohs.
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Friday night's NRL capitulation at Allianz Stadium leaves Souths winless through the opening three rounds and at risk of finishing the weekend last on the ladder for the first time since 2010.
A halfback switch, Latrell Mitchell's profane radio interview and Josh Mansour's critique of Demetriou all combined for an unprecedented week of off-field scrutiny at the Rabbitohs.
But on the field it was the same old story as error-prone attack and lapses in concentration haunted Souths, the Roosters dominating their bitter rivals from the outset.
"It hurts," Demetriou said.
"It's probably the lowest point in my career right now.
"The monkey's on our back and you can see that in our resolve at times. There's some effort there, but it's put into the wrong places.
"There's only one way out and that's staying together and fighting, training well next week and getting back on the horse."
In the only sour note for the Roosters, Sam Walker collected the elbow of Souths recruit Jack Wighton and left the field concussed after starring with a first-half double.
Back-up five-eighth Sandon Smith took the reins thereafter to ensure the Roosters would run away with the game.
"I thought it was set up really from the guys at the start, really simple, clear play," said Roosters coach Trent Robinson.
"Then we took our opportunities."
Lachlan Ilias's replacement Dean Hawkins could not spark Souths' attack alongside Cody Walker in the halves, but he had little chance to shine because the Rabbitohs continuously made errors.
Siliva Havili, starting in place of the benched Damien Cook, threw a forward pass out of dummy half on the last tackle of the Rabbitohs' first set in the red zone as a sign of things to come.
Sean Keppie, Jacob Host and Cody Walker each came up with errors at close range as the Rabbitohs fell 18-0 behind at the half.
"We made a lot of errors and put ourselves under a lot of pressure, and to back it up we weren't resilient enough to defend our line," said Souths captain Cam Murray.
Walker, James Tedesco and Dom Young had their fingerprints all over the early advantage.
Young nabbed the first try off a scrum play in the opening three minutes, before receiving a beautiful cut-out pass from Tedesco that led to Walker's second.
Walker had earlier put two grubber kicks past the Rabbitohs' defensive line to add his name to the scoresheet.
Club debutant Jack Wighton and Alex Johnston struggled for chemistry on the Rabbitohs' left edge, with two of the Roosters' three first-half tries coming when Johnston jammed in.
"It's Jack's first game, he wasn't going to come in and be the saviour," Demetriou said.
Wighton appeared to hobble with a sore knee late in the game.
"I don't think it's anything major," Demetriou said.
As they have in previous weeks, the Rabbitohs were able to piece things together in patches, looking their strongest just after Walker left the field.
But Smith stifled the Rabbitohs' momentum by putting up a kick for utility Connor Watson, who scored in his first game since late 2022.
Mitchell was jeered by the Roosters' home crowd with every touch of the ball and left to the sin bin in the final 15 minutes for impeding Tedesco on a kick chase.
Smith threw the ball that confirmed Joey Manu's second-half double barely a minute later, before Tedesco burst over for two tries in six minutes to help the Roosters pile on the pain.
In his 300th NRL game, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves finished with 82 run metres from his 39 minutes.
Australian Associated Press
